Across the street from IT Administration's temporary offices stands
the Bell Museum of Natural History, a popular center for environmental
education, outreach, and research.
Year-round, the
museum serves thousands of young
visitors through inventive programming
and exhibits that appeal to a child's
imagination and wide-eyed curiosity.
In a riveting outdoor diorama, the
bronze sculptures of a bull moose
and three wolves portray the life-and-death
struggle between predator and prey.
Indoors, visitors of all ages learn
about the natural world, science,
and the web of life.
The museum is a gentle reminder that science and technology affect
the environment, for better or worse. Scientific, technological,
and economic progress sometimes has come at the expense of the environment.
Over the last several decades, however, concern for the environment
has prompted significant changes in government regulations, consumer
behavior, science education, and the scope of scientific research.
The design of environmentally sound products and processes is one
of the most exciting areas of applied research, and the University
of Minnesota and other major research universities are the locus
of much of this activity.
In this issue, you'll meet some of the people in IT who are conducting
research on problems related to the environment, from the preservation
of wildlife habitats to the creation of biodegradable plastics to
the quality of our air and water. Geologists are studying Earth's
remote past for clues to its climatological future. Computational
chemists are using supercomputers and specialized software to work
on applications in environmental chemistry. The world-renowned St.
Anthony Falls Laboratory has expanded its focus to include interdisciplinary
research on water and its interaction with the environment.
Our faculty strongly endorse a University-wide initiative
to improve the environmental literacy of all students.
Many students in nonscience majors have a keen interest
in the environment but lack a strong background in math
and science. As part of the initiative, civil engineering
professor Michael Semmens established the University's
first environmental science laboratory class that's
tailored for nonscience students and designed to satisfy
the University's “physical science with laboratory"course
requirement.
IT's motto, “Inventing Tomorrow,” neatly summarizes the
college's mission. However, when I see a queue of yellow school
buses outside the Bell Museum, I realize that, in one sense, the
future is already here. Not all of these children will become scientists,
mathematicians, or engineers, but each one has the right to live
in a healthy, life-sustaining environment. We all have a special
responsibility to make that kind of tomorrow a reality.
