This year saw the induction of three new members to the EAPS Patrons Circle, with environmental interests being the catalyst for generous gifts to fund the new Callahan-Dee and Wade Fellowships.

EAPS IS delighted to welcome Emily (Paddy) Wade ’45, as well as Patricia Callahan ’75, SM ‘77 and her husband David Dee, to the EAPS Patrons Circle this year.

Both Wade (MIT Corporation Life Member Emeritus) and Callahan (MIT Corporation Member) chose to support EAPS students because of their lifelong passion for the environment.

An avid birder, conservationist, and educator, Paddy Wade has long been a leader at MIT as well as at organizations such as Mass Audubon, the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, Zoo New England, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. In addition, in the 1980s, a conversation with then MIT President Paul Gray ‘54, SM ‘55, SCD ‘60 about declining numbers of students going into science and a lack of educational programs for middle school science teachers, motivated Wade to found the Museum Institute for Teaching Science (MITS) to provide professional development opportunities for K-12 science teachers.

And this year, she was inspired to create the J.H. and E. V. Wade Fellowship fund (named for Paddy and her late husband Jeptha H. Wade ’45), “ because I have been involved in both science education and environmental problems for many years—and am very much in favor of more research and study into the intersection of energy and the environment.”

The Wade Fellowship fund will help support an EAPS student working in the energy and environment research field for one semester per year, starting in 2019.

Newly retired after a 38-year career with Wells Fargo, Pat Callahan is now putting down roots in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, and looking forward to a more flexible lifestyle, as well as digging into her role as an MIT Corporation member. Her respect for the environment was instilled from childhood—in the days when it seemed rather eccentric, her family caused amusement at the local grocery store by bringing back paper bags to re-use time and again. And her concern about the impacts of climate change and pollution that are threatening the sustainability of life on the planet was heightened while volunteering for a Marine Mammal Center in California. At the center, she helped save suffering sea lions and monk seals rescued from a 600-mile stretch of the west coast, but saw only about half survive their ordeal, with toxins and trash in the ocean being largely to blame. She sees scientific research and education as a hopeful way forward.

“A fellowship is not a one-time thing. We loved the idea of supporting students who will work on a problem for years to come, helping us to understand and convey the science behind these problems so we can find solutions and ways to cope,” said Callahan.

The Callahan-Dee Fellowship will support one graduate student per academic year whose research relates to environmental sustainability, and Pat says it will be “so much fun” to meet the students, especially Christine Chen, our very first Callahan-Dee Fellow starting this fall.