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NSF PR 98-76 - November 19, 1998
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NSF, Lucent Technologies Honor Researchers Who Encourage
Businesses To "Go Green"
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Lucent
Technologies Foundation today named 11 researchers
from around the country as 1998 winners of Industrial
Ecology Research Fellowships.
The fellowships, which total $1.1 million, award researchers
who are focusing on research or teaching up to $50,000
per year for two years to help industry design processes
that prevent pollution and to create environmentally
friendly products.
Industrial ecology incorporates both competitive and
environmental concerns into industrial process and
product design. Like a biological system, it rejects
the concept of waste, and seeks ways to efficiently
reuse all materials.
"As 'industrial ecology' becomes a familiar term,
researchers from many disciplines will collaborate
on solutions to common environmental problems," said
Janie Fouke, director of NSF's Division of Bioengineering
and Environmental Systems.
"It is incumbent on the NSF to encourage basic research
that may help and encourage businesses to integrate
conservation and pollution prevention practices into
their strategies and their day-to-day operations,"
Fouke added. "Our intent with the Industrial Ecology
Research Fellowships is to spur innovations that provide
industry with both human and financial incentives
to adopt more ecologically sound business approaches."
"The field of industrial ecology is central to achieving
an environmentally sustainable economy," said Deborah
M. Stahl, executive director of the Lucent Technologies
Foundation.
"Since 1993, these fellowships have stimulated a wide
variety of research projects that address the problems
of pollution reduction and elimination in a highly-industrialized
society. In addition, they have helped to foster an
academic community focused on industrial ecology that
has developed curricula at institutions around the
country and enabled industry interactions with university
faculty."
Attachment: 1998 NSF/Lucent
Industrial Ecology Research Fellows (summary of projects.)
Attachment
1998 NSF/Lucent Technologies Industrial Ecology Research
Fellows
These researchers have received 1998 National Science
Foundation/Lucent Technologies Industrial Ecology
Research Fellowships. For more information about specific
grants, please contact the public affairs office at
their institutions.
- Martin Abraham, University of Toledo
Heterogeneous Catalysis in Supercritical Carbon
Dioxide
This research explores the use of high-temperature
carbon dioxide as an environmentally benign reaction
solvent in the formation of compounds from smaller
compounds or elements.
- Clinton Andrews, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Methods Development for Place-Based Industrial
Ecology
Expands the social science component of industrial
ecology by developing analytical tools more aligned
with the needs of one of its primary consumers
- governmental bodies and their decision makers.
- Lester Lave, Carnegie-Mellon University
- Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment in the Service
Industries
Develops quantitative life-cycle measures of the
environmental impacts in selected service industries,
such as trucking, trade, lodging and education,
complementing previous work that has concentrated
on manufacturing industries.
- S. Ranji Ranjithan, North Carolina State University
Development of an Integrated Systems Model to
Explore Environmentally Beneficial Alternatives
for Product Manufacturing and Waste Management
Develops models that integrate the environmental
impact analyses of products during their production
phase with their use and disposal/reuse phase.
- Michael Russo, University of Oregon
Antecedents and Outcomes of ISO14001 Registration:
Evidence from the American Electronics Industry
Discovers the factors that determine which companies
seek International Standards Organization (ISO)
Environmental Management certification, and whether
such certification has influenced subsequent environmental
performance.
- Nikolaos Sahinidis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Design of Environmentally Benign Refrigerants
Develops a systematic methodology for the design
of environmentally benign refrigerants to provide
alternatives to the current use of chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) and their substitutes.
- Arup Sengupta, Lehigh University
Selective Alum Recovery and Simultaneous Solid
Wastes Reduction in Large Water Treatment Plants
Develops an understanding of the mechanisms which
allow selective aluminum recovery by ion exchange
in water treatment plants.
- Paul Sheng, University of California-Berkeley
GMIP-Green Machining Incremental Planner, A Distributed
Environmental Advisor for Mechanical Components
and Machining Systems
Develops an interactive environmental-based aid
for the design of machined parts that will consider
the trade-off between environmental and production
factors.
- David Shonnard, Michigan Technological University
Environmental and Human Health Assessment Software
for the Chemical Manufacturing Industry
Introduces multiple environmental and human health
criteria into the chemical design process, leading
to more informed decisions than under the single
environmental criterion currently used.
- Christopher Swan, Tufts University
Economic and Optimization Analyses of the Reuse
of Traditional Waste Materials
Evaluates the factors that affect the reuse/recycling
of traditional large volume waste products: coal-combustion
fly-ash and recoverable waste plastics.
- Thomas Theis, Clarkson University
A Thermodynamic Basis for LCA and Optimization
of Industrial Processes for Environmental Performance
Develops a tool for the product life-cycle analysis
of an industrial ecosystem based on thermodynamics,
and tests this tool on a semiconductor manufacturing
process.
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