Summer 2009

Nearly eight years ago, more than 40 members of the Stanford faculty came together from departments all across campus with a single mission: to create a comprehensive graduate program designed to cultivate a new generation of environmental leaders and scholars.

Students would need training in multiple disciplines, they reasoned, in order to tackle the complex challenges facing the planet. Harnessing the university's depth and breadth across relevant fields, the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources was born.

Six students were admitted in the first cohort. Today, the program serves 30 doctoral candidates at a time, in addition to a growing number of students pursuing joint master's degrees to complement their studies in law, medicine, or business. All students create their own hybrid programs of study and research by combining at least two traditionally separate disciplines, such as biology and economics. The program has received national attention and has quickly become one of the most respected degree programs in the field.

Despite such success, the program's future was in doubt—unless long-term funding could be secured. Fortunately, in January 2009 the program received a generous endowment gift of $10 million from Dan Emmett, '61, and his wife, Rae, through their family's Emmett Foundation. In honor of their generosity, the program has been renamed the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER).

"E-IPER students and faculty are working across disciplines and at the boundaries of current knowledge," says Dan Emmett. "I think this is immensely important in all fields, but especially in seeking environmental solutions. We are enormously excited to be a part of this program."

Indeed, the students themselves, like those profiled below, inspired the Emmetts' support.

• Recent joint-degree graduate Rachel Zwillinger, MS/JD '09, focused her studies on how water policies in the western United States can be modified to account for the effects of climate change. She also worked on a lawsuit aimed at protecting California's fragile vernal pool habitat through the Law School's Environmental Law Clinic. Rachel has clerkships lined up with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

• Joanne Gaskell, now in her fourth year of doctoral study, explores the interplay between food production and environmental quality. Her current research looks at how palm oil price changes affect food security and land use change in Indonesia.

• Andrew Perlstein, a fourth-year doctoral student fluent in Mandarin, is interested in the sustainability of China's rapidly growing cities. His research focuses on land use change, infrastructure, and the challenges that growth presents for government policy and planning.

Previously, the program had depended largely on "soft money," such as seed funds from the university and expendable grants. The Emmetts' gift provides critical support for the core program as well as matching funds for five fellowships, a directorship, leadership training, and research activities.

"Their generosity is a giant step toward ensuring the long-term sustainability of the program," says E-IPER Director Peter Vitousek, the Clifford G. Morrison Professor in Population and Resource Studies in Biology. "It's also having an immediate impact: The joint master's program will welcome 25 new students in the fall, more than doubling the cohort and helping to integrate environmental perspectives into business, law, and medicine and vice versa."

The Emmett family is passionate about education and the environment. Dan Emmett, chairman of the board of directors of Douglas Emmett Inc., a company that owns and operates commercial and residential real estate, grew up on farms across rural California—an experience he credits with stimulating his appreciation for the outdoors. He has served on the board of numerous environmental organizations, as chair of the Real Estate Roundtable's Environment and Energy Policy Advisory Committee, and along with his son, Daniel, MA '96, he has been an advisor to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on energy and environmental issues. He is also a member of the advisory council for Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. Rae Emmett is a marine naturalist in the Channel Islands National Park and a former teacher.

"Our goal is to help leave a different footprint for the next generation," says Rae Emmett. "We feel confident the dedicated E-IPER students will make a measurable difference."

This story is adapted from an article that originally appeared in Stanford Report.