faculty
Meet the faculty
Dr. Tih-Fen Ting
Associate Professor, Environmental Studies
Areas of Interest: Resource ecology and conservation, population-environment interactions, ecosystem management, and sustainability studies.
Phone: (217) 206-7876
Email: tting1@uis.edu
Tih-Fen Ting completed her Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan in 2003. She has a B.S. in biology and a M.S. in wildlife.
Her work before Michigan focused mainly on the ecology, behavior, and demography of various avian species (including northern spotted owls). At Michigan, as a doctoral student, Professor Ting began an interdisciplinary exploration on issues regarding interactions between human populations and the environment. Her dissertation focused on how resource accessibility affects individual reproductive decision-making in China. At UIS, Professor Ting has been very active in campus sustainability initiatives.
Since 2001, Professor Ting has also been involved in an interdisciplinary project on public health and environmental integrity along the Danshui River ecosystem in northern Taiwan. In 2002, Professor Ting was selected as a LIFE fellow in the International Max Planck Research School.
Dr. Ting currently chairs the UIS Campus Senate.
Dr. Dennis Ruez, Jr.
Assistant Professor; Environmental Studies Department Chair
Director of Graduate Admissions
Phone: (217)206-8425
e-mail: druez2@uis.edu
Dennis Ruez, Jr., received his Ph.D. in geological sciences from The University of Texas at Austin in 2007 and joins UIS after spending three years teaching at Auburn University. Dennis is a vertebrate paleontologist with research interests inthe relationship of past climate changeand fossil mammal communities. This includes the rigorous testing of paleoecological models and developing new quantifiable methods of examining past environmental change. To this end, Dennis has done field work throughout the US - coast to coast, and border to border. His work is published both in regional journals and international ones (including Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Journal of Human Evolution, and Journal of Paleontology).
Please visit Dr. Ruez's web site.
Dr. Yi-Sz Lin
Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies
Phone: (217) 206-7805
e-mail: ylin43@uis.edu
Yi-Sz Lin, assistant professor of Geographic Information System (GIS) and environmental planning, received his PhD in Urban and Regional Sciences from Texas A&M University in 2009. He has a B.S. in Architecture and a M.S. in Construction Science. He currently directs the GIS Laboratory in the Department of Environmental Studies at UIS.
During his PhD study, Yi-Sz worked for the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HRRC) at Texas A&M University on several research projects including the Mid-America Earthquake (MAE) center project that developed algorithms to map social vulnerability and estimate post-disaster population dislocation as well as shelter needs for communities, the National Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) project that compares the patterns of housing recovery after 1992 Hurricane Andrew in Florida and 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan, and the NOAA Sea Grant program that develops a coastal communities planning atlas as an educational tool for decision makers and local residents.
Yi-Sz’s interests include environmental hazard management, GIS applications in environmental planning and hazard management, and statistical/planning methods. He is certified in GIS, Remote Sensing, and Environmental Hazard Management by Texas A&M University.
Dr. Stefano Longo
Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies
Phone (217) 206-7895
e-mail: slong7@uis.edu
Stefano B. Longo earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Oregon in 2009. During his graduate studies he developed an expertise in the areas of environmental sociology, political economy, and social theory. He also has a MS in Sociology from the University of Oregon and a MA in Education from the University of Colorado.
His research focuses on the global food system, examining the intersection of environmental and social processes in the context of food production, consumption, and distribution. His current research project studies the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, concentrating on Sicily, a fishery that has been exploited for its abundant tuna for over a millennium by Mediterranean civilizations. His work looks at the long history of the fishery and analyzes the recent changes that have affected social life and the environment in Sicilian fishing communities.
He has published his work in journals such as Rural Sociology and Human Ecology Review and has presented at numerous professional conferences. Currently, Stefano is working on publishing his research as well as teaching courses such as Environmental Social Sciences and the Humanities and Sustainable Development.
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Associated Faculty
Professors from the natural and social sciences and the humanities often lend their expertise to broaden the educational experiences of our students.
Harshavardhan Bapat, Gary Butler, Matt Evans, Michael Lemke, Robert McGregor, Amy McEuen, William Siles.
Emeriti Faculty
Edward Hawes, Malcolm Levin, John Munkirs, Charles Schweighauser, William Warren, Roy Wehrle.
Adjunct Faculty
The department brings in individuals from the surrounding community whose professional expertise in a particular subject allows the students to broaden their educational experience.
Deanna Glosser, Tom Heavisides, Roger Kanerva, Mehdi Nassirpour, Mohammed Shahidullah, Jennifer Scanlan, John Sherrill, Darlene Snyder.
