A forum, entitled The Many Facets of Sustainable Development supported by the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate (MPS) Divisions of Materials Research (DMR), Chemistry (CHE), and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA), as well as the Engineering (ENG) Directorate Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) will be held April 9, 2012 at the Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting in San Francisco. The primary objective of this forum is to introduce different perspectives on sustainable development to a community comprising chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and engineers from many disciplines. The forum will place a special emphasis on developing the viewpoints of economists, social scientists, industrial ecologists, and resource experts to help create a holistic approach in the field of sustainable development. In particular, the forum goals are well aligned with the Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative and many other disciplinary programs across NSF.
NON TECHNICAL
This forum will have broader impacts by fostering a holistic approach toward the science and engineering of sustainable development. Many researchers working in the field of sustainable development (e.g. industrial ecology, economics, social and behavioral sciences) are currently not part of the materials science and engineering community at large. Typically, they do not attend the conferences that are centered around the materials community. The broader impact of this forum will be significant in that it would provide a platform to connect these experts and their outstanding work and create opportunities to integrate their ideas into the materials community. The forum will feature a diverse set of speakers and panelists, including women, underrepresented minorities, and early-career scientists. The forum will expose a national and international group of researchers to the field of sustainable development. This group includes academic faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, post docs, and industrial and government researchers in all fields of science and engineering. The forum will foster new interdisciplinary, and potentially transformative, collaborations in this important research area. Thus, the broader impact on education, research and training of faculty members as well as graduate and undergraduate students will be substantial.
Many researchers working in the field of sustainable development are currently not part of the materials science and engineering community at large. Typically, they do not attend the conferences that are centered around the materials community. The broader impacts of this forum were significant in that it provided a platform to connect these experts and their outstanding work and created opportunities to integrate their ideas into the materials community. The forum featured a diverse set of speakers and panelists, including women, underrepresented minorities, and early-career scientists. The forum exposed a national and international group of researchers to the field of sustainable development. This group included academic faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, post docs, and industrial and government researchers in all fields of science and engineering. The forum fostered new interdisciplinary, and potentially transformative, collaborations in this important research area. Thus, the broader impact on education, research and training of faculty members as well as graduate and undergraduate students was substantial. The goal of this forum was to encourage a holistic approach toward the science and engineering of sustainable development. Through keynote presentations and case-study panel discussions, the forum covered broad aspects of the field of sustainable development from viewpoints outside of materials science, including industrial ecology, water resources, social science, economy, and venture capital. By bringing topics outside materials science to bear on sustainability issues, we introduced the materials community to a more complete understanding of the way diverse disciplines play a role in solving complex problems in sustainable development. This day-long event accompanied the release of the special issue of the MRS Bulletin on "Materials for Sustainable Development," www.mrs.org/bulletin-april-2012/. While the special issue of the MRS Bulletin focused on the technical areas of manufacturing, transportation infrastructure, and energy and water, this forum included speakers from other fields, such as economics, industrial ecology, and venture capital to speak in the morning session.
