Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 77.55
Liaison Jack Byrne
Submission Date June 9, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Middlebury College
AC-9: Academic Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 10.89 / 12.00 Jack Byrne
Director of Sustainability Integration
Environmental Affair
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Number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:
134

Total number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in research:
409

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts sustainability research:
22

The total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that conduct research:
36

A copy of the sustainability research inventory that includes the names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:
Names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:
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A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory:

Faculty websites were reviewed to compile an inventory of sustainability research. The review was performed separately by a student intern and an employee of the Office of Sustainability Integration, then any discrepancies were discussed with the Director of Sustainability Integration to create the most consistent and accurate inventory possible.


A brief description of notable accomplishments during the previous three years by faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:

The current research of Nick Muller, Assistant Professor of Economics, focuses on measuring the damages due to air pollution emissions from each industry in the United States economy, quantifying the ancillary benefits of carbon dioxide reductions, and characterizing the uncertainty associated with empirical marginal damage estimates produced with integrated assessment models.

Steve Tromulak, Professor in the Department of Biology and Program in Environmental Studies, is working with associates from Emmanuel Agbeli Dagbe Center for Cultural Arts, Kopeyia, Ghana, and from St. Michael’s College, including members of the Akoma Ensemble, to address the disappearance of antelope in Volta Region of Ghana, and also the musical heritage of the region’s people, who make their drums from the antelope skins. The group presents an initiative aimed at developing a captive breeding program for antelope in West Africa.

Andrea LLoyd, Professor of Biology, is conducting tree-ring research at Middlebury College focusing on two issues: the effects of climate change on the boreal forests of Alaska and Siberia, and carbon sequestration in temperate forests of Vermont.

Peter Ryan, Professor of Geology, has conducted extensive research with students on ultramafic-derived arsenic in a fractured bedrock aquifer, addressing the issue of arsenic in Vermont well water. Ryan and Middlebury students played an instrumental role in the adoption of legislation by the Vermont legislature to check for arsenic in residential water wells during real estate transactions (This legislation was subsequently vetoed by the Governor).


The website URL where information about sustainability research is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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