Institute for a Sustainable Future News
Emerging Researcher - ISF Travel Grant Recipient Juan Manuel Arevalo Viveros
August 20, 2025
Thanks to an ISF travel grant, Juan Manuel Arevalo Viveros traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, to present at the 2025 International Sustainability Transitions Conference. His research — Ontological transitions toward habitability from social movements in the region of Cauca – Colombia: Contributions from the Misak indigenous community — explores how the Misak people’s 5,000+ years of ancestral wisdom offer powerful lessons for creating more habitable futures. ISF travel grants offer opportunities for emerging researchers.
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Redesigned Field Buffers Boost Water Quality and Cut Pollution, Purdue-Led Study Finds
August 5, 2025
Exciting new research led by ISF affiliate Aaron Thompson (HLA), in collaboration with Purdue, Iowa State University, and the USDA, explores how redesigning edge-of-field conservation buffers can dramatically improve sediment capture and reduce runoff pollution.
Sustainability Research Across Multiple Disciplines on Display
August 1, 2025
Dozens of students showed off their sustainability-related summer research projects at this year’s Summer 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on Wednesday, July 30th. In addition to ISF-supported DUIRI projects, many other faculty affiliates supported summer projects. Read more about their work here.
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Focus on ISF's PFAS Strategic Research Team
June 24, 2025
The 2024-2025 academic year saw the team significantly advance research in, and awareness of, PFAS around the state and nation through publications, events, education and outreach. A key aspect of the team’s efforts this year has involved engaging scientists, state employees and the general public through webinars, in-person events and seminars, as well as through the publication of the Indiana Statewide PFAS Assessment, a public-facing report the provides important PFAS information and results from the work of scientists from around the state of Indiana. The publication received an "Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Indiana Water Resources Association in June.
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ISF Awarded Western Digital Data Storage
June 20, 2025
Purdue's Institute for a Sustainable Future was recently awarded 1.2 Petabytes of hard disk drive (HDD) storage from Western Digital to further enable research that relies on quick access to big data repositories. This award, granted through Western Digital’s Petabyte Innovation Quest (PIQ “PEAK” Award), helps bolster Purdue’s robust ecosystem of data services and data-driven models by creating the Purdue One Health Data Engine (POHDE)—a storage facility aimed at facilitating research spanning disciplines from weather and climate, to ecosystem health, to environmental toxicology, to plant and animal health, to personalized human health.
Study Reveals How Eavesdropping Predators Develop Hunting Strategies
May 28, 2025
Dr. Ximena E. Bernal, a professor in Purdue University's Department of Biological Sciences, and faculty affiliate of the Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future, has co-authored a new study which has uncovered how young fringe-lipped bats (Trachops cirrhosis) learn to identify and hunt prey—not through instinct, but by listening, learning the mating calls of their prey, and observing mature bats.
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ISF and Campus Sustainability Working Group Release “Campus Guide to Sustainable Living”
April 10, 2025
Just in time for Purdue’s annual Spring Fest, ISF, working with the Campus Sustainability Working Group, has released an initial version of the “Campus Guide to Sustainable Living.”
Purdue's Institute for a Sustainable Future Publishes First Look at PFAS Statewide
April 8, 2025
ISF’s strategic research team in PFAS has recently completed the first Indiana Statewide PFAS Assessment. This collaborative report, written with contributions by PFAS experts from multiple universities, brings together collective knowledge and research from scientists from numerous state universities, including Purdue, IU-Bloomington and Notre Dame, as well as from state agencies.
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ISF and Campus Sustainability Working Group to Conduct Student Survey
March 31, 2025
Part of the work of the Campus Sustainability Working Group is to conduct surveys to gain insight into sustainability knowledge, behavior and campus culture at Purdue. The first of these surveys, focusing on undergraduates, will be conducted from April 10th-20th, 2025.
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Fall 2024 Semester in Review
March 28, 2025
ISF is excited to announce the PDF release of our Semester in Review publication, capturing the highlights, achievements, and significant moments from Fall 2024.