WITH EACH PASSING SEASON, it becomes increasingly clear that environmental issues
will pose one of the greatest challenges we face in the 21st century, and perhaps beyond. Somehow
we must find ways not only to ameliorate the damage caused by industrialization, mass consumption,
loss of habitat and species diversity, and climate change, while simultaneously creating new technologies
that make sustainable economic development possible. Some experts predict if we do not find solutions
soon, we may find ourselves in an irreversible environmental crisis within a few decades.
But there is a ray of light. Long before the first Earth Day in April 1970, University researchers were hard at work on initiatives that today would universally be recognized as “green” in nature. This leadership continues with new organizations like the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE) and the Institute on the Environment, both of which bring together world-class scholars and scientists to advance environmental research."
"Our advantage is that we are a comprehensive University,” said Deborah Swackhamer, environmental
health sciences professor and interim director of the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. “There is no other university in the country that has our kind of resources all in one place.”
“Clearly, the Institute of Technology is one of the key colleges in this area,” she said. “At the Institute on the Environment, we have involved every college we can, but there are some more critical to our work than others. It is the breadth and depth of the Institute of Technology that matters so much, the collaboration between civil engineering, organic and inorganic chemistry, environmental engineering, computer science, geology, and more. Together they make it possible for us to make a bigger splash on environmental
issues than would be otherwise possible.”
The following profiles provide a sampling of Institute of Technology researchers who are helping to realize a greener future for us all.
