Redefining Environmental Engineering and Science in the 21st Century

重新定义21世纪的环境工程与科学

• 批准号: 1602500
• 负责人: Gregory Characklis
• 金额: $ 4.95万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-02-01 至 2018-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1602500&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Redefining; Environmental; Engineering; Science; 21st

1602500CharacklisThe discipline of Environmental Engineering and Science has deep roots, with sanitary engineering programs proliferating throughout the first half of the 1900's and progressively transitioning to present-day water, wastewater, solid waste and air programs in the 1960's and 70's. Much of this progression resulted from the nation's first set of comprehensive environmental regulatory initiatives, especially the Clean Air Act (1970), Clean Water Act (1972), Safe Drinking Water Act (1974) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability ("Superfund") Act (1980), as well as their subsequent amendments. These Acts funded both research and infrastructure investments that transformed the treatment and provision of water and wastewater, while also contributing to dramatic improvements in the quality of the nation's air and water. There has been rapid expansion in interest sustainability (among others) and a growing number of faculty have modified their research and teaching interests to encompass these topics, but thus far these efforts have largely been at the individual level.To date, there have been few environmental engineering and science community-wide initiatives to consider the implications of this changing landscape on the discipline's research agenda, curricula (undergraduate and graduate), and academic identity. Accompanying these changes has been an explosion of student interest and activity in international (mostly developing world) environmental challenges, but research support in this area remains modest. As a result, community discussion is urgently needed to proactively define the scope and direction of our discipline in this changing landscape. This discussion should address future research and teaching agendas, an increased alignment between research and current funding mechanisms, and expansion into new funding areas. Each of these topics is important for maintaining the future vitality of our discipline as we seek to build a strong foundation that will allow us to train students, impact public policy and provide innovative solutions to the world's most vexing environmental challenges. The PIs propose to organize and host two workshops that will facilitate a national conversation intended to better define the Environmental Engineering and Science discipline for the 21st century. Currently we envision workshops in the Los Angeles and Washington, DC areas, to be held in January and May 2016. These workshops will include a group of invited speakers who will give brief presentations designed to provoke discussion on issues related to frontier areas of research, funding trends, adaptation of curricula, future workforce needs, and current/future regulatory initiatives. The goal is to solicit input from the broader community and then synthesize the discussions to develop suggestions for how individuals, academic units (Departments, Schools) and our professional organization, the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), can best implement change.

环境工程与科学学科有着深厚的根基，卫生工程项目在20世纪上半叶激增，并在20世纪60年代和70年代逐步过渡到今天的水、废水、固体废物和空气项目。这一进步很大程度上源于国家第一套全面的环境监管举措，特别是《清洁空气法》（1970年）、《清洁水法》（1972年）、《安全饮用水法》（1974年）和《综合环境反应、赔偿和责任法》（1980年），以及它们随后的修正案。这些法案资助了研究和基础设施投资，改变了水和废水的处理和供应，同时也大大改善了国家的空气和水的质量。在兴趣可持续性（以及其他方面）方面迅速扩大，越来越多的教师修改了他们的研究和教学兴趣，以涵盖这些主题，但到目前为止，这些努力主要是在个人层面上。迄今为止，很少有环境工程和科学社区范围内的倡议来考虑这种变化的景观对学科研究议程、课程（本科生和研究生）和学术认同的影响。伴随着这些变化的是学生对国际（主要是发展中国家）环境挑战的兴趣和活动的爆炸式增长，但这一领域的研究支持仍然有限。因此，在这个不断变化的环境中，迫切需要社区讨论来积极地定义我们学科的范围和方向。这一讨论应涉及未来的研究和教学议程、研究与当前资助机制之间的更多一致性，以及向新的资助领域的扩展。这些主题中的每一个对于保持我们学科的未来活力都很重要，因为我们正在寻求建立一个坚实的基础，使我们能够培养学生，影响公共政策，并为世界上最棘手的环境挑战提供创新的解决方案。PIs提议组织和主办两个研讨会，以促进旨在更好地定义21世纪环境工程与科学学科的全国性对话。目前，我们预计将于2016年1月和5月在洛杉矶和华盛顿特区举办研讨会。这些研讨会将包括一组受邀演讲者，他们将做简短的演讲，旨在引发有关研究前沿领域、资助趋势、课程适应、未来劳动力需求和当前/未来监管举措等问题的讨论。我们的目标是从更广泛的社区中征求意见，然后综合讨论，为个人、学术单位（系、学院）和我们的专业组织——环境工程与科学教授协会（AEESP）——如何最好地实施变革提出建议。