Spreading Sustainability Across Campus
DAVID DETHIER, Geosciences
By Kipp Lynch
Williams and its environs will become a laboratory of sustainability thanks to a $420,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
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The study of renewable energy—wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydropower—traditionally has been the purview of science classes. But the five-year Luce grant also will enable faculty to infuse elements of environmental sciences and policy across the curricula.
David Dethier, geology department chair and the project’s director, will work with a team spanning biology, economics, studio art, physics, architecture and facilities planning. The team will create new modules for existing courses as well as an upper-level environmental course to foster collaboration between science majors and students and faculty in other fields who share an interest in the environment, energy policy and the economic viability of renewable resources.
Projects could include analyzing the feasibility of retrofitting dams for hydropower along the Hoosic River and measuring the output and efficiency of photovoltaic panels installed throughout the region. “The photovoltaic panels on Morley [Science Center] sit flat, so in the winter we get snow on top of them—which we thought was going to blow away,” Dethier says. “But now we’re not so sure. So what would have been the economic tradeoff if they were put up on an angle, as with the Williamstown Elementary School panels?”
Dethier, who is the Edward Brust Professor of Minerology and Geology, also would like to see greater emphasis on communicating environmental research to a broader audience. So the grant will support a faculty research seminar as well as a public lecture series that brings together scientists, architects and building planners from the area.
Dethier also envisions a greater Web presence to enhance the visibility of the College’s renewable energy programs and initiatives. A portion of the grant will go toward hiring someone skilled in technology, dataset ability, graphics and information visualization for analyzing and displaying data. This will enable the creation of a Web portal for data streams such as weather information from Hopkins Forest as well as wind and solar information from surrounding areas.
“We should be talking about what we do much more loudly,” says Dethier, adding that the Internet is an effective way to do so. “The Web would be both a value to the outside and to the inside. ... Communicating about what we do will be very different in the next few years.”
reproduced with permission
Williams Alumni Review, January 2006
alumni.review@williams.edu
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Geosciences
Green Energy
Center for Environmental Studies
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