Education
Throughout the curriculum and beyond the classroom, LMU students and faculty are at the forefront of education and research on sustainability issues. How would you like to build a vehicle with a fuel efficiency of 313.4 miles per gallon, travel through South America researching sustainable banking, or take a course on global warming with a professor who recently shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore and the IPCC? Or perhaps study the Ballona Wetlands, which lies adjacent to LMU’s campus and is one of the last remaining coastal wetlands ecosystems in Southern California.
Below you will find information on select student projects , faculty and academic offerings .
Students
LMU Students Create Fuel-Efficient Vehicle
Eighteen LMU senior mechanical engineering students recently participated in the 2008 Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition. The contest challenged students from around the world to create vehicles that will travel the farthest distance with the least amount of fuel. LMU placed 15th among 29 universities. This year marked the second year that Shell organized the competition, and it was LMU’s first year as a participant.
As part of a mechanical engineering design class, the LMU team designed and built an entire vehicle. It was a one-person, highly aerodynamic vehicle. Students were exposed to many of the issues that an engineer faces in the workplace, such as design conceptualization, design changes and manufacturing processes. They also worked closely with many industrial sponsors who provided the components and were the financial contributors of the project.
“Overall, I think it went very well. It was our first year participating in this competition,” said Matthew Siniawski, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. LMU’s entry in the competition had a fuel efficiency of 313.4 miles per gallon. Siniawski says that he plans to continue to incorporate the project into the mechanical engineering curriculum at LMU.
A Living Laboratory
Biochemistry student Charisse Sy '08 spent last summer getting to know the spiders that make a home of the Ballona Wetlands, where there’s much to be learned about the effects of human encroachment and urban pollution on the 1,000-acre area next to LMU.
Sy analyzed the presence of heavy metal contaminants in spiders, and the contaminants’ impact on their welfare and survival. She was one of five LMU students who spent 10 weeks in the wetlands as part of an interdisciplinary research program created by the Natural Science Department to study wetlands pollution and ways to remediate it, says James Landry, department chair. Funded by a three-year grant from Merck & Co., Inc., the program’s mission is to foster collaboration between the disciplines of chemistry and biology.
“To understand ecosystems or the animals that live in them, you can’t learn everything there is to learn if you come from the perspective of only one field of study,” says Martin Ramirez, associate professor of biology. “Interdisciplinary approaches are going to be key to environmental scientific progress in the 21st century.”
Sy worked with Ramirez, Landry and Jeremy McCallum, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. With McCallum, Sy studied spider excrement, looking for indicators of stress. Ramirez guided her fieldwork -- collecting spiders and bringing them to the lab to weigh and measure. Finally, Landry oversaw the analysis of heavy metals in the spiders. Next summer, a new crop of five students will pick up where Sy and others left off.
“I was always learning something new,” says Sy, who is considering a career in environmental research. “I liked it because I could actually see what I’ve been studying.
“When I started, I was terrified of spiders,” Sy adds. “Now I think of them as my friends.”
Protecting the Planet and Profits
This past summer a group of LMU MBA students traveled throughout South America as part of a year-long course researching sustainable banking. Led by Professor Edmund Gray of the College of Business Administration, students met with South American bankers to learn how they incorporate social and environmental criteria into their large-scale project financing decisions under a framework known as the Equator Principles. They discovered that banks which utilized social and environmental criteria in project financing were able to to protect their "triple-bottom-line" - people, planet and profits - by minimizing both environmental and reputational risk, and still generate positive returns for shareholders.
"The highlight of the trip was our interview with Banco Itau in Brazil," said student Colum Riley. "They were a charter signatory, and today have expanded their use of environmental criteria beyond project financing to all facets of banking operations." Students were also impressed with the tremendous knowledge and awareness of global warming and climate change among bankers, politicians and citizens, and their sense of responsibility to take action. The MBA students have written an extensive paper detailing their findings and are currently looking to get it published.
To view a brief presentation on their research and findings, click here for Part I and Part II.
Faculty
James Landry is the associate dean for undergraduate studies and associate professor of natural science. His area of research is currently focused on the Ballona Wetlands. The wetlands fill with runoff water from the city after it rains. Landry, along with students, measures the metal pollutant concentration collected in that water. The water is then analyzed for pollutants and metals that precipitate to the bottom; ultimately, the fresh water moves out to the ocean and the Santa Monica bay. Read more .
Brian Treanor is an assistant professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University (2003-present). His areas of specialization include "green" living/environmental living/sustainable living, environmental ethics and environmental virtue. He has also been named as Chair of the new Environmental Studies Minor being offered beginning Spring 2009. He will be teaching Introduction to Environmental Studies, one of two prerequisite courses for the minor. The course will be an interdisciplinary humanities and social science introduction to environmental studies, co-taught with Dr. Dorothea Herreiner (Economics).
John Dorsey , associate professor of natural science, teaches environmental science courses in the Department of Natural Sciences and co-teaches the Environmental Laboratory Class. He is presently conducting pollution research in coastal wetland, intertidal and inshore marine areas. He is President of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, chair of the Technical Advisory Committee for the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, and is a member of the Clean Beach Task Force for the State of California.
Pippa Drennan is an associate professor of biology with expertise in Improving/Maintaining the Environment . She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Friends of Ballona. Her research interests encompass adaptations of plants to stressful environments, ecology of deserts and estuaries, and the function relationships of plant structure. She teaches plant biology and ecology, and frequently involves her students in special projects in the Ballona Wetlands.
Jeremy Pal , assistant professor of civil engineering and environmental science, is among the contributing authors on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC), an international collaboration of scientists that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. The IPCC report states most of the global warming to date is “very likely” caused by man and that it is “virtually certain” to continue in the future. The report defines the scientific uncertainties concerning the extent, impacts and timing of global warming. Experts claim the IPCC is the most definitive scientific assessment of global warming to date.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the group of international scientists and Gore “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change.” Prior to joining the LMU faculty Pal worked for the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, an agency that operates under two United Nations Agencies in Trieste, Italy with the mission to foster the growth of research in developing nations.
Pal has also recently co-authored two nationally recognized articles on the impacts of climate change in North America. Read more.
Edmund Gray is a professor of management in the College of Business Administration and teaches a number of courses related to sustainability. Recent courses include Environmental Strategy, Sustainability and Environmental Issues in Business, and most recently he guided a group of MBA students on a year-long research project analyzing sustainability practices in Latin American banks. He is the author of numerous articles and case studies, and is currently publishing a book on social entrepreneurship on conjunction with LMU's Dr. David Choi.
Academics
During the 2007 Dean's Convocation, Michael Engh, S.J., announced the launch of LMU's new Environmental Studies Minor. The minor is undergoing the final phase of approval by the Academic Review and Planning Committee. Introduction to Environmental Studies (EVST 100), one of the two introductory prerequisites for the minor (along with NTLS 101) will be offered in spring of 2009. The course will be an interdisciplinary humanities and social science introduction to environmental studies, taught by Dr. Dorothea Herreiner (Economics) and Dr. Brian Treanor (Philosophy).
Additional academic opportunities related to the environment and sustainability include:
- A B.S. in Environmental Science degree was initiated within the Department of Natural Science, College of Science and Engineering, in the Fall of 2005
- An M.S. Degree in Civil Engineering and Environmental Science
- An undergraduate Environmental Engineering emphasis within the Civil Engineering majors has been in place for 10 years
- Environmental Science research - a Merck grant and Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics (UBM) grant to study pollution and its stresses on the wetlands
- Environmental education - Metropolitan Water District grant and Hitachi grant for K-12 environmental science curriculum development
- Community-based learning course involving partnership with Heal the Bay (NTLS 372/378)
- On-going class projects ranging fom survey of trash entering the wetlands during a storm event, to K-8 environmental science curriculum development for future elementary school teachers
Bellarmine Forum
The 2006 Bellarmine Forum focused on Environmental Responsibility, examining such issues as environmental injustice, environmental economics, Catholic teaching on the environment (together with a panel incorporating Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist perspectives), environmental ethics, nature and spirituality, green design, cultural ecology, and the green city. These topics are designed to challenge participants to think and act in environmentally responsible ways. Featured speakers included Robert Kennedy, Jr., founder of Riverkeeper, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, and Laurie David of Stop Global Warming.
Click here for the 2006 schedule and descriptions of events & speakers. For a list of podcasts, click here .