Category Archives: David Poulson

David Poulson is the senior associate director of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.

The Society of Environmental Journalists conference helps students make the grade

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Knight Center crew at SEJ conference in Pittsburgh, from left: graduate students Gloria Nzeka, Apporva Joshi, Carol Terracina, Research Director Bruno Takahashi, Director Eric Freedman, graduate student Tony Van Witsen, Associate Director David Poulson, graduate student Jack Nissen

By David Poulson

Rubbing shoulders with the world’s top environmental journalists is a great opportunity for students each fall at the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual conferences, like the one coming up this Oct. 9-13 in Fort Collins, Colo.

It’s educational, inspiring and exciting for them. And the rest of the membership benefits from the buzz and hustle that the students bring. It’s an investment in the future of the organization and in environmental journalism.

Can we get more of them there? Continue reading →

Poulson reports on African academic innovation project

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Chiku Mtegha, a researcher at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture an Natural Resources, explains to African journalists research into using chemicals from local plants to deworm goats.

Knight Center Senior Associate Director David Poulson contributed to a recent article on building the capacity of academics to do relevant research at African universities.

“How design thinking united researchers and farmers” appears in the African edition of The Conversation.

It reports on a strategy that encourages academics to create, develop and implement their own research agendas to more directly address the needs of people. Continue reading →

Canada is on-the-road classroom for MSU environmental journalism students

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Knight Center for Environmental Journalism students interview Eugene Bourgeois and Marti McFadzean, leaders of two Kincardine, Ontario, organizations opposing the Deep Geological Repository, a nuclear waste storage facility proposed at the site of Bruce Power. They met in the cabin Bourgeois built from reclaimed timber. Image: David Poulson

By David Poulson

I had tried for weeks to arrange a meeting of my environmental journalism students and First Nations officials during a field reporting trip to Kincardine, Ontario.

I came close. But now things were falling apart. Just before we hit the road last semester, tribal officials phoned to say they decided not to meet with us to talk about a controversial radioactive waste disposal plan on Lake Huron’s Bruce Peninsula. They wanted to assess their community’s reaction to the plan before speaking about it with outsiders.

Our three-day Canadian roadtrip was part of a Knight Center environmental journalism class on transboundary issues. The plan was to directly learn of some of the environmental challenges that the U.S. shares with Canada.  At the same time, the half-dozen students would gather ideas and sources for classroom assignments and for our center’s news service which carries stories relevant to the eight states and two provinces bordering the Great Lakes.

Continue reading →