Past News
C4E is proud to provide funding for seven seed grants to our faculty affiliates and four summer research internships to students amounting to $115,000 in support
May 11, 2018
The C4E seed grant program funds proposals that enhance new research collaborations on interdisciplinary environmental challenges with the purpose to help stimulate new research collaborations and advance faculty projects to the point where they can attract external funding. In a separate competitive effort, C4E also provides up to 8 weeks funding for summer research internships to undergraduate students to work with a C4E faculty affiliate member-mentor on research projects related to the environment.
Membrane can better treat wastewater, recover valuable resources
May 10, 2018
A membrane made up of block polymers has the customizable and uniform pore sizes needed for filtering or recovering particular substances from wastewater, researchers say in a review published in Nature Partner Journals - Clean Water.
Membrane can better treat wastewater, recover valuable resources
Recipients 2018: Faculty Affiliates Seed Grants and Summer Undergraduate Interns
May 9, 2018
Thanks to the generous support of Discovery Park and the Colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Science, Liberal Arts, and Purdue Polytechnic - C4E is proud to provide funding for seven seed grants to our faculty affiliates (out of 12 applications) and four summer research internships to students (out of 9 applications) amounting to $115,000 in support. The C4E seed grant program funds proposals that enhance new research collaborations on interdisciplinary environmental challenges with the purpose to help stimulate new research collaborations and advance faculty projects to the point where they can attract external funding. In a separate competitive effort, C4E also provides up to 8 weeks funding for summer research internships to undergraduate students to work with a C4E faculty affiliate member-mentor on research projects related to the environment.
Read More about "Recipients 2018: Faculty Affiliates Seed Grants and Summer Undergraduate Interns"
Perennial biomass production from marginal land in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
May 1, 2018
Marginal land is considered promising for biomass production. However, understanding on biomass crop growth and total biofuel production from this land type is very limited. This study evaluated potential production of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus) on marginal lands in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). A SWAT model with detailed representation of marginal lands and their suitability for growth of the two grasses was setup.
Perennial biomass production from marginal land in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Analysis: Most microplastic harm done at lowest levels of food web
April 30, 2018
Microplastics, bits of plastics that have found their way into waters in and around every continent on Earth, have a range of impacts on aquatic life, according to a meta-analysis led by Purdue University’s Tomas Höök. Most negatively affected are zooplankton and larval fish.
Read More about "Analysis: Most microplastic harm done at lowest levels of food web"
Far-red fluorescent silk can kill harmful bacteria as biomedical and environmental remedy
April 18, 2018
A silk hybrid material attacks bacteria when illuminated by a green light, thanks to a far-red fluorescent protein researchers transferred to its genetic makeup.
Critical Transition in Critical Zone of Intensively Managed Landscapes
April 17, 2018
Expansion and intensification of managed landscapes for agriculture have resulted in severe unintended global impacts, including degradation of arable land and eutrophication of receiving water bodies. Modern agricultural practices rely on significant direct and indirect human energy inputs through farm machinery and chemical use, respectively, which have created imbalances between increased rates of biogeochemical processes related to production and background rates of natural processes.
Critical Transition in Critical Zone of Intensively Managed Landscapes
Evidence that an informal environmental summer camp can contribute to the construction of the conceptual understanding and situational interest of STEM in middle-school youth
April 13, 2018
Youth are introduced to STEM topics through informal settings like science camps, aquaria, and zoos. In these interactive and sensory-rich environments, a well-designed programme can help participants to acquire knowledge and cultivate interest through experiential learning. Given the importance of informal activities in environmental education, it is crucial to identify which contextual components lead to successful learning outcomes. Thus far, research in environmental STEM education has focused on brief experiences, such as one-time visits to curated environments likeaquaria. Investigating the impact of multi-day/longer experiences in natural settings is critical because the level of engagement with the STEM topic and the interaction with the learning environment in such experiences have different cognitive and affective impacts. To address these current limitations, we explored whether there is evidence that a four-day, immersive outdoor soundscape ecology camp contributed to situational interest and conceptual understanding of middle-school youth.
Evidence that an informal environmental summer camp can contribute to the construction of the conceptual understanding and situational interest of STEM in middle-school youth
Purdue, Peruvian university kick off research and innovation alliance
April 9, 2018
Purdue University celebrated the official start of its new Cooperative Technical Alliance Program with the Universidad Nacional de San Agustin (UNSA) with the launch of its initial flagship research and capacity building initiative: the Arequipa Nexus Institute for Food, Water, Energy, and the Environment. The celebration took place Monday (April 9) at Purdue. “Purdue is a leader in developing holistic approaches to global sustainability grand challenges based on partnerships,” said Tomás Díaz De La Rubia, chief scientist and executive director of Purdue’s Discovery Park. “Through a close collaboration with our partners at UNSA, Discovery Park can bring the full power of its unique interdisciplinary approach to improve the lives of the citizens of Arequipa through the application of our leading-edge expertise to the regional sustainable development challenges. The partnership represents a new paradigm in the development and application of scientific and socio-economic approaches to global sustainability grand challenges, and we fully expect to expand this new paradigm to new relationships in other regions of Peru and Latin America in the future.”
Read More about "Purdue, Peruvian university kick off research and innovation alliance"
Recent paper describes summertime diurnal variations in the isotopic composition of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide in West Lafayette
April 6, 2018
The nitrogen and oxygen stable isotopes (?15N & ?18O) of nitrogen oxides (NOx = nitric oxide (NO) + nitrogen dioxide (NO2)) may be a useful tool for partitioning NOx emission sources and for evaluating NOx photochemical cycling, but few measurements of in situ NOx exist. In this study, we have collected and characterized the diurnal variability in ?15N and ?18O of NO2 from ambient air at a small Midwestern city (West Lafayette, IN, USA, 40.426° N, 86.908° W) between July 7 to August 5, 2016, using an active sampling technique. Large variations were observed in both ?15N(NO2) and ?18O(NO2) that ranged from ?31.4 to 0.4‰ and 41.5–112.5‰, respectively.
Recent paper describes summertime diurnal variations in the isotopic composition of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide in West Lafayette