e.e.r.c.: Highlights and Initiatives: June, 1997

	Energy, Environment and Resources Center The University of Tennessee Highlights and Initiatives
June 1997 Energy, Environment and Resources Center Jack Barkenbus, Executive Director Center For Clean Products and Clean Technologies Gary A. Davis, Director Office of Communications and Publications David Brill, Director Center for Geography and Environmental Education Rosalyn McKeown-Ice, Director Oak Ridge Technology Research and Development Program Sheila Webster, Director Pellissippi Research Institute Donald Alvic, Director Pro-Dialogue Mary R. English and David L. Feldman, Directors Water Resources Research Center Tim Gangaware, Associate Director For more information call Gail Farris at 865-974-4251 or write to EERC, 311 Conference Center Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134. Visit our Web site at: http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/	Graduate Student Research. Between 1993 and 1996, more than 250 UT graduate students had contributed to the EERC's research projects. Graduate students from abroad even come to EERC. Witness Michael Kuhndt, who recently began working with the staff of the EERC's Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies (CCPCT). Kuhndt, who hails from Gelsenkirchen, Germany, is pursuing a master's degree in environmental management and policy at the University of Lund in Sweden and a second master's degree in chemical engineering at the University of Dortmund, Germany. During his three-month stay with the CCPCT, Kuhndt will be researching his thesis, which is based on a comparison of life-cycle management in the automobile industry in the United States and Europe. As part of his study, he will visit the Saturn Corporation plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Saturn has partnered with the CCPCT and the Environmental Protection Agency to develop an improved life-cycle design for automobiles. Presentations and Conferences. A paper written by Research Associate William Hargrove of the EERC's Pellissippi Research Institute will be included in the proceedings of the 1997 Environmental Systems Research Institute's user conference, which will meet in July in San Diego. Hargrove's paper, "A Spatial Clustering Technique for the Identification of Customizable Ecoregions," explores combining the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and computer-based statistical programs to group tightly defined geographic blocks based on common ecological, socioeconomic, or other characteristics. Senior Research Associate Kim Davis presented "Cost Analysis of Risk-Based Corrective Action" at Battelle's Fourth Annual International Symposium on In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation held in New Orleans in April. Davis' presentation centered on research she has been conducting with Christian Kiernan, a graduate student in environmental engineering, and Patrice Burley, a graduate student in statistics, on the impact of the new risk-based corrective action regulations on the cost of managing contaminated underground petroleum storage tanks in Tennessee. Staffing Changes. In early June, Research Associate Maria Leet Socolof joined the staff of the CCPCT. Socolof, who holds a master's degree in environmental health management from the Harvard School of Public Health, served as a program manager and environmental health scientist with Oak Ridge National Laboratory before joining the CCPCT staff. Her primary duties at the EERC will include management of two projects. The first involves flat-panel computer displays, and the second deals with the gravure sector of the printing industry. Both programs are funded through EPA's Design for the Environment program and will provide businesses with the information they need to make environmentally preferable choices in designing and manufacturing their products. In September, CCPCT Senior Research Associate Dean Menke will begin a one-year fellowship with the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment, a risk-assessment wing of the agency based in Washington, D.C. The fellowship is funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Menke will examine risk assessment as it applies to life-cycle analysis.

Energy, Environment and Resources Center

The University of Tennessee

Highlights and Initiatives

June 1997

Energy, Environment and Resources Center

Jack Barkenbus, Executive Director

Center For Clean Products and Clean Technologies

Gary A. Davis, Director

Office of Communications and Publications

David Brill, Director

Center for Geography and Environmental Education

Rosalyn McKeown-Ice, Director

Oak Ridge Technology Research and Development Program

Sheila Webster, Director

Pellissippi Research Institute

Donald Alvic, Director

Pro-Dialogue

Mary R. English and David L. Feldman, Directors

Water Resources Research Center

Tim Gangaware, Associate Director

For more information call Gail Farris at 865-974-4251 or write to EERC, 311 Conference Center Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134.

Visit our Web site at: http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/

Graduate Student Research. Between 1993 and 1996, more than 250 UT graduate students had contributed to the EERC's research projects. Graduate students from abroad even come to EERC. Witness Michael Kuhndt, who recently began working with the staff of the EERC's Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies (CCPCT). Kuhndt, who hails from Gelsenkirchen, Germany, is pursuing a master's degree in environmental management and policy at the University of Lund in Sweden and a second master's degree in chemical engineering at the University of Dortmund, Germany. During his three-month stay with the CCPCT, Kuhndt will be researching his thesis, which is based on a comparison of life-cycle management in the automobile industry in the United States and Europe. As part of his study, he will visit the Saturn Corporation plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Saturn has partnered with the CCPCT and the Environmental Protection Agency to develop an improved life-cycle design for automobiles.

Presentations and Conferences. A paper written by Research Associate William Hargrove of the EERC's Pellissippi Research Institute will be included in the proceedings of the 1997 Environmental Systems Research Institute's user conference, which will meet in July in San Diego. Hargrove's paper, "A Spatial Clustering Technique for the Identification of Customizable Ecoregions," explores combining the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and computer-based statistical programs to group tightly defined geographic blocks based on common ecological, socioeconomic, or other characteristics.

Senior Research Associate Kim Davis presented "Cost Analysis of Risk-Based Corrective Action" at Battelle's Fourth Annual International Symposium on In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation held in New Orleans in April. Davis' presentation centered on research she has been conducting with Christian Kiernan, a graduate student in environmental engineering, and Patrice Burley, a graduate student in statistics, on the impact of the new risk-based corrective action regulations on the cost of managing contaminated underground petroleum storage tanks in Tennessee.

Staffing Changes. In early June, Research Associate Maria Leet Socolof joined the staff of the CCPCT. Socolof, who holds a master's degree in environmental health management from the Harvard School of Public Health, served as a program manager and environmental health scientist with Oak Ridge National Laboratory before joining the CCPCT staff. Her primary duties at the EERC will include management of two projects. The first involves flat-panel computer displays, and the second deals with the gravure sector of the printing industry. Both programs are funded through EPA's Design for the Environment program and will provide businesses with the information they need to make environmentally preferable choices in designing and manufacturing their products.

In September, CCPCT Senior Research Associate Dean Menke will begin a one-year fellowship with the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment, a risk-assessment wing of the agency based in Washington, D.C. The fellowship is funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Menke will examine risk assessment as it applies to life-cycle analysis.

The EERC conducts analytical, unbiased, and multidisciplinary research designed to promote real-world solutions to problems in the fields of energy, environment, technology, and economic development.

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