Internationally Active Faculty
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The Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources (FER) includes a number of faculty members who pursue global initiatives, lead trips abroad or teach international courses.
Faculty participation in international activities is greatly enhanced by the Gunnar and Lillian Nicholson Faculty Exchange program, which funds projects and visits between members of NC State's forestry departments and faculty members and scientists from any Swedish academic or research institution that addresses forest resource issues. Collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is strongly encouraged as part of this program.
Faculty Profiles
The following faculty members are particularly active in FER's international activities. For more on these faculty members, click on their individual links. To review the biographies of other faculty members who conduct research and extension activities with an international component, please visit the FER Faculty section of this website.
Dr. Lee Allen is a C.A. Schenck Distinguished Professor of Forestry and Director Emeritus of NC State Forest Nutrition Cooperative. He is interested in forest nutrition, ecophysiology of forest productivity; anthropogenic impacts on forest ecosystems; quantitative silviculture; genotype and environment interactions. He spent a semester as a visiting professor at Universidad de Concepcion in Chile in 2005 and lead a course from NC State to Chile over Spring Break in 2007. Dr. Allen has published over 100 refereed publications in the past five years, along with 130 technical reports on subjects that cover his specialties, including soils, forest nutrition and pine plantations.
Dr. Gary Blank is an Associate Professor of Forestry whose specialties include environmental impact assessment and historical landscape change. Interested in historical environments, he is a member of the American and the European Societies for Environmental History. His specific interests include ancient Celtic land use in central Europe, international education, and environmental issues. Last spring, he spent five months as a Fulbright Fellow in the Czech Republic teaching and examining issues of the EU merger and Czech environmental policies. Other projects have taken him to Sweden, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Mexico. During his term as a Fulbright Scholar at Masaryk and Mendel Universities, he traveled widely in Czechia gathering material on landscape use. In alternate summers, Dr. Blank takes students from NC State to Sweden for a month-long course investigating sustainable use of natural resources. Members of this course, NR350, meet up with student and faculty counterparts from the Swedish Agriculture University and Purdue University.
Dr. Bronson Bullock is an Associate Professor of Forest Biometrics and Timber Management. He traveled to Sweden in June 2006 and April 2008 as part of the Gunnar and Lillian Nicholson Faculty Exchange program. The purpose of the first trip was to explore collaborations with researchers at SLU in the field of forest biometrics. He met with faculty and administrators from a variety of departments in three SLU locations, presented research to several groups, conducted a wide variety of field visits and trips to harvest sites and explored collaborative research projects with SLU faculty, whose cutting edge research covers a wide range of disciplines. As a result of this visit, Bullock collaborated with several faculty on a research grant submitted to the Swedish government that was later funded. The grant supports a Ph.D. student in Sweden and Bullock is helping to advise the student on her research. Additionally, the trip to SLU in April 2008 was undertaken to continue collaborative research work and make plans for a sabbatical in 2009-2010. The sabbatical will be at SLU in Umeå, where Bullock will co-teach 3 courses as well as work on research beneficial to both NCSU and SLU. Bullock also co-led a summer study abroad course focusing on Forestry and Natural Resource Management in Turkey in June, 2007. Further, Bullock was the PI on the US side for a joint EU-US Atlantis grant that was funded in 2008. Funds from this grant will be used to train Master's students in Forestry at a US institution (NCSU or MTU) and at two EU institution (SLU in Sweden and The University of Helsinki in Finland). Students will spend a year abroad and work collaboratively on their research with US and EU faculty, in the end obtaining dual Master of Science (MS) degrees - one from the US and one from the EU. .
Dr. Fred Cubbage participates in a wide variety of international research initiatives. He has been performing research on forest certification, sustainable forest management, timber investment returns, and silvopasture systems internationally and domestically for decades. This work expanded significantly when Cubbage took a sabbatical in Argentina and Uruguay in 2004 on a Fulbright Teaching Research exchange that involved collaboration with colleagues in Latin America and several NCSU graduate students. His forest certification research began when NC State, Duke and the NC Division of Forest Resources received forest certification for their forest lands in 2001, and has expanded to studies of forest certification in the Americas in 2004 as well as a survey of the impacts of forest certification in Argentina in 2006. The study will be extended to other countries in 2007. During the Fulbright exchange, research on timber investment returns for plantations and native forests was initiated, and this work continues with colleagues in seven countries throughout Latin America. Related research on silvopasture systems is underway in Misiones, Argentina, with a parallel study at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) in North Carolina.
Dr. Werner Dörgeloh is an adjunct professor in the Department of Forestry where he teaches natural resource conservation and wildlife management. He studied zoology and wildlife management in South Africa and obtained his PhD from the University of Pretoria. Dr Dörgeloh has many years of experience in teaching, research and field work in African wildlife ecology and conservation that motivated him to develop a study abroad program to Namibia. Since 2005 he has successfully led groups of students to Africa where they study various aspects of ecology, wildlife management and conservation. In addition his familiarity with the region and interest in traveling inspired him to found a tour company, Eko Tracks, which offers guided eco- and adventure tours to Africa.
Dr. William Dvorak is the director of Camcore, an international academic—industry partnership which conducts conservation and tree breeding activities in 15 countries, including Central and South America, southern Africa and Southeast Asia. Dvorak and his Camcore colleagues conduct frequent field visits to perform research reviews of field trials, explore extension topics and perform Camcore’s conservation work. Since August, members of Camcore staff have worked in Indonesia, Nicaragua, Turkey and Mexico and traveled to Argentina for Camcore’s annual meeting, which typically includes several weeks of field visits interspersed with technical meetings.
Dr. Doug Frederick is Professor of Forestry and specializes in hardwood silviculture and management. He also has interests in short rotation forestry, restoration ecology and a variety of international research areas. He spent a one-year sabbatical in New Zealand studying yields and nutrient –cycling in short rotation eucalyptus and radiate pine plantations. He has also studied wastewater treatment systems using forests in Australia and New Zealand. He completed a Fulbright Scholar assignment in Finland where he studied the management and silviculture of short rotation willow plantations. He has been to Sweden several times to study intensive silviculture with hardwood and pine species. He has traveled to Costa Rica, Ecuador and Chile as part of the NCSU, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources Student Study Tours. In 2004, he spent a sabbatical in Chile conducting research and developing documentary films on native Chilean hardwoods and the endangered tree Alerce, Fitzroya cupressoides. He is continuing his research in Chile with a new cooperative project with the Universidad Austral in Valdivia on the sustainable forest management of native forests.
Dr. Barry Goldfarb is the head of NC State's Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources and extremely active in FER’s international activities. For example, the Nicholson Fund has twice allowed him to visit Sweden. During the first visit, in June of 2000, he met colleagues at SLU, at both their Uppsala and Umea campuses, and at Skogforsk, the Swedish national forest research organization. A highlight of the trip was exploring ideas to use clonally replicated Scots pine trees in breeding and testing programs. On his second visit, in June of 2003, he attended an international conference in Umea on Tree Biotechnology, and had the opportunity to re-visit some of the scientists he had met on his first visit. He was able to see firsthand that researchers there had made enough progress on producing Scots pine rooted cuttings to begin using them in their operational breeding and testing program.
Dr. George Hess, an Associate Professor of Forestry & Environmental Resources, is active internationally in the field of conservation. He recently instructed a PhD Master Class that brought together 10 international scholars and 24 PhD students from all around the world for a week of discussion and exchange in the countryside of Laggan, Scotland near the University of Abderdeen. Host faculty presented research on landscape change — the focus of the course — and, perhaps more importantly, the course also provided mentorship and professional development opportunities for the students. Hess led a forum entitled How much more conservation science do we need? in which he examined the intersecting roles of science, policy, and economics in areas undergoing intense suburban development. As part of the course's professional development activities, he also conducted a workshop on creating effective poster presentations. Hess had the opportunity to see landscape changes from many different perspectives during the exchange program and intends to further develop collaborative teaching and research activities with the faculty and students there.
Dr. Fikret Isik is a Research Assistant Professor of Forest Genetics within the Department of FER. His doctoral dissertation focused on quantitative genetics, and statistics in forestry research. He has studied at Istanbul University and at Akdeniz University in Turkey, Oxford Forestry Institute in the U.K. His current research interests include quantitative genetics, genetic basis of disease resistance of forest trees, wood density assessment and genetics, application of molecular markers in tree improvement and conservation of forest genetic resources. He has done extensive research in Turkey, had sabbaticals at New Zealand Forest Research Institute and Forestry Commission Northern Research Station in Edinburgh, U.K. Dr. Isik is leading a summer course in Turkey in June 2007. Most recently, under the auspicious of International Forest Research Organizations, he organized and chaired an international conference in Antalya, Turkey that explored low input conservation and breeding strategies of forest tree species.
Dr. Bailian Li is the Vice Provost of International Affairs at NC State and has extensive experience in leadership in international academic communities, academic experience in teaching, research and collaboration with international universities/institutions, and living and working in foreign countries immersed in multiple cultures and societies. Dr. Li also has collaborative experience with foreign universities, research institutes and governmental agencies in many countries, such as Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden, and Turkey. Currently he is serving as the Chair, Division 2 of Genetics and Physiology, International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). Dr. Li's main research has focused on forest genetics, biotechnology, genomics and tree improvement. Some of these research projects have significant international dimensions and collaborations with scientists in different countries.
Dr. Steve McKeand is Professor of Forestry and Environmental Resources and Director of the Cooperative Tree Improvement Program. Steve’s research in forest genetics has primarily been in support of the breeding program of the Tree Improvement Cooperative, with primary responsibility in the breeding, testing, and selection phases of the program. Specific research interests include: genetic effects on nutritional and ecophysiological processes in forest trees, genetic and environmental control of wood properties, biotechnology/breeding interface, propagation effects on forest trees, seed orchard management, and genotype by environment interactions. Steve teaches the graduate course in Forest Genetics (FOR 725) and the undergraduate course in Tree Improvement (FOR 411). He has worked with graduate students from many countries and has chaired international graduate student committees including students from Brazil, China, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and Sweden.
Dr. Mark Megalos is an Outreach Associate with the College of Natural Resources who recently traveled to Freiburg, Germany to present a paper on a study of North Carolina Working Forest Landowners with Dr. Robert Bardon of FER. The audience included research professionals from 26 countries interested in the current status of knowledge management and outreach across the globe. While in Germany, he had the opportunity to meet with members of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations to plan a conference in South America next year on the improvements of sustainable development in the Amazon Region.
Dr. Susan Moore is an Extension Assistant Professor and Director of the Forestry and Environmental Outreach Program. She works on various international research and outreach projects. Currently she is the co-director of a four-year collaborative project between FER and two forestry schools in Chile (Universidad de Concepción and Valdivia) which endeavors to expand the knowledge of both Chilean and NCSU students in international natural resource management issues, challenges and opportunities. As part of that project, Dr. Moore co-lead FER forestry study tours to Chile for spring break in 2007 and 2008. She directs the research of a doctoral student in community-based conservation in Chile, and she recently completed a sabbatical project to develop an extension and outreach program around native forest management at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia. Her previous international experience also includes working in Japan, collaborating with Argentine, Brazilian and Korean colleagues in Buenos Aires on a curriculum development project, presenting at an international extension conference in Italy, hosting a team of visiting Chinese foresters, and has traveled with FER study tours to Ecuador and Guatemala. She is also currently collaborating with Dr. Fred Cubbage on a study of the costs and benefits of forest certification in the Americas.
Dr. Subhrendu K. Pattanayak is a an Associate Professor at Duke University and an Adjunct Professor in FER. His research lies in three domains: (a) evaluation of forest ecosystem services, (b) practical methods for non-market valuation, and (c) economics of environmental epidemiology. Most of this research has relied on specifying testable hypothesis by applying economic theory to environment and development policies, conducting field experiments through household surveys in developing countries, matching the survey (microeconomic) data with meso-scale environmental and social statistics, and estimating econometric models to generate policy parameters and recommendations. He builds microeconometric models to analyze the policy causes and consequences of interactions between human behaviors and environmental services in Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and the United States. He has directed several research projects funded by the World Bank, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Conservation International, Health Canada, and the National Science Foundation, among others. Dr. Pattanayak has designed and managed large multi-site household surveys in urban and rural areas of India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal and Sri Lanka. He is also a Fellow in the Center for Applied Biodiversity Sciences, and a Research Advisor to the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economists.
Dr. Daniel Robinson is a Professor of Forestry and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Natural Resources. He is currently the College representative to the University's International Operations Council, and has been involved in a range of College-wide and University-wide efforts to promote internationalization at NC State. He has traveled and worked extensively abroad, including two years in West Africa (residence in Cote d'Ivoire), months in South Africa, Israel and Burma (Myanmar), and short-term professional visits to Kenya, Brazil, England, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Puerto Rico, and Canada. He is a silviculturist and forest entomologist, with broad interests in biomass and bioenergy, agroforestry, pest management and pest resistance in trees, clonal forestry, and conservation/sustainability.
Dr. Joseph Roise is a Professor of Forestry and Operations Research and North Carolina Registered Forester, has research interests in the application of operations research methodologies to forest resource management, which includes a wide range of “field specific topic areas”. Currently this includes biomass harvesting and logistics, fire science delivery mechanisms, the influence of forest management and utilization on carbon sequestration and a project on development of a “rational and sustainable international policy for the forest sector, with consideration of energy, global warming, risk, and regional development”. The international project includes cooperators from Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, Germany, Iran, Korea, Nepal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Eastern and Western USA. One NCSU Ph.D. student is currently working with international cooperators to develop project coordinating mission objectives. For his 2005 sabbatical, Roise was selected as the Fulbright Chair in Sustainability at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he studied and analyzed the development of the new competition based timber market pricing system for British Columbia. His Forest Resource Operations Research program includes activities in Chili, Canada, Korea, South Africa and Sweden. In 2010 he is an invited speaker at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) in South Korea. The topic will be biomass harvesting and logistics.
Dr. Rafael Rubilar is an adjunct assistant professor of FER who is also an Assistant Professor of Forest Soils and Forest Productivity at the Faculty of Forest Sciences at Universidad de Concepción in Chile — as well as Associate Director of the Forest Nutrition Cooperative for Latin America. He is an NC State graduate whose research at NCSU focused on two major areas: the long-term impacts of organic matter removals on site productivity and sustainability; and the environmental constraints and silvicultural impacts on radiata pine above and below ground biomass, leaf area production and phenological display at three contrasting soil-site conditions. Since he arrived in Chile, he has taught four courses at UdeC and is currently guiding student research in such areas as the use of forest plantations for biomass-energy production, and the long-term implications for sustainability and the water use efficiency of Eucalyptus clonal plantations. His activities as Forest Nutrition Associate Director for Latin America have also kept him continuously involved with industry research as well as the extension of research results, education and new research projects. He has also been working to put together the first Symposium of Advances in Silviculture, which will bring together outstanding scientists from Australia, USA and Latin America, and has been serving as the main coordinator of an agreement between NCSU and the Universidad de Concepción that will involve faculty, technical and student exchanges, developing joint research projects, expected joint and dual degrees over time.
Dr. Ted Shear directs the Restoration Ecology Program in the Department of Forestry at NCSU, where he studies the ecology and restoration of the forests of the Southeastern U.S. and the New World Tropics. Grantors include federal and state agencies and private industries. He enjoys access to industrial forests through the NCSU/Industry Hardwood Research Cooperative, to study silviculture, harvesting, and conservation biology issues of production forests from the Atlantic coastal plain to the Appalachian ridges. His recent work includes: the first application of bioequivalence statistics to restoration; development of criteria for wetland forest restoration; evaluation of the impacts of harvesting on plant communities and edaphic factors in many forest types; nursery production of tropical hardwoods; restoration of dry tropical forests in Costa Rica, and; characterization of montane forests in Tanzania.
Dr. Erin Sills is an Associate Professor and coordinator of international programs in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at NC State. She also teaches forest economics and world forestry, and is vice president of the International Society of Tropical Foresters, a research associate of the Center for International Forestry Research, and a faculty advisor for the Pan-Amazon Discussion Group. Her research focuses on the economics of multiple-use forest management, including quantifying the value of non-timber benefits from forests, modeling the behavior of households who own or use forests, and evaluating the public benefits of forest policies and programs. This includes work on the non-timber benefits of tropical forests in Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, India and Indonesia. She has also advised student research in west and central Africa through the Masters International Program. Current research projects under her supervision focus on community forest management and regional markets for forest products in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, land use and economic development in the western Brazilian Amazon, a Costa Rican government program of payments for ecosystem services and the impact of iron ore mining on forest livelihoods in Orissa, India.
Dr. Toddi Steelman is an Associate Professor who specializes in studying public and community involvement as it pertains to the development of environmental and natural resources management policies and the attending public policy and administration issues. In June of 2004, she traveled to Sweden for two weeks to establish contacts at SLU in Umea and to attend the International Symposium for Society and Natural Resource Management (ISSRM) in Ostersund at Midland University. She has established contacts at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. She advises students in the Masters International Program. Future Research will explore comparative approaches to wildfire management in different countries.
Dr. Ge Sun has been instrumental in the development of a strong collaboration program involving the US-China Carbon Consortium network and various US and Chinese institutions, including NC State, the USDA Forest Service, the University of Toledo, the Beijing Forestry University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Forestry and the Inner Mongolia Academy of Forestry. This research network is exploring a variety of natural resource challenges that rapid development has put on China’s water and forestry resources, including such issues as how to conduct reforestation on degraded lands at the regional scale and measuring and modeling carbon and water balances of disturbed ecosystems such as plantation forests, crop lands, natural wetlands and grasslands. As part of these studies, Sun recently helped lead a trip to study the effects of reforestation on carbon and water fluxes in China. The results of these efforts are providing the Chinese government with scientific guidance as it mounts large-scale ecosystem restoration efforts.
Dr. Sarah Warren is an Associate Professor in the field of social ecology. She teaches several courses that are international in scope (e.g., Conservation of Biological Diversity, Humans and the Environment, Community Management of Natural Resources). In May 2006 she joined the Forestry Study Tour to China. She has spent many years in Asia, and formerly conducted research on community forestry and agroforestry in India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.
