Sustainability Institute Names Faculty Research Leaders

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March 7, 2019

By Olivia Smith

As the Sustainability Institute facilitates and elevates interdisciplinary, convergent research at Ohio State, it is honing in on key research program areas toward addressing global challenges of sustainability.

“Sustainability is an inherently interdisciplinary topic that transcends any single academic unit, discipline or sector,” says Elena Irwin, faculty director of the Sustainability Institute. “The complexity of the sustainability challenges facing the world require deep integration across a breadth of disciplines, including natural and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, engineering, public health, business, law, planning, policy, arts and humanities.”

The first research program priorities — Healthy Land, Water and Air Systems, Sustainable Energy, and Smart and Resilient Communities — were identified on the basis of the research strengths and expertise of existing Ohio State faculty across multiple disciplines that relate to these areas. These areas also represent pressing sustainability challenges here in Ohio as well as globally and offer strong potential for external partnerships. Each program area will be co-led by two faculty members who will provide research leadership by working with other faculty to develop specific areas of focus, build research networks and interdisciplinary teams, and develop proposals that advance interdisciplinary research and applications.

Jay Martin, food, agricultural and biological engineering, and Linda Weavers, civil, environmental and geodetic engineering, will lead the Healthy Land, Water and Air Systems program area. Researchers in this area will pursue integrated research and modeling to ensure the current and future sustainability of land and water systems and the ecosystems and communities that depend on these systems. An Ohio Sea Grant/Stone Lab researcher, Martin seeks to use natural systems to improve water quality and increase sustainability. Weavers is co-director of the Ohio Water Resources Center.

Headed by Jeff Bielicki, civil, environmental and geodetic engineering and John Glenn College of Public Affairs, and David Cole, earth sciences, the Sustainable Energy program area will develop technologies, infrastructure, institutions and behaviors needed to transition energy systems toward improved energy efficiency, a greater mix of renewable resources and an affordable, resilient and reliable power grid. Bielicki leads Ohio State’s Energy Sustainability Research Laboratory. Cole is director of CERTAIN, the Center for Energy Research, Training and Innovation at Ohio State.

Gulsah Akar, city and regional planning, and Harvey Miller, geography, will lead the Smart and Resilient Communities program area to improve the well-being and resilience of communities through digital technologies and adaptation strategies for changing environmental, economic and social conditions. Akar conducts research on travel demand analysis and choice modeling; Miller is director of the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis.

These three thematic program areas are just the beginning of collaborative areas the Sustainability Institute will support to develop sustainability research and applications while working with community partners to develop sustainability solutions to local, regional and global challenges.

Olivia Smith is a student communications assistant at the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State.