Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Morgan Edwards leads the Climate Action Lab, which focuses on energy and climate policy.

Angélica Sánchez-Mora, a graduate of our environmental conservation program, connects those living in urban spaces to the slices of nature around them.

Jesse Weber's lab works in lakes on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula to understand how fish and infections vary in nature.

Sam Helle, a PhD student in our environment and resources program, surveys tiger populations in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies is confronting global environmental challenges through imaginative research that transcends disciplinary boundaries, hands-on education that bridges classrooms and communities, and public programs that foster environmental conversations among people from business, government, academia, and advocacy.

Training Tomorrow's Environmental Leaders

The Nelson Institute values and is committed to a liberal arts and professional education, built on the premise that complex environmental issues can best be understood through familiarity with diverse perspectives, and integration of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Three students huddled close together taking close-up photos of plants

Undergraduate

Five students wearing life jackets near a lake

Graduate

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Research That's Changing the World

Research drives the social and technological innovation needed to confront the challenges of a rapidly changing global environment. The Nelson Institute is a catalyst of imaginative research that combines skills and knowledge from the humanities, engineering, business, and law to the biological, physical, health, and social sciences.

A researcher about to release a weather balloon

Center for Climatic Research

A person looking at vintage papers

Center for Culture, History, and Environment

Grace Bulltail sampled water quality in a federal oil and gas field in Toole County, Montana.

Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment

A faculty researcher and student in a lab attaching a radio-frequency identification tag to a bumblebee

Center for Ecology and the Environment

We Embrace Diversity

The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies embraces the critical importance of diversity and strives for a community that is supportive, welcoming, respectful, and inclusive of all individuals. Just as our environmental research, education, and service value a wide range of perspectives, our Nelson community is strengthened by the inclusion of historically marginalized people with a diversity of lived experiences and identities. We are deeply committed to working toward a sustainable future and facilitating culturally sensitive approaches to global environmental issues.

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Support the Nelson Institute

The Nelson Institute welcomes and is grateful for various forms of support – discretionary funds for our many programs, internships and mentoring opportunities for students, and introductions to new networks that can help advance our reach and build partnerships around Wisconsin and the world.

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