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Press Release 98-076
NSF, Lucent Technologies Honor Researchers Who Encourage Businesses to "Go Green"
November 19, 1998
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
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."
-NSF-
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.
Media Contacts
Joel Blumenthal, NSF (703) 292-8070 jblument@nsf.gov
John Skalko, Lucent (908) 582-5210 jskalko@lucent.com
Program Contacts
Fred Thompson, NSF (703) 292-8318 athompso@nsf.gov
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that
supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and
engineering, with an annual budget of $6.06 billion. NSF funds reach all 50
states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year,
NSF receives about 45,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over
11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in
professional and service contracts yearly.
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