ASU News - Faculty and Staff + Faculty and Staff

ASU SkySong company wins innovation award

jabrewe — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:04 -0700

Ubidyne, a manufacturer of digital antenna embedded radio systems for wireless communications, won the 2009 Governor’s Celebration of Innovation (GCOI) Award for Start-Up Companies and shared the credit for their accomplishment with SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center.

“Arizona is known for its strong culture of independent thinking and innovation and ASU SkySong was instrumental in bringing Ubidyne to Arizona,” said Ubidyne CEO Ken Hawk. “They helped us get organized here, establish our home at SkySong and connect us to the incredible resources available through ASU. We are extremely grateful for the support from SkySong and proud to have been one if its early partners.”

ASU SkySong serves as a portal for companies to the resources and services of the University, offering entrepreneurship training, workforce development, research integration and business development assistance. ASU SkySong supports new technology start-ups with office space, access to business services and continuing training geared toward local innovators and global firms seeking to start operations in the United States. Ubidyne has taken advantage of many of these programs and services.

“We are truly proud to play a role in Ubidyne’s success,” said Julia Rosen, ASU’s associate vice president of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “The whole building was buzzing when we received the news that they had won the Innovation award. We just couldn’t be happier for Ken and his entire team.”

The GCOI Awards are presented by the Arizona Technology Council in partnership with the Arizona Department of Commerce and are selected by an independent committee of experts. The GCOI was established in 2003 and has become the premier technology community gathering in Arizona. This year’s gala event was held on Nov. 19, 2009 at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix.

“Throughout the turbulent economy of 2009, innovation became more important than ever,” said Steven G. Zylstra, president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council. “It is essential that we celebrate the creative spirit of Arizona by recognizing and honoring the state’s most innovative thinkers.” Ubidyne’s Antenna Embedded RadioTM technology integrates digital micro-radio units directly into the conventional antenna housing, eliminating the need for coaxial feeder cables, remote electrical tilt, and additional amplifiers on antenna towers and masts. This will help lower the basic costs of text and voice communications in developing nations while enabling more reliable, lower cost broadband wireless connections in more developed regions.

“We are developing a technology that has true global impact,” Hawk said.

In addition to Ubidyne’s award, ASU also received recognition as professors Qiang Hu and Milton Sommerfeld, co-directors of the Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology, won the Innovator of the Year Award for Academia. Hu and Sommerfeld have developed a sustainable algal feedstock technology for production of a renewable petroleum substitute that can be converted to aviation fuel.

Dieter Schroder approaches 30-year career at ASU

jkullman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:56:24 -0700

Editor’s Note: This profile is one in a series that highlights Arizona State University’s 2008 and 2009 Regents’ Professors. The Regents’ Professor honor is the most prestigious faculty award at the university. Click here to view the complete list of awardees.

Dieter Schroder may be the proverbial victim of his own success.

The ASU electrical engineering professor could embark on a well-deserved retirement, but colleagues consider him too valuable to let go.

David Ferry and Gerald Heydt, fellow longtime professors in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, point to Schroder’s renown in his field, his research accomplishments, his skill at teaching both beginning and advanced engineering students, and his contributions to shaping ASU’s overall academic environment.

Schroder jokingly expresses suspicion that his selection this year as a Regents’ Professor – the highest recognition for state university faculty members in Arizona – may be a way to coerce him to stay beyond the 28 years he’s already been at ASU.

More seriously, Schroder says he remains motivated by the same kinds of goals he set for himself when he came to the university in 1981.

He wanted to publish 100 articles in science and engineering research journals, give 100 presentations at engineering conferences and see at least 100 of his students go on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees.

He has exceeded each objective. Along the way he has earned five engineering teaching excellence awards (and numerous other teaching accolades), helped make ASU a leader in solid state electronics research and launched some of the university’s first online education courses.

In addition, he has given hundreds of students the valuable experience of participating in his semiconductor technology research.

The impact of his work reaches far beyond ASU, says Ferry, who also is a Regents’ Professor. Schroder has earned an international reputation for the significance of his research, while his books and courses have become models for teaching electrical engineering, Ferry says.

Schroder’s textbook “Semiconductor Material and Device Characterization” is used worldwide.

“I get e-mails from all over the world” from students and teachers using the book, he says.

“I still love to teach,” Schroder says. “I enjoy the challenge, and I like working with young people.”

Today he can bring into the classroom not only decades of experience in teaching and research, but knowledge he has gained working with technology industry leaders such as Motorola, Intel, Westinghouse Electric Corp., Sperry Flight Systems, Texas Instruments and Litton Industries. He was employed by Westinghouse for 13 years before beginning his academic career.

Demand for Schroder’s expertise has risen with such accomplishments as the technological advances made under his direction at the Center for Low-Power Electronics, which he led at ASU from 1996 to 2004.

His research team helped solve the problem of how to make integrated circuits operate more speedily while at the same controlling the excessive heat the circuits generated in the process.

The solutions he helped develop are widely applied today in the computer microprocessor industry.

Despite a typically full schedule of research pursuits and classes to teach, Schroder has answered the call numerous times over the years to help guide the development of engineering education at ASU.

“Dieter is one of those talented people who have never learned to say no,” says Heydt, another Regents’ Professor. “He is invariably elected and re-elected to departmental and universitywide committees because of his leadership qualities.”

Despite a long list of past achievements, Schroder focuses on the present and future.

“In the past, engineers could be loners and get by on expertise in one or two technical fields,” he says. “Today’s engineers must be skilled communicators and collaborators with people outside their specialties. Educating students to be engineers in the 21st century still drives me.”

Making battlefield communications better

jkullman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:39:00 -0700

Junshan Zhang is working to improve wireless communications technology with support from a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Zhang is an associate professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, a part of Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He also works in the engineering schools’ Sensor, Signal and Information Processing Center (SenSIP).

The grant of more than $600,000 will fund Zhang’s efforts to improve the reliability of communications networks under battlefield conditions.

"Battlefield wireless networks often operate under hostile conditions that include adverse radio frequency environments, interference, bursts of traffic and changing network topology,” Zhang explains. “As a result, network management of information flows in such a hostile environment often faces a number of challenges, such as network failure and compromise, and intermittent connectivity.”

There is an “urgent need to develop fundamental network science for identifying, representing and controlling information dynamics” in Department of Defense networks, Zhang says.

Advances in this area of research also promise to provide more reliability for various types of airborne and ground-based communications networks.

Zhang’s work is ASU’s part of a larger project, titled “Information Dynamics as a Foundation for Network Management,” led by Princeton University, with other research partners at the California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California- Irvine, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Zhang’s grant is part of a $7 million MURI award for the overall project.

The MURI program is designed to accelerate research and technology development that supports specific science and engineering efforts considered vital to national defense.

Writer: Chelsea Brown

Swine flu shots available to high-priority groups

mgterril — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:07:52 -0700

Arizona State University has received part of its vaccine order for the H1N1 virus (also known as swine flu). ASU students, faculty and staff members who are members of high-priority groups, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may receive a vaccine at any of the four campus Health Centers (Downtown Phoenix, Polytechnic, Tempe and West) during regular business hours.

High-priority groups include individuals age 24 and under; those caring for children under six months of age; and those with one of the following medical conditions: pregnancy, obesity, heart disease, lung disease, asthma, kidney or liver disease, diabetes or metabolic disease, anemia or blood disorder, or other immune-compromising conditions.

Students, faculty and staff must show their ASU SunCard to receive a vaccine. There is a $10 fee for the vaccine for students. ABOR Aetna Student Health Insurance will cover the cost of the vaccination for those students. Benefit-eligible employees´ administration fee will be covered in the same manner as the seasonal flu vaccinations. People who have already had H1N1 flu that has been confirmed through testing do not need to get the vaccine.

ASU health officials will update messages when vaccine is available for the general university population.

For more information, go to www.asu.edu/pandemic.

Gordon Knox named new ASU Art Museum director

wcraft — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:33:44 -0700

The ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts announced the appointment of Gordon Knox as the new director for the ASU Art Museum. Knox, currently a core collaborator for the Stanford Humanities Lab (SHL) at Stanford University, will begin his duties as museum director on a part-time basis on Jan. 11, 2010, assuming the position full-time July 1.

“Gordon Knox will be a visionary leader for the ASU Art Museum, bringing unique perspectives to the work of redefining the role and purpose of a university art museum” says Kwang-Wu Kim, dean and director of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. “Gordon has a track record of conceiving and directing creative, thought provoking, collaborative programs resulting in opportunities to effect social change and to transform our understanding about art and artists.”

Knox, whose work explores the transformative role of the arts in society, was recently recognized by Forbes Magazine for his work on collaborative projects at the SHL that brings together experts in the arts, humanities and sciences and engages them in on-the-ground efforts to effect social change. Knox brings to ASU an extensive background in establishing and developing environments that recognize and foster new talents across all art disciplines and mediums.

"Gordon Knox is deeply committed to engaging with community while connecting the museum to his broad global networks,” Kim says. “Working with our excellent curators and staff, I am confident he will engage artists and audiences in exciting, new conversations about art in the 21st century.”

Knox believes that ASU’s commitment to broad, lateral access to excellence in education defines much of the still to be explored potential of the ASU Art Museum.

“The ASU Art Museum is the right place at the right time to activate a new model of how ideas flow from the past to the present to animate the thinking of today and build the communities of tomorrow,” Knox says. “A museum’s job is to provide public access to the full range of humanity’s thinking; combining that commitment with the radical possibilities of ASU today offers the greatest imaginable opportunity. I am both honored and fully activated by being invited to join the ASU team.”

Previous to the SHL, Knox was the artistic director of the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, Calif., developing ambitious projects such as Edge of Desire, the only West Coast exhibition of a comprehensive collection of recent art from India, and FUSE, a new media collaboration with the CADRE laboratory at San Jose State University. Knox also was the founding director of the Lucas Artists Program, a residency program at Montalvo that identifies exceptional international artists and supports them as they develop new work while in residence in eleven newly designed live/work studios.

During the 1990s as the founding Director of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy, Knox envisioned and established a center for the arts designed to advance and widen the discourse of contemporary cultural practice by engaging the voices and thinking of practitioners from all parts of the world and providing them with excellent conditions to advance their work. Civitella quickly became a new model for international, multidisciplinary residency programs.

As a part of the transition to Knox’s directorship, current interim director Heather Lineberry has been named Interim Associate Director and Senior Curator, effective on Knox’s arrival. In that role, Lineberry will work closely with Knox as an administrative partner while also continuing to pursue her curatorial interests.

The ASU Art Museum continues to examine contemporary issues through multiple ongoing exhibits, highlighted by the ongoing Defining Sustainability season. Defining Sustainability is a series of dynamic and interactive projects to illustrate sustainability ideas on display at the ASU Art Museum and its Ceramics Research Center through January, 2010. Other featured exhibitions include the latest subject of the Social Studies project, Jillian McDonald: Alone Together in the Dark, and I’m Keeping an Eye On You, a video exploration of the broad and lasting effects of our curiosity in and intrusions upon others.

Comprised of a dynamic combination of disciplines, the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University is at the forefront of the investigation of creativity and creative practice shaping the 21st century. Many of the institute's programs consistently rank in the top ten of national peers and encompass over 45 areas of study within its seven schools: architecture and landscape architecture; art; arts, media and engineering; dance; design; music; and theatre and film. The ASU Art Museum, the Herberger Institute Research Center, and Future Arts Research @ ASU support our research initiatives. The Community School for Design and the Arts and our Community Engagement projects enable students and faculty to interact with the public through meaningful partnerships. To learn more about the institute, visit herbergerinstitute.asu.edu.

ASU professor creates joint invention with MIT

jabrewe — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:31:55 -0700

For Arizona State University (ASU) Professor Thomas Moore, an invitation to guest lecture became a demonstration in a lab which led to a seafood lunch – which led to a joint invention with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that contributed to a sustainable energy start-up company.

Moore had been asked to speak at a summer course taught by well-known MIT Professor Daniel Nocera and, after the lecture, Moore was invited to the MIT labs for a demonstration of a new catalyst that could split water into hydrogen and oxygen – a potential pathway to sustainable energy production. As the demonstration came to a close, the group got hungry and headed to a local seafood restaurant for lunch. Over lobster and crab, the ensuing discussion led Moore to suggest that a type of solar cell he was developing could serve as a power source to enhance the ability of the catalyst to create this reaction. And the idea for a co-invention was born.

MIT scientists had developed the catalyst and Moore, along with his co-inventors, came up with a dye-sensitized solar cell that could provide the power needed to make the system more cost-effective.

“This is what happens when scientists get together to dream,” said Moore, director of the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis and a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “A scientist’s job is to translate dreams into reality and that’s what we set in motion that day.”

Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), which manages intellectual property and technology transfer for ASU, entered into an agreement with MIT’s technology transfer office to protect and market Moore’s joint invention with MIT. MIT then licensed the joint invention – along with other inventions from MIT – to Sun Catalytix (www.suncatalytix.com), a Cambridge, Mass.-based early-stage renewable energy start up.

This progression of events is the perfect example of the value of scientific collaboration, according to AzTE Deputy Managing Director Ken Polasko.

“Rarely does one department or one institution ever hold all the solutions to the complex scientific and economic puzzles that face society today,” Polasko said. “The open nature of the University system facilitates the interaction of highly skilled researchers that, in this case, may lead to a pathway for sustainable energy production.”

Kashiwagi honored for achievement as educator

jkullman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:56:10 -0700

Arizona State University professor Dean Kashiwagi has won the International Facility Management (IFMA) Association 2009 Distinguished Educator Award, recognizing numerous accomplishments in research as well as in teaching.

Kashiwagi is a professor in the Del E. Webb School of Construction, a part of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The IFMA is the world’s largest international association for professional facility managers, supporting more than 19,500 members in 60 countries. The association’s members manage more than 37 billion square feet of property around the world.

The organization particularly cited Kashiwagi’s use of resources provided by a prestigious Fulbright Scholar grant he was awarded in 2008 to develop a project to bring state-of-the-art facility and project management research and practices to Botswana, Africa in the past year.

For details on the Botswana project, see http://engineering.asu.edu/news/2869

The award also honors Kashiwagi’s work to establish a “groundbreaking” Facilities Management Model of the Future graduate program at ASU.

Kashiwagi is the director of ASU’s Performance Based Studies Research Group. It focuses on applying concepts for improving efficiency and performance, and minimizing risk, in project management, as well as for organizations and businesses.

Winners of the IFMA’s Awards of Excellence were presented in October at the organization’s annual banquet, part of IFMA’s World Workplace 2009 Conference & Expo at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Documentary film on mud volcano launches in Arizona

nstaab — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The School of Earth and Space Exploration hosted a symposium "Living with the Planet" Nov. 13 that featured the premiere screening of the documentary film "Mud Max: Investigative Documentary - Sidoardjo Mud Volcano Disaster."

The event included a panel discussion with earth scientists from leading European and American institutions, which concluded that the cause of the Sidoardjo mud volcano disaster (also known as LUSI) is still inconclusive.

No disaster in recent history has received as much attention nor created as much controversy as that of LUSI, the world's fastest growing mud volcano in Indonesia that suddenly erupted on May 29, 2006. Dubbed LUSI as a compendium of the Indonesian word for mud (lumpur) and the East Java town near which LUSI was born (Sidoarjo), the phenomenon has been a unique disaster. The hot mud, which first began spewing from the earth following a powerful earthquake and nearby exploration drilling, is still pouring forth at the rate of up to 150,000 cubic meters per day. Some 40,000 residents living near the eruption have lost their homes, belongings and, in some cases livelihoods and lives. Whole villages have been inundated with mud, infrastructures destroyed and reputations ruined.

International experts have been divided over the cause of the mud eruption. The early point of views favored the theory that the nearby drilling activity may have triggered the eruption, but others, after having time for considerable scientific investigation, support the idea that seismic activity linked to an earthquake just two days before the mud eruption began could have been the likely cause.

While conducting research in Indonesia, Amanda Clarke, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was interviewed by the film crew creating the documentary film ‘Mud Max.' The project was produced over a 27-month period by the British company Immodicus in conjunction with the School of Earth and Space Exploration and involved researchers, geologists, drilling experts and scientists whom explore the facts of the tragic, on-going disaster including the scientific, economic, humanitarian and political issues that have made LUSI the talk of the geophysical world. The film aims to highlight the facts and views from every side, but leaves the decision to the viewer as to what caused the mud volcano eruption.

Rather than pointing fingers and dwelling on the causes of the eruption, the Living with the Planet panelists emphasized the importance of seeking out solutions and using LUSI to learn from.

Panel member Jonathan Fink, professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and director of the Center for Sustainability Science Applications, pointed out that volcanology is a relatively young science that requires observations of active eruptions to advance knowledge.

"Mud volcanism of the scale of LUSI has rarely if ever been seen before, so volcanologists may not be able to answer all of the questions that policy makers and the public want to know," explains Fink. "Each eruption teaches us something new, so LUSI may help scientists interpret future mud events."

Adriano Mazzini, a researcher at the Physics of Geological Processes Centre of Excellence (University of Oslo), whose research has focused on mud volcanoes, has conducted extensive research on LUSI during his three visits.

"Our results support a scenario where the strike-slip movement of the Watukosek fault triggered the Lusi eruption and synchronous seep activity witnessed at other mud volcanoes along the same fault," says Mazzini. "The possibility that drilling contributed to trigger the eruption cannot be excluded. However, so far, no univocal data support the drilling hypothesis, and a blow-out scenario can neither explain the dramatic changes that affected the plumbing system of numerous seep systems on Java after the May 27 earthquake."

Preparing for and reacting quickly to natural disasters such as LUSI requires both deep knowledge of the broader Earth system context and careful monitoring of biological, chemical, and physical processes.

"The development of effective environmental monitoring systems has not progressed very far as yet, and Indonesia - with its complex geology and high risk of natural hazards - would be an excellent place to develop and test state-of-the-art monitoring technologies," says Kip Hodges, director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration. "The School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU is establishing itself as one of the premier centers for such technology development. We are very excited to explore opportunities to work with our friends in Indonesia to develop world-class hazard monitoring systems for deployment in their country."

The school sees an important aspect of such collaboration as being a cooperative educational program that would provide opportunities for bright young Indonesian students to receive training at ASU in science and engineering, such that they can return to Indonesia and play leadership roles in developing a strong intellectual foundation for Indonesia in Earth system science and engineering.

According to Clarke and other panel members, the region around LUSI is very complex geologically, making prediction of future mud activity difficult at best.

"Real-time and/or continuous monitoring of several key geophysical, geochemical and volcanological parameters will provide data to help understand the phenomenon," she says. "This type of campaign, coupled with context gained from detailed study of the area's geologic past, may help scientists predict LUSI's future."

Feller quoted in 'Capitol Times'

shibner — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:15:29 -0700

A Nov. 5 article in the Arizona Capitol Times about a recent court ruling that could have fundamentally changed water law in the state included comments from Professor Joe Feller, of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

In the article, "SRP loses again in Prescott water ranch case," Feller told reporter Jim Small that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Oberbillig's assessment of existing law seem appropriate. The judge said the utility was asking him to ignore clearly written parts of the Groundwater Management Act, and noted that, if the law needs to be changed, the legislature is the branch of government that should do it.

The law is constitutional, Feller said, "But there's a big difference between being constitutional and being well-thought-out. This (law) does not seem well-thought-out."

To read the full article, click here.

Feller teaches Water Law, Natural Resources Law and Property. Since joining the College in 1987, Professor Feller also has taught Civil Procedure, Western River Management: Law & Science, Western Forest and Range Management: Law & Science, and the Civil Practice Clinic. He currently is on leave, serving as senior counsel to the National Wildlife Federation in its Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center in Boulder, Colo.

Janie Magruder, Jane.Magruder@asu.edu
(480) 727-9052
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Rittmann makes big challenges seem small

jkullman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:52:37 -0700

ASU’s Bruce Rittmann is living large and small at the same time.

He’s tackling some of the world’s biggest and most critical technological challenges with some of the tiniest tools.

Rittman directs the Center for Environmental Biotechnology in ASU’s Biodesign Institute and is a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

His biotechnology endeavors focus on microorganisms. These bacteria, algae, archaea and protozoa are too small to be seen by the naked eye, but have a huge impact on the ecology of the Earth and health of its inhabitants.

He and his research partners are using microorganisms to develop ways of providing the world more abundant and clean energy, ensuring the quality of water resources and improving human health.

Progress in the laboratory, along with knowledge of advances in biotechnology that Rittmann brings to the classroom, earned him a Regents’ Professor title earlier this year. It’s the highest honor bestowed on faculty at Arizona’s state universities.

Groundbreaking advances

Since coming to ASU five years ago, after more than a decade at Northwestern University, Rittmann has cemented his standing as a pioneer in work that combines engineering with chemistry and microbiology.

His textbook on environmental biotechnology, co-written with Perry McCarty, a Stanford University emeritus professor, is used in universities throughout the world.

Rittmann’s research results have had demonstrable widespread impact, says Peter Fox, an environmental engineering professor at ASU.

“Bruce’s work on the kinetics and design of biofilm reactors is groundbreaking,” he says. “It’s the basis for hundreds of design models used for practical design and fundamental research. His use of molecular biology for the analysis of biological reactors has become common practice today.“

Neal Woodbury, the deputy director of the Biodesign Institute, calls Rittmann “astounding for his ability to integrate the concepts of microbial ecology, fuel cell technology, water remediation and alternative energy together into a coherent package.”

Rittmann is extraordinary for more the “amazing range” of his expertise, says Paul Westerhoff, the interim director of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

“Bruce is envisioning large-scale, long-range solutions that have the potential to greatly improve our environment,” Westerhoff says. “He is defining new frontiers in environmental biotechnology, and he is making this possible through his skill in collaborating with colleagues and mentoring students who are working in diverse areas of engineering and science. This productive interaction is Bruce’s signature trait. He motivates people to learn and contribute.”

In 2004, Rittmann was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a recipient of the Clarke Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Water Science and Technology, a winner of the prestigious Huber Research Prize and the Freese Award from American Society of Civil Engineers, and among some of the world’s most highly cited researchers in science and engineering journals.

Living in a microbial world

Those achievements stem largely from the depth and diversity of the work he describes simply as “managing microorganisms to provide service” to society.

He’s talking about an especially broad range of services.

Manipulating things at the microbial level is enabling development of renewable bioenergy resources that cause much less pollution than conventional fossil fuels.

For example, microbial fuel cells have the potential to provide clean energy by directly producing electricity or hydrogen from organic matter in waste streams.

Rittmann also is improving methods for removing an array of contaminants from water.

Such promising advances achieved by Rittmann and dozens of other engineers, chemists and biologists at ASU are attracting support from numerous public and private sources.

The reach extends into the medical realm. Rittmann and colleagues are partners with the Mayo Clinic in exploring links between the “microbial populations” in the human body and the risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, among other diseases and maladies.

Facing the avalanche

When he earned his doctorate in environmental engineering from Stanford University three decades ago, the areas in which Rittmann specializes were only just emerging from their infancy. Today, he says, these fields are exploding – giving engineers a sense of exhilaration but also intensifying their challenges.

“With all the new things arising so rapidly from science and engineering, our students need to learn all the old, fundamental things but they also need to know about the avalanche of new knowledge.”

On top of that, scientists and engineers who want to succeed in today’s working environment “need to be good communicators, writers and speakers, learn to work in teams and know about business,” Rittman says. “It’s a tumultuous time for us.”