Faculty Interdisciplinary Studies Committee identifies environmental studies as area of great campus potential.
Special Committee on Environmental Studies, representing deans, urges creation of free-standing unit for research, teaching, and service in interdisciplinary environmental studies; recommends that unit serve as umbrella for appropriate existing programs and centers.
Ad hoc faculty committee establishes experimental Institute for Environmental Studies as research program of Graduate School.
Chancellor-appointed faculty Environmental Studies Advisory Committee reiterates 1966 recommendations of Special Committee on Environmental Studies.
Chancellor and Board of Regents approve reorganization of Institute for Environmental Studies (IES) into comprehensive, independent academic unit. Reid Bryson appointed first director.
Marine Studies Center, Center for Climatic Research, Lake Wingra Ecological System Study Group, Remote Sensing Study Group join institute.
Faculty members from across campus begin to affiliate with IES, develop interdisciplinary courses, supervise students seeking joint and special committee degrees.
National Science Foundation awards first major institutional grant to IES: $1.5 million from the Research Applied to National Needs Program.
Three new centers (Geographic Analysis, Biotic Systems, Human Systems) and two new groups (Environmental Monitoring and Data Acquisition, Quantitative Ecosystems Modeling) created to accommodate IES research.
Earthwatch Radio debuts on 12 Wisconsin radio stations.
Chancellor approves departmental status for IES instructional program.
Water Resources Management Graduate Program, founded in 1965, affiliates with IES.
Land Resources Graduate Program established.
Environmental Monitoring Graduate Program established.
Environmental Studies Certificate Program for undergraduate students established.
Energy Analysis and Policy Certificate Program established.
Environmental Monitoring and Data Acquisition Group renamed Environmental Remote Sensing Center.
Reid Bryson retires after 15 years as IES director. Arthur Sacks becomes acting director.
Arthur Sacks appointed second director of IES.
National Park Service establishes Cooperative Park Studies Unit at UW-Madison, with IES as administrative home. (Unit later becomes part of National Biological Service, then part of U.S. Geological Survey.)
Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development Graduate Program established.
Arthur Sacks resigns as IES director. Daniel Bromley appointed acting director.
Inactive IES research centers discontinued.
Thomas Yuill becomes third director of IES.
Air Resources Management Curriculum introduced as option in Land Resources Graduate Program.
Reid Bryson Interdisciplinary Climate, People, and Environment Program (CPEP) established.
Environmental Studies and Law Dual Degree Program approved.
Environmental Sciences Student Exchange Program for undergraduates initiated with University of Guelph, Canada.
Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends celebrate IES's 25th anniversary with a special symposium.
The IES Board of Visitors is created to advise and assist the director in setting and meeting the institute's objectives.
IES launches its first international exchange program for UW-Madison graduate students, with five partner universities in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
Environmental Monitoring Graduate Program introduces a non-thesis Management Option at the M.S. level for returning professionals.
Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) established.
IES renamed the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Transportation Management and Policy Program Certificate Program established.
Tom Yuill retires after 10 years as director of the institute. Erhard Joeres becomes interim director.
UW-Madison's Land Tenure Center becomes part of the Nelson Institute.
Air Resources Management Curriculum reconfigured as a certificate program open to all UW-Madison graduate students.
Frances Westley becomes the Nelson Institute's fourth director. She is the first woman to head the institute.
The institute receives a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation and matching funds of $400,000 from the university to promote graduate study and launch a graduate-level certificate program in global environmental sustainability.
The Environmental Remote Sensing Center (ERSC) becomes part of UW-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center.
Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) established with a $1.5 million endowment.
Certificate on Humans and the Global Environment (CHANGE) established.
Land Resources Program renamed Environment and Resources Program.
Frances Westley resigns as director. Lewis Gilbert becomes interim director.