Skip to main content

Environment

Materials scientist Cécile Chazot and her team are striving to boost the functionality of polymers and design new, more sustainable materials — ones that not only are functional and high-performing but also can be manufactured with a far lower carbon footprint and recycled more easily.

Learn more about Chazot’s research

A white machine holds a spool of thread.

Tough on Turf

Spring 2025
Conservation scientist Becky Barak ’12 MS, ’17 PhD is exploring alternatives to conventional turf lawns. She shares her path to research and her passion for conservation and restoration.

Read Barak’s essay

Becky Barak sits cross-legged in the dirt with a green clipboard on her lap and a pen in hand. Native plants can be seen in the forefront of the image, with tall green trees in the background.
A new fellowship program is helping Northwestern MBA and graduate students address the urgent challenges of climate change. The Abrams Climate Academy will empower the next generation of leaders in business, science, engineering, product design, communication, law and public service to act on climate problems.

Learn more about the academy

A student speaks with her hand raised at the Kellogg Climate Conference, as two students watch her in the background.
The Block of Museum of Art’s Woven Being exhibit showcases Chicagoland’s many Indigenous art histories, with more than 80 works of various materials — including painting, basket weaving, bead work, sculpture, photography and mixed media.

Read the story

An acrylic painting of humanoid creatures, painted in blue, red, green and tan.

Bird Watcher

Winter 2025
Photographer and avid birder Collin Porter ’24 spent his days at Northwestern going on early-morning bird walks, during which he spotted 196 unique avian species on the Evanston campus. As he prepares to pursue graduate studies in ecological and evolutionary research and ornithology, he shares his photographs with the hope that they will inspire others to seek out and marvel at the diversity of birds, both on campus and beyond.

Get into bird-watching

Photo of a white and brown striped bird in a tree.
The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation has launched a new course, Innovate for Climate, which encourages students to engage in climate-conscious problem-solving and business ventures.

Read about the course

Ben Szczygiel holds a large yellow buoy fitted with solar panels on its side while Sydney Williams observes. There is a waterway in the background, with a truck and boat parked nearby. Szczygiel is wearing a red long sleeve shirt, blue baseball cap and sunglasses, and Williams is wearing a lavender sweatshirt.
Ryan Cook ’12 and Mitch Lee ’11 met at Northwestern, where they both studied mechanical engineering, and later worked together at Boeing. They co-founded Arc in 2021, and in early 2024 the company unveiled its first mass-market model, the Arc Sport, a high-performance EV boat designed for wake sports.

Learn more about Arc

Three people sit aboard the Arc Sport EV boat. A woman wake boarder in a silver suit rides on a board behind the boat. Her back is to the viewer. There are green trees in the background.
In May, Northwestern sent six student representatives to join the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project. The students spent a week under the Alaskan early summer sun near Prince of Wales Island, where they cleared beaches of 15,000 pounds of marine debris.

Read more about the field trip

The research vessel Island C serves as a mother ship and platform for the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project's collection expeditions in southwest Alaska. The white vessel is anchored in open water. There is a small vessel tethered to the larger boat. Crew members wear yellow jackets. here are snow-capped mountains in the background.
Co-founded by Andrew Youn ’06 MBA, ’19 H, One Acre Fund is a nonprofit that provides training and equipment to 4 million farm families across nine countries in eastern and southern Africa.

Read Youn’s essay

A black and white pencil-drawn illustration of Andrew Youn wearing rectangular glasses and smiling at the viewer.
From Mali to Greenland, these Northwestern researchers are studying tiny creatures and sometimes unseen changes to develop important research conclusions.

Learn about the research

Map hero