We propose: 

• Curricular innovations including integrated environmental courses and curricula which will create avenues for interdisciplinary and liberal education for undergraduates and graduate students as well as meeting the need for solid educational preparation in environmental problem solving and critical thinking,

   

• A roadmap for faculty replacement and additions which will invigorate current divisions while servicing environmental curricula and stimulating interdisciplinary research in four selected areas:
  1. Society, urban metabolism, and industry;
  2. Ecosystems and natural resources;
  3. Surficial Processes; and
  4. Atmospheric Processes.

   

• Establishment of a Steering Committee for Environmental Programs which will serve as a curriculum-based, campus-wide focal point for coordination of coursework and curricula, a forum for intellectual inquiry and discussion, and a source of information on opportunities for study and research on the environment at Rice University.

CAMPUS-WIDE INITIATIVES

1) Facilitate and expand the avenues for undergraduates to study and do research on environmental topics.

2) Use the environmental theme as a common thread in enhancing our graduate programs

3) Establish a Steering Committee for Environmental Programs

4) Coordinate the development of faculty expertise across campus in four selected areas

INSTITUTE-BASED INITIATIVES

1) Coordinate activities of Rice’s environmental teaching faculty with activities in the Energy and Environmental Systems Institute.

2) Encourage the development and instruction in the use of tools in Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology with an eye towards environmental applications.

SCHOOL- BASED INITIATIVES

1) Develop resources in Environmental Policy in the School of Social Sciences

2) Develop Corporate Environmental Management as a theme in the Jones School

3) Develop Ecology and Earth Systems as a theme in the School of Natural Sciences

4) Develop the Study of Cultures and Environment in the Humanities

5) Encourage the participation of the Architecture School in work on urban growth, land use and civil infrastructure.

6) Develop and coordinate environmental expertise throughout the School of Engineering

6a) Build on existing strengths in Environmental Science and Engineering

6b) Bring cutting edge developments in computational mathematics, statistics, and system modeling to bear on environmental problem solving

6c) Develop Transportation and Civil Infrastructure as a theme within Civil Engineering

6d) Develop Pollution Prevention as theme within Chemical Engineering

6e) Explore combustion and fluid mechanics as themes for interaction with Mechanical Engineering

6f) Involve Rice’s Electrical Engineers in developing new sensors for environmental monitoring.

Engineering

8. Air pollution modeling

9. Solid and hazardous waste management

10. Environmental fate and transport

11. Water resources

12. Separation processes

13. Pollution prevention/ benign processing/materials

14. Transportation

15. Civil infrastructure

16. Combustion chemistry or computational fluid dynamics

17. Environmental statistics

6) Develop and coordinate environmental expertise throughout the School of Engineering

6a) Build on existing strengths in Environmental Science and Engineering

• 3 positions
  • Oxidation chemistry/ or Hydrology
  • Atmospheric transport
  • Environmental Microbiology

6b) Bring cutting edge developments in computational mathematics, statistics, and system modeling to bear on environmental problem solving

• 2 positions
  • Environmental Statistics
  • Stochastic PDE’s

6c) Develop Transportation and Civil Infrastructure as a theme within Civil Engineering

• 1-2 positions
  • Transportation
  • Engineering Economics or Fluid Mechanics

6d) Develop Pollution Prevention as theme within Chemical Engineering

• 2 positions- polymer and colloidal systems, catalysis

6e) Explore combustion and fluid mechanics as themes for interaction with Mechanical Engineering

• 2 positions
  • Environmental Fluid Mechanics
  • Experimental Fluid Mechanics

6f) Involve Rice’s Electrical Engineers in developing new sensors for environmental monitoring.

6f) Involve Rice’s Electrical Engineers and Material Science group(s) in developing new materials, sensors for environmental monitoring/ applications of nanotechnology.