August 31, 2010

Dear Board Member,

This month we are pleased to introduce Dr. Margaret Nelson, an expert on the long-term sustainability strategies of past societies and their relevance for the modern world. Professor Nelson’s interview follows a brief list of news and activities, below.

Highlights of ASU sustainability activities

ASU launched a new minor in sustainability to help students across the university understand critical issues of sustainability and explore transdisciplinary approaches to key challenges. The 18-credit minor is available for undergraduate students in all major programs that do not already offer a sustainability minor or concentration. Read more.
A project partnering ASU with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses Phoenix as an urban laboratory to learn how growing cities can adapt to climate change and reduce heat-related deaths. Sharon Harlan, faculty member in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and affiliated faculty member in the School of Sustainability, is part of the research team analyzing NASA’s imagery of Phoenix growth to identify strategies that will help urban planners protect vulnerable low-income populations and create more sustainable cities. Read more.
An ASU-led consortium won a U.S. Department of Energy grant to make biofuels more economical. Working with colleagues in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, ASU scientists will focus on testing the commercial viability of algae-based biofuels as replacement for petroleum-based fuels. Read more.
Two members of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering earned recognition for their work addressing two different aspects of air pollution challenges. Professor Ronald Adrian’s research on the effects of turbulence on air pollutants was published in the July 9 issue of Science. Meanwhile, doctoral student Tingting Gao’s work to improve devices that detect gaseous air pollutants won a prize at this summer’s international meeting of the Air and Waste Management Association in Calgary, Canada, and has been published in a prestigious physical chemistry journal. Read more about Adrian. Read more about Gao.
CompuGirls, a program to help adolescent girls increase their technology aptitude, engages female students in solving relevant social justice problems as a means to stimulate their interest in learning advanced computer skills. Designed by Kimberly Scott, professor in the School of Social Transformation, the program enrolls primarily Hispanic, Native American, and African-American students from underserved school districts and is funded by the National Science Foundation. Read more. View video.

You can email or call us with any questions or comments about this briefing.

Best regards,

Rick Shangraw	Rob Melnick	Sander van der Leeuw

Director rick.shangraw@asu.edu 480-965-4087	Executive Dean rob.melnick@asu.edu 480-965-5233	Dean vanderle@asu.edu 480-965-6214

cc: Jim Buizer

PO Box 875402 Tempe, AZ 85287-5402
Tel: (480) 965-2975 Fax: (480) 965-8087
http://sustainability.asu.edu

Dr. Nelson is a professor in the School of Sustainability and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and is Vice Dean of Barrett, the Honors College. Her research involves collaborative fieldwork to understand sustainability issues for prehistoric inhabitants of the U.S. Southwest and the lessons that can be learned for contemporary society. Her innovations in teaching have earned her the ASU President’s Professor Award, Professor of the Year honors from the ASU Parents Association, and the Centennial Professor designation by the Associated Students of ASU. Nelson teaches graduate and undergraduate seminars in interdisciplinary research for the School of Sustainability.

How did “sustainability” become part of your research focus?
In 1999 the Turner Foundation awarded my research partner and me a three-year grant to study how the Mimbres culture in southwestern New Mexico practiced sustainable land use. With the help of further grants by the Turner Foundation, National Geographic, and the National Science Foundation, we began collaborating with a group of archaeologists and ecologists working in the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico to understand issues of sustainability and resilience over long time spans.

What is your most important sustainability-related research project?
I lead an interdisciplinary research group from the fields of ecology and anthropology who are conducting integrated projects that examine cycles of stability and transformation during the last 1,000 years in the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico. The projects focus on a number of key assumptions about resilience and sustainability that have never before been studied across such long periods. Our work involves building an extended record of evidence that explains how issues such as diversity, robustness, vulnerability, and social rigidity can contribute to a society’s stability or collapse.

How do you think your sustainability-related research can affect decisions in the “real world”?
Policymakers and managers currently make decisions based on recent evidence and short-term consequences. Our work provides a considerably longer record of evidence about the processes that either contribute to or interfere with resilience and sustainability. With this much broader understanding, decision-makers have the tools to make better choices for a sustainable future that is lasting.

What is the world sustainability challenge that concerns you the most?
I cannot pick only one. Among the concerns on my list are social isolation policies, high population, abysmal quality of life for many, inattention to future consequences, and lack of education.