Full video of the Google.org course on poverty and development that Program on Global Justice Director Joshua Cohen moderated from September to November 2007 is now available online at YouTube.com.

The 10-week course, which focused on understanding poverty and development at the global, national, local, and personal levels, was the first of three courses on Google.org's main areas of philanthropic activity--Global Development, Global Health, and Climate Change.

The course on global poverty and development met once a week from Sep. 12 to Nov. 14, 2007 at Google headquarters. Each two-hour session featured guest speakers on development-related issues such as education and health, equitable financial markets, globalization, and population mobility. On Oct. 3, Rosamond L. Naylor, director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE) at FSI Stanford, co-taught a session on productive agriculture for the 21st century with Frank Rijsberman, Google.org director of water and climate adaptation issues.

Google.org is the philanthropic arm of Google and the umbrella for its commitment to devote employee time and one percent of Google's profits and equity toward philanthropy.

Course videos

Honoring the legacy of their husband and father, William Wrigley, Julie Ann Wrigley '71 and Alison Wrigley Rusack '80, along with Alison's husband, Geoffrey Claflin Rusack, have joined together to endow a new senior fellowship that will span both the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Woods Institute for the Environment.

Julie Wrigley and the Rusacks were motivated to provide permanent funding for an interdisciplinary faculty member as part of Stanford's multidisciplinary, cross-school efforts to conduct cutting-edge research on global environmental policy under the international and environmental initiatives of the university's current campaign, The Stanford Challenge.

On Tuesday, January 15, a celebratory dinner was held at FSI to introduce the inaugural recipient of the fellowship, Rosamond L. Naylor, and the fellowship donors, Julie Ann Wrigley, Alison Wrigley Rusack, and Geoffrey Claflin Rusack. "This is an extraordinary occasion for Stanford," said FSI Director Coit D. Blacker. "A family who cares deeply about the conditions of our global environment has with their gift brought together the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Woods Institute for the Environment, providing permanent support for one of our most stellar, jointly appointed faculty members."

Rosamond (Roz) Naylor has served as the Julie Wrigley Senior Fellow at FSI and as a senior fellow at the Woods Institute. Currently, she is the director of the program on Food Security and the Environment; director of the Goldman Honors Program in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy; and an associate professor of economics, by courtesy. She also teaches courses on the world food economy and sustainable agriculture for the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources. Her research focuses on the environmental and equity dimensions of intensive food production.

Walter P. Falcon, the Helen Farnsworth Professor of Agricultural Policy, Emeritus, and Buzz Thompson, the Perry L. McCarty Co-Director of the Woods Institute for the Environment, also spoke at the dinner, as did Julie Wrigley and Alison Wrigley Rusack.

In giving her personal thanks to the donors, Naylor said that she was "honored to be the first holder of this position, because it marks a new era at Stanford--one in which interdisciplinary research is valued and multi-institutional collaborations are encouraged... It is an unconventional position, donated by a family of highly innovative individuals."

William Wrigley, to whom this fellowship is a tribute, believed strongly in protecting the environment for future generations. Building on the vision of his father and grandfather, he worked tirelessly at guiding the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy in its mission of restoring, preserving, and sharing that unique and beautiful place. His leadership on Catalina, including the expansion of the Philip K. Wrigley Marine Science Institute, led him to broaden his conservation role through the establishment of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. He was also a board member of the Peregrine Fund. An unassuming man, William Wrigley didn't see his efforts as anything extraordinary. That he managed to create a lasting environmental legacy while running the multinational chewing gum manufacturer, the William Wrigley Jr. Co., told the world otherwise. The William Wrigley Senior Fellow will carry on in his honor--to William Wrigley, to his family, and to Stanford University.

Researchers at FSE and the Carnegie Institute at Stanford have been awarded $1.2 million by Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) for a four-year study of the effect of biofuels expansion on climate. Biofuels are often promoted as a multi-faceted solution to the world's energy and environmental problems, capable of reducing our dependence on petroleum while simultaneously lessening our impact on global climate. And although much of the research and media coverage of biofuels has focused to date on narrow questions surrounding biofuels technologies and their production efficiencies, the effects of land conversion as a result of expanded biofuels production could arguably have much much greater effects on global climate. The GCEP-funded work seeks to quantify how such land use change affects the net impact of biofuels on climate. Principal investigators include Roz Naylor and David Lobell of FSE, and Chris Field and Greg Asner of the Carnegie Institute.

FSE is excited to welcome Peter Timmer as FSE Visiting Professor. Prior to joining FSE, Timmer was a resident fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, and prior to that, Dean of the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego. Timmer has also held professorships at Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford. In 1992, he received the Bintang Jasa Utama (Highest Merit Star) from the Republic of Indonesia for his contributions to food security. He served as the chief outside advisor to USAID in developing their strategy on growth and agriculture for the Natsios Report (Foreign Assistance in the National Interest), and was one of the key advisors for the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. Timmer's work focuses on three broad topics: the nature of "pro-poor growth" and its application in Indonesia and other countries in Asia; the supermarket revolution in developing countries and its impact on the poor (both producers and consumers); and the structural transformation in historical perspective as a framework for understanding the political economy of agricultural policy.