Environmental Engineering & Toxicology

“I was initially pretty skeptical of the entire idea [of pivoting to fertilizer],” Kevin Kung says. “I didn’t think it was feasible. But the local team really proved me wrong and has validated the improved yield and the impact on farmers. For me, it’s been an inspiring journey.”

Community-based hydropower — such as pico, micro, and mini hydro — has provided socio-economic and environmental benefits to thousands of off-grid communities in the Asia Pacific, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, long before central grids have reached them. Dipti Vaghela was recently interviewed by International Rivers on key aspects of community-scale micro hydropower (MHP).

Nithya Ramanathan's organization Nexleaf Analytics is one of the recipients of new grants for innovative data- and AI-driven approaches that support digital transformation of health systems and healthcare across the globe.

Dustin Mulvaney is presenting a webinar on Wednesday, Dec 8, 2021 to the IEEE’s Santa Clara Valley Sustainability Chapter on Labor, Land, and Waste Across the Life Cycle of Solar Power.

Globally, we generate $120 billion of agricultural waste every year. What farmers cannot sell, they often burn, with catastrophic consequences for human health and the environment. Takachar has developed a cheap, small-scale, portable technology that attaches to tractors in remote farms. The award-winning machine converts crop residues into sellable bio-products like fuel and fertilizer, and reduces smoke emissions by up to 98%.

Jeremy Poindexter has taken a position as Senior Battery Engineer, Automative Programs, for Sila Nanotechnologies Inc. Through new battery materials chemistry, Sila Nano produces high energy density lithium-ion batteries for mass adoption of electric vehicles, smarter, longer-lasting portable electronics, and broader use of renewable power sources. Congratulations, Jeremy!

Karen Merritt was part of an environmental engineering study resulting in a proposed settlement to clean up mercury contamination in the Penobscot River.

Refrigerators do much more than store your groceries -- they're also vital to preserving and distributing vaccines. Illustrating the realities of (and threats to) global vaccine supply chains, technologist, TED Fellow and Switzer Fellow Nithya Ramanathan describes how smart sensors placed in fridges that store medical supplies can provide crucial, real-time data and ensure people get the life-saving care they need.