South Dakota
Mines has created a new multidisciplinary Center for Sustainable Solutions.
The center will be a hub for research and development around sustainability
including water quality, emerging contaminants, agriculture, infrastructure, carbon
capture, biofuels, bioplastics, environmental stewardship and more.
“As society faces increasingly complex problems,
providing sustainable solutions requires integrative partnerships and
approaches that build convergence of many disciplines with research and support
for stakeholders at all levels,” says Lisa Kunza, Ph.D., an associate professor
in the Department of Chemistry, Biology and Health Sciences and the director of
the new center at Mines.
In the last five years leading up to establishing
the Center for Sustainable Solutions, there have been nearly 50 faculty and researchers
from eight departments on campus participating in the efforts. “As an
institution of higher education, it is imperative to have many graduate and
undergraduate students trained in the collaborative environment that the Center
for Sustainable Solutions provides while tying the innovative efforts to
support the needs of the people,” says Kunza.
The center will help serve the needs of a wide range
of partners, from assisting the
Department of Defense (DoD) in mitigating emerging contaminants to working
closely with Tribal
nations to ensure water quality to providing new tools for
agricultural producers to increase yield to helping build resilient
infrastructure that survives extreme weather to improving the management and
capture of carbon emissions for a range of industries.
“Sustainability is much more than environmental
protection: it’s about finding efficiencies that improve the bottom line for
multiple industry partners, it’s about insuring future water supplies and other
resources for our communities, it’s about creating infrastructure that survives
extremes and supports economic growth for the long term, it’s about making sure
our farmers and ranchers have all the tools they need to feed our country for
generations to come,” says Mines President Jim Rankin. “We’re proud to launch
this new Center for Sustainable Solutions, for research and education in these
areas and so much more.”
“Today’s complex problems require integrated
approaches across disciplines. Entities such as this Center facilitate such
efforts,” says Laurie Anderson, Ph.D., interim vice president for research at
South Dakota Mines.
PFAS and Emerging
Contaminants
The new center at Mines will work closely with
officials nationwide to assist in mitigation and remediation of PFAS and other
emerging contaminants in water and soil. These chemicals were originally used
in fire retardant and other products, and a widespread effort to deal with
contamination at multiple military installations and other facilities is now underway.
“At South Dakota Mines, we are working on developing bioinspired, environmentally
safe, low-cost sprayable microbial solutions for coupled adsorption and
subsequent biodegradation of PFAS in a way that does not generate harmful
daughter products. This research is critical to erase this forever chemical
that poses a danger to the health of people and the planet,” says Tanvi Govil,
Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Karen M.
Swindler Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Mines.
Tribal Science,
Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
The center will also partner with Tribal nations. Mines
has maintained multiple agreements with Tribal governments in the region to
assist in infrastructure development, STEM education and technical support. The
university also maintains partnerships with tribal colleges supporting a
collaborative environment for student learning at all levels and hosts the Tiospaye
Scholar Program. “Many of our
Native American students are interested in various aspects of sustainable
issues, especially where they may be able to help their Tribes. Dr. Kunza has
been great to work with and we look forward to future collaborations,” says
Carter Kerk, Ph.D., a professor of industrial engineering and the director of
the Tiospaye Scholar Program at Mines.
Infrastructure and
Construction
Sustainability is a crucial part of construction of
new infrastructure. Mines faculty who will work in the new center lead a range
of design, evaluation, assessment and monitoring efforts to insure
infrastructure resiliency, safety and quality. This center will serve students
and faculty across multiple departments including civil and environmental
engineering and industrial engineering and engineering management. "Sustainable solutions also require sustainable
construction processes and procedures. The faculty and students will work on
development of these approaches in the multidisciplinary environment that construction
managers excel," says Mark Van Vleck an instructor and Construction Engineering & Management program coordinator at Mines.
Carbon Capture and
Utilization
Mines is leading efforts to discover and utilize
microbes that can revolutionize everything from mineral processing to the
manufacturing of biofuels and biodegradable plastics. The university is also
leading research to use microbes that capture carbon dioxide gasses to vastly
improve carbon sequestration rates in underground caverns and rock layers. “Making
beneficial use of captured carbon gasses opens up many economic opportunities
for South Dakota and our region,” says Bret Lingwall, Ph.D., associate
professor of civil and environmental engineering at Mines. “We can not only
help with the climate crisis but also spur economic development through microbially
accelerated carbon sequestration and biogenic transformation of carbon gasses
into beneficial products. With our agriculture-centered way of life sensitive
to weather and climate it makes sense that Mines be a regional leader in
mitigating carbon gasses that impact our climate and weather.”
“This issue concerns us scientists to not just to
focus on removing the CO2 from the atmosphere but to find innovative
ways to sequester it safely in underground reservoirs,” adds Gokce Ustunisik, Ph.D.,
associate professor of geology and geological engineering at South Dakota Mines.
Agriculture and Water
Resources
Farmers and ranchers will benefit from the work in
the university’s new Center for Sustainable Solutions. The university is also helping
create a new spray on biodegradable plastic for use in optimizing organic crop
growth as well as researching stock pond water availability and quality, which
is essential for the livestock industry in the Great Plains. “The Center for Sustainable
Solutions will leverage cutting-edge science to help develop strategies to
address issues such as land use, food security, and water quality locally,
nationally and internationally. The Center's multidisciplinary/multi-partner
approach creates innovative collaborations to address major challenges in
agriculture, water resources and land management,” says Patrick Kozak, Ph.D., a
research scientist at Mines.
Mines also has expertise in groundwater and surface
water ecology. All of these efforts aim to improve and support the mission of
the relevant parties while protecting water resources in the United States.