Department of Geographical Sciences PhD student, Kristofer Lasko and Fire Protection Engineering PhD student, Colin Miller, were recently selected to receive the ‘Green Fellowship for Collaborative Research on the Environment’ awarded by the University of Maryland’s Council on the Environment. Their proposal entitled, “A bottom-up approach to characterize crop residue burning practices and the associated air pollution emissions variation,” will address uncertainties related to crop residue burning emissions variation, map crop residue burning areas, as well as quantify the potential to reduce air pollution emissions through altered residue burning practices and diversion into bioenergy for the Hanoi, Vietnam, area. The improved assessment of crop residue burning practices’ impact on emissions may be useful for not only environmental sustainability and pollution concerns, but also for economic and social sustainability. The findings could guide governmental policies or incentives to encourage farmers to follow improved residue management practices. This may lead to a reduction in biomass burning emissions benefiting the environment as well as public health and the economy.

The Fellowship is designed to provide support for students from two different disciplines to address society’s environmental problems through an interdisciplinary effort, requiring innovation within disciplines and collaboration across them. The Fellowship provides $10,000 to help cover the students’ research-related costs. The recipients will present their research to the Council on the Environment at the end of the year.

More information about the fellowship can be found at: http://cone.umd.edu/index.php/education/green-fund