Three graduate students are named Heinz Scholars

Three Cornell graduate students are among 17 at seven American universities to receive grants as Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research.

• Heidi E. Gjertsen, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Applied Economics and management, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was awarded a $10,000 grant for her project, "Identifying Factors for Success in Marine Protected Areas." Currently working in the Philippines, Gjertsen is collecting data for a comparative study of 45 marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide that contain coral reefs.

• Daniel J. Sherman, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government, College of Arts and Sciences, was awarded $10,000 for his study, "The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act: Public Responses and Implementation Consequences." His research focuses on 22 counties in the United States that were selected as possible disposal sites for radioactive waste, by examining the effect on the decision-making process of environmental activism in each community.

• Bronwen Eastman, a master's degree candidate in the Department of Natural Resources, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was awarded $5,000 for his project, "An Evaluation of Three Improved-efficiency Cookstove-integrated Conservation Development Projects." He moved his study site from Madagascar because of political turmoil in that nation and now will work in the Huatulco area of Oaxaca, Mexico, where increased tourism has displaced locals to marginal lands and led to environmental degradation.

Proposals for the Theresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation grants were submitted through the Cornell Center for the Environment and were selected by a review committee of distinguished scientists and environmentalists for their potential to address the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Other universities where Heinz Environmental Scholar awards were conferred include Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Florida A&M and Texas A&M at Corpus Christi.

Foundation chair Teresa Heinz noted that the scholars program is now in its fifth year and commented: "We believe the solutions (to crucial environmental issues) can be found in new ideas -- and the new ideas can be found in the ingenuity and imagination of a new generation of scientists."