MTU/SFI|News

To celebrate its many research, education and outreach accomplishments toward securing a more sustainable future, the Sustainable Futures Institute will host the fifth annual SFI poster session and banquet starting at 4:00 pm in the Rozsa lobby on Friday, Oct. 16. The banquet keynote speaker will be Charles Kerfoot, professor of Biological Sciences, who will talk about Michigan Tech's new Great Lakes Research Center. New scholars of SFI will also be inducted at this time. New awards will be offered! In addition to an award of $150 from the Graduate Student Council for the People's Choice Award for Best Poster, SFI will award a second and third prize of $75 and $50, respectively. Also new this year is the Rick Donovan SFI Operations Manager Inaugural Award for $200. Donovan reserves the right to decide his criteria and announce the award on the spot. To register for the poster session, email your 100-word abstract by Oct. 9 to Denise Heikinen and RSVP to Heikinen if you plan to attend the banquet. The banquet is open to all SFI members and poster presenters. SFI regrets it cannot accommodate significant others. To view slides of last year's SFI banquet and poster session, the names of newly inducted SFI scholars, and menu of sustainable food for the event, click here .

2009 Distinguished Service Awards Goes to Alex Mayer!

The Michigan Tech Distinguished Service Award for 2009 has been awarded to Alex Mayer, Director of SFI’s Center for Water and Society. Alex won for all his efforts related to raising awareness of water-related issues and building research and education efforts related to water resources. Alex shares the honor with Janice Glime (BS) [ read more ]

Friends of Sustainability can now give to SFI through the MTU Fund

Individuals can join Friends of Sustainability at Michigan Tech by donating directly to the Michigan Tech Fund and ask that it be designated for Sustainable Futures Institute in the online form.
Alternatively, one can send a check to the Michigan Tech Fund and designate "SFI" on the memo line. This will provide funding for special sustainability activities on campus, such as the SFI Speaker Series, student scholarships, awards for student achievements, and student travel to sustainability conferences.

Dr. David Shonnard is new Director of the Sustainable Futures Institute

Vice President for Research Dr. David Reed approved the decision of the SFI Executive Committee to appoint Chemical Engineering Professor David Shonnard to replace John Sutherland as Director of SFI. Sutherland is leaving Michigan Tech in August. David Shonnard, currently SFI’s Deputy Director, is a founding participant in SFI’s Wood to Wheels research, from which he collaborates with efforts of Michigan’s first Centers of Energy Excellence. Shonnard’s research focuses on the development of processes to produce more efficient and cleaner-burning ethanol from wood and other forest-based biomass, as well as on life cycle analyses of various food and chemical processes. Shonnard joined Michigan Tech's Department of Chemical Engineering in 1993 and was recently named to the Robbins Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering.

Dr. John Sutherland to Step Down as SFI Director
		Sutherland receiving the 2009 SME International Honor Award for Education.

John Sutherland is stepping down as SFI's Director to accept a position at Purdue University as the Head of the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering. Dr. Sutherland came to Michigan Tech in 1991, and most recently has held the Richard & Elizabeth Henes Chair Professorship in Mechanical Engineering. He has served as SFI's Director since 2004. Under John's leadership, the Institute has grown steadily and now includes approximately 70 projects. Sutherland has promoted SFI at every opportunity and has made many lasting contributions, including numerous efforts to engage industry, stimulate collaborations, increase funding, and promote the Institute within the University. He has worked tirelessly to enhance SFI's visibility by emphasizing its unique interdisciplinary approach and "systems view" of sustainability that addresses a variety of perspectives from many disciplines. We wish John well in the next chapter of his career, and we know that he will miss the people of SFI as well.

Meet Richard Donovan, SFI’s new Operations Manager, Senior Engineer and Scientist

As many of you are now aware, Qiong (Jane) Zhang has accepted a faculty position at the University of South Florida and will be leaving us soon. She started here when SFI was still a concept and her contribution has been invaluable. She will be greatly missed. We look forward to hearing regular reports from her in the future.

Richard Donovan joined SFI this week as our new Operations Manager, Senior Engineer and Scientist. Rick comes from Montana Tech of the University of Montana where he was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Donovan holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming, with a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from Montana State University. He received his Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Rick’s research interests include high performance computing, artificial intelligence computing, computational materials science, and systems modeling for sustainability.

SFI's Qiong (Jane) Zhang and co-authors win Best Paper Award for 2008 from ASEE

The Environmental Engineering Division of American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) selected the 2008 paper "Civil and Environmental Engineering Education Transformational Change: Tools and Strategies for Sustainability Integration and Assessment in Engineering Education" by Qiong (Jane) Zhang, James Mihelcic, and Linda Vanasupa for its Best Paper Award for 2008. Dr. Zhang is the Operations Manager of SFI and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in CEE. Her co-authors are James Mihelcic, former Co-Director of SFI, now at the University of Southern Florida, and Linda Vanasupa, Professor and Chair, Materials Engineering Department, California Polytechnic State University. Jane will accept the award in June at the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference held in Austin, TX.

Questions or Suggestions for the Energy Advisory Group?

If you have additional comments, suggestions or questions for the Energy Advisory Group, please click here. <\p> Your additional input is greatly appreciated.

SFI Shares Funding For Biofuel Research Center

Michigan Tech and Michigan State received $1.4M from the US Department of Energy to establish a new Forestry Biofuel Statewide Collaboration Center to focus on cellulosic biofuels a commercial reality. SFI deputy director David Shonnard (ChemEng), who leads the new center, commented that this funding "will help solidify the SFI-MSU collaboration to help industry partners commercialize production of forest-based biofuels, bioenergy and bioproducts." [ read more ]