Our EWC seminar on this Fri Sep 27 will feature Dr. Nancy Love from the Univ of Michigan, who will discuss: “Environmental Engineering and Science Academic Scholarship in Service to Society: Our Role and Responsibility.” An abstract is included below. This is a special seminar as part of the AAEES Kappe Lecture Series, and so we will meet at a special time and place — please join us in Mann 307 from 3-4pm.

Title: Environmental Engineering and Science Academic Scholarship in Service to Society: Our Role and Responsibility

Speaker: Dr. Nancy Love, University of Michigan

Abstract: Academic scholarship in environmental engineering and science is most often associated with research around environmental science and technology – research that often involves physical or computational experiments – and sometimes occurs in nature or with full-scale engineered systems. Our discipline also has a growing contribution around the scholarship of learning and teaching, which has driven pedagogical advancements to the betterment of students and the organizations that hire them. A third wave of scholarship in the environmental engineering and science discipline that is seeing rapid growth relates to community-engaged research, learning and outreach. An increasing number of colleges are advocating that faculty and students do more work in service to society; in this way, universities are helping to motivate the third wave. Community-engaged work takes various forms, from research in partnership with communities, service-learning oriented courses, and professional outreach through institutions (e.g., civic organizations, professional associations). Many faculty and students undertake this third kind of scholarship with good intentions; however, they have typically received little to no training for it, and few to no processes, standards or certification methods are in place that explicitly focus on ensuring our work in communities is done in a manner that is respectful, mutually beneficial and does no harm. During this talk, I will review the history and status of standards, ethics codes and other methods that are designed to protect the public while allowing for valid modes of public scholarship in service to society, with an emphasis on environmental engineering and science academia. I will use case studies to highlight exemplary projects that met the community and academic goals in a mutually beneficial way. I will close with recommendations that highlight needs as our discipline more fully embraces scholarship in service to society.