2024 Northwestern Sustainability Lecturers

ENERGY

DOUG AITKEN, PH.D.

General Manager of the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland

Doug is a Civil and Environmental Engineer with a PhD from The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. His areas of specialization include sustainable mining practices, bioenergy production pathways, life cycle analysis, integrated water resource management, socio-environmental risk and opportunity analysis, and strategy development and implementation. He has gained academic experience through his doctoral work in the design and analysis of sustainable bioenergy systems and post-doctoral research on the sustainability and economics of water management in the mining industry. His professional experience has been in the development and management of interdisciplinary and collaborative industrial research and development projects that deliver solutions encompassing the principles of long-term sustainability. He is currently the Executive Director of the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute International Centre of Excellence in Chile, SMI-ICE-Chile, setting the strategic direction of the Centre and supporting the R&D teams in the development and execution of research projects focused on improving industry practices and working towards a sustainable global mineral supply chain.

Lecture: Hero or Villain? The Role of the Mining Industry in the Climate Crisis and What Can Be Done to Influence a Positive Outcome

 

ANDERS NORDELÖF​, PH.D.

Associate Professor, Chalmers University of Technology

Anders Nordelöf is associate professor and senior researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, and affiliated senior advisor at the Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo, Norway. He uses life cycle assessment (LCA) and other environmental systems analysis tools to investigate how technologies for electric propulsion and non-fossil fuel alternatives change the environmental impacts of vehicles, mainly those on the road, but also ships and aircrafts. Additionally, he studies electronics and solutions for storing and converting energy for other applications than vehicles. The aim of his research is to provide advice for the development of technology with reduced environmental burdens and increased long-term sustainability. It includes both in-depth technical mapping of all stages of the product life cycle, as well as an overall systems perspective on environmental and health challenges, now and in the future. Methodological development of LCA is another important part of his research.

Lecture: Guiding Vehicle Electrification Technologies Towards Sustainability

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

TODDI A. STEELMAN, PH.D.

Professor, Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Duke University

Dr. Toddi Steelman is Vice President and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability at Duke University. She is the administrative and academic lead for the Duke Climate Commitment—a university wide initiative to unite Duke’s education, research, operations, and public service missions to engage the entire community in the pursuit of climate change solutions. She previously served as Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment (2018-2023). She is best known as a wildland fire expert and has brought her expertise to bear in a variety of venues including the Royal Society (UK), National Academy of Sciences (US) and as an invited keynote speaker in Portugal, Canada, Germany, Australia, and the United States. She a past-President of the International Association of Wildland Fire. Her research agenda has focused on understanding community responses to wildfire, wildland fire communication and how communities and agencies interact for more effective wildfire management on large, interjurisdictionally complex wildfires. The author of four books, Steelman has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, as well as opinion and editorial pieces in Nature, the Globe and Mail, The Hill and the Los Angeles Times.

Lecture: Wildfire Futures: Potential Paths for Change

 

KIM COBB, PH.D.

Professor, Environment, Society & Earth, Lawrence and Barbara Margolis Director of IBES, Brown University

Kim Cobb is the Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society at Brown University, and Professor in Environment and Society as well as Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences. As a climate scientist, she uses observations of past and present climate to advance our understanding of future climate change impacts, with a focus on climate extremes and coastal flooding. She received her B.A. from Yale University in 1996, and her Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in 2002. Prior to joining Brown in 2022, she served as Director of the Global Change Program at Georgia Tech, Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and ADVANCE Professor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In her research, Kim has sailed on oceanographic cruises to the remote central Pacific and led caving expeditions in the Borneo rainforests. She received a NSF CAREER Award, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the Hans Oeschger Medal from the European Geosciences Union in 2019.

Lecture: Going “All In” — Activating for Climate Solutions In a Warming World

URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS

BRIAN STONE JR.​, PH.D.

Professor and Director, Urban Climate Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology

Brian Stone Jr. is a Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he teaches urban environmental planning and directs the Urban Climate Lab. Stone’s program of research is focused on urban scale drivers of climate change and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and US Environmental Protection Agency. His work on urbanization and climate change is regularly featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on National Public Radio. He is author of The City and the Coming Climate: Climate Change in the Places We Live, which received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award, and the recently published Radical Adaptation: Transforming Cities for a Climate Changed World (Cambridge University Press). Stone holds degrees in environmental management and urban planning from Duke University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Lecture: Radical Adaptation: Transforming Cities for a Climate-Changed World

 

EMILY TALEN​, PH.D.

Professor and Director, Urbanism Lab, University of Chicago

Emily Talen is Professor of Urbanism at the University of Chicago, where she teaches urban design and directs the Urbanism Lab. She holds a PhD in urban geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Talen has written extensively on the topics of urban design, New Urbanism, and social equity. Her books include New Urbanism and American Planning, Design for Diversity, Urban Design Reclaimed, City Rules, Neighborhood, and Our Urban Future.

Lecture: What Cities Say: A Social Interpretation of Urban Patterns and Forms