My career has evolved such that my teaching, research, and service are all integrated under the theme of sustainability. It is exciting and motivating to have close links between teaching, research, and service because these activities previously were independent and largely unrelated. Figure 1 below shows conceptually how my research, teaching, and service activities have become connected through sustainability - this integration has developed over the past five years and I expect that it will continue to deepen as I continue my scholarly career.

I believe that environmental sustainability - despite having multiple definitions and connotations - will form a central role in the 21st century. The looming threats of global climate change, unsustainable consumption of natural resources, and political instability will continue to unfold during the coming decades so that current university students have the opportunity to be proponents for, and leaders of, change necessary to reduce the impacts of these threats. Sustainability has many scales. At the small-scale end is community-level sustainability in developing countries where many well-meaning volunteer organizations are attempting to reduce the impacts of poverty; sustainable development and appropriate technology are necessary for long-term improvements in the lives of small communities. At the large-scale end are national initiatives and policies that aim to reduce environmental impacts of various industries. So-called renewable energy processes have often been revealed to have carbon footprints rivaling the fossil fuels they are intended to displace. All students (grad and undergrad) need to be educated about sustainability so that they are literate in the principles of climate change, renewable energy, and sustainability. In addition, active involvement in sustainability-related research or service will deepen their understanding of and commitment to sustainability. Then, they will have the skills necessary to make intelligent decisions as they pursue their careers and personal lives.

The arrows in Figure 1 show how teaching, research, and service activities have impacted each other during my faculty experience. For example, my teaching activities have been strongly influenced by sustainability research and sustainable development service. For the last four years, I have taught the capstone senior design sequence in Chemical & Biological Engineering and have advised design teams in Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics and Environmental Engineering as well. Through researching on renewable energy and renewable materials, teaching renewable energy, and doing service on sustainable development we have proposed numerous design projects which are timely, exciting, and closely linked to real-world problems. Research results from our bio-diesel project have been used directly in senior design feasibility studies and results from both the research and feasibility studies have been taught as part of upper-level elective courses on renewable energy. Also, I have integrated sustainability metrics, sustainable engineering principles, and life cycle assessment into the academic portion of the design class. After observing students struggle while working on an Engineers Without Borders project in El Salvador, I started teaching project-related courses for these students. The courses have varied in format and typically involved invited speakers, readings, and weekly discussions, but I have observed much higher productivity of the project teams in the terms in which courses were held. So, my teaching activities have been strongly influenced by both service and research initiatives in sustainability.

Figure 1: Conceptual diagram showing how my research, teaching, and service activities are all linked through the theme of sustainability.

Over the past five years, my research projects have been strongly influenced by both teaching and service activities. For example, the project on production of bio-diesel from low-value oils, which is funded through the EPA P3 program, is based on ideas generated while advising a senior design team working on production of biodiesel from trap-grease. A student from the design team discovered a paper about converting free-fatty-acids to biodiesel in a boiling reactor; so the following summer a student in my lab confirmed that the reactor technique worked and the current research project developed from these results. Now there are six undergraduate and graduate researchers working on biodiesel projects in my lab. Our current biodiesel reactor has several features that make it attractive for deployment in developing-world communities. In July 2009, I attended the Latin American Conference on Chemical Engineering and started developing research collaborations on biodiesel projects with several professors from Central America. I am also collaborating with professors in Environmental Engineering on production of renewable oils via algae using landfill gas and landfill leachate - this project developed from senior design projects on utilization of landfill gases and our current expertise in biodiesel. Sustainable development service activities have also been another fruitful source of inspiration for research topics.

My involvement in sustainability-related service was largely initiated by my research and teaching of sustainability topics. I have been the advisor for the Drexel Student Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) for three years. The students asked me to be their advisor because they were searching for a faculty member who was enthusiastic about sustainability. They knew of my interest in sustainability of my bio-fuels and bio-polymers research. My involvement in Drexel Green (The Drexel sustainability initiative), the Provost Council on Academic Sustainability, and the Sustainability Across the Curriculum Workshop all were initiated because I was co-teaching a course on Renewable Energy and doing bio-fuels research. So, I became involved in these service activities because of the teaching and research that I do, but my service continues to benefit from research and teaching. For example, the Drexel students in EWB are always struggling with many time commitments so it is difficult to make consistent progress on projects. When I initiated EWB-related project courses, the number of students involved and the productivity of the students increased dramatically leading to better projects. Involving graduate students in EWB projects has helped to improve continuity of the projects. Through both EWB and our biodiesel research we have participated in outreach to middle school and high school students.

In summary, environmental sustainability at different scales is a theme that links my teaching, service, and research - the linkages summarized on the conceptual diagram in Figure 1 have energized me, have energized students, and have led to more productivity in all three arenas.