Category: Research

Halvorsen Awarded Interdisciplinary Science Integration Grant

Kathleen Halvorsen (SS/SFRES) has received a $200,000 grant to study interdisciplinary science teamwork associated with investigating the socioecological impacts of bioenergy development.

The InterAmerican Institute for Global Change Research issued the call for Interdisciplinary Science Integration Grant proposals that study the integration of social and natural sciences.

Read more at Tech Today, by Danny Messinger.

Gorman and Norman Join Airborne Toxins Team

$1.45 Million Study to Address the Northbound Flow of Airborne Toxins

Half of the people in Greenland have toxic levels of PCBs in their blood. A harmful cocktail of contaminants, including mercury and dioxin, has led to fish consumption advisories in all of the Great Lakes, including Superior.

The team members are undertaking a three-pronged research effort. First, they will estimate where the pollutants originate, describe the natural systems that transport them north, and identify where the pollutants finally land. Their models will offer predictions through the year 2050 and will account for the affects of climate change and changes in land use and cover and government policy relating to ASEPs.

In addition to Judith Perlinger, scientists collaborating on the project are Noel Urban of Michigan Tech’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Shiliang Wu, who has dual appointments in Michigan Tech’s Departments of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences/Civil and Environmental Engineering; Emma Norman of Michigan Tech’s Department of Social Sciences and Great Lakes Research Center; Hugh Gorman, Michigan Tech’s Department of Social Sciences; Joan Chadde-Schumaker, Michigan Tech’s Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences and the Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education; Noelle Eckley Selin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Engineering Systems Division and Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Daniel Obrist of the Desert Research Institute’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences; Henrik Selin of International Relations at Boston University; and Juanita Urban-Rich, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences.

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Marcia Goodrich.

Winkler on Mapping US Migration

Net Migration Rate
Net Migration Rate Map

A project headed by Richelle Winkler (SS) was covered in an article by The Atlantic Cities online and also Maptacular on Tumblr.

From Tech Today.

Mapping 60 Years of White Flight, Brain Drain and American Migration

You can tell a lot about a place by who doesn’t want to be there any more. Or, conversely, by who wants to move in.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Michigan Technological University and the University of New Hampshire have built just such a database dating back to the 1950s. Their tool tracks net changes in population by county, all across the country…

Read more at The Atlantic Cities, by Emily Badger.

Net Migration Patterns for US Counties

Every year, about 10 million Americans move from one county to another. Migration rates vary by age, race, and ethnicity and with local and national social and economic conditions over time.

Suggested Citation:

Winkler, Richelle, Kenneth M. Johnson, Cheng Cheng, Jim Beaudoin, Paul R. Voss, and Katherine J. Curtis. Age-Specific Net Migration Estimates for US Counties, 1950-2010. Applied Population Laboratory, University of Wisconsin- Madison, 2013. Web.

Image courtesy of the net migration mapping tool created by the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin.

In the News

Richelle Winkler’s research has been the focus of several news stories recently. She is featured in a recent issues of The Capital Times, Wisconsin State Journal, and Gizmodo. The articles discuss current US migration patterns.

From Tech Today.

A Map of Where Americans Are Moving (Hellooooo, Vegas!)

The coolest thing is playing with the data on the website, where you can cut and slice the data between counties and start to see some trends up close, especially when it comes to the age of who is moving.

Read more at Gizmodo, by Alissa Walker.

Baird Presents on Indigenous Heritage Landscapes

Melissa Baird
Melissa Baird

Melissa Baird, assistant professor of anthropology in social sciences department, presented a paper in an invited conference in October sponsored by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden entitled “Extractive Industries and Indigenous Heritage Landscapes.”

From Tech Today.