Environment
According to the American Lung Association, nearly half of all Americans live in counties that have unhealthy levels of air pollution. Northwestern alumni and faculty break down how air pollution travels from smokestacks and tailpipes into the atmosphere, how it negatively impacts our health, and what must change to improve Americans’ access to clean air.
After Parker Levinson ’18 graduated from Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences with degrees in environmental science and African studies, her job search took her down a less traditional path: a field research gig studying primates and leatherback sea turtles in a jungle on an island off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, in central Africa. Almost two years later, Levinson is preparing for her third field season in Antartica, studying penguins and seals.
Lithium is the lightest metal on the periodic table and can charge quickly into a variety of electrode materials, making it uniquely valuable for batteries. Lilac Solutions aims to deliver a sustainable solution to the global lithium-supply problem.
Student Saif Bhatti relied on Northwestern connections to develop a smart listening device that might slow illegal poaching. After meeting first with his computer science and mechatronics professors, he’s turned to more than a dozen faculty, students and staff at McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the University’s Global Learning Office for support to get the project off the ground.
You can tell a lot about a poacher by the way they dehorn a rhinoceros — was the horn hacked off crudely or was it removed skillfully with a sharp, scalpel-like instrument? As Saif Bhatti bumped along the dirt back roads of Thornybush Game Reserve in South Africa, he was unsure which one they might find.
Northwestern students, alumni and professors share insights into their research and performance around the world.
Earth and planetary sciences graduate students Leah Salditch and Molly Gallahue spent a week in September hunting down earthquake anecdotes on California excursion. The memories they gathered will help inform state hazard maps of quake-vulnerable areas.
Lillian Hoodes ’13 MA is helping to fix a common problem for environmentally aware hikers: how to pack nutritious food when headed out on the trail. Hoodes is co-founder and CEO of TrailFork, a company dedicated to providing outdoor adventurers with sustainably packaged and healthy dehydrated food.
Lake Michigan, the immense body of fresh water whose shimmering beauty convinced Northwestern’s founders that this was the place to build the University, has been under threat since the early 20th century. Northwestern researchers, students and alumni are discovering solutions for water quality issues and climate change challenges in the Great Lakes region.
If you drive by or stroll along the lakefront on the Evanston campus on a regular basis, you might have noticed that the color of Lake Michigan has been changing the past few years. While most of the time the water is a familiar slate blue-gray or brown-green color, there are days when it turns a Caribbean blue, almost turquoise.
