Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 2, 2001

Volume 30, Number 9

Thomas E. Graedel

Thomas Graedel named Musser
Professor of Industrial Ecology

Thomas E. Graedel, the newly appointed Clifton R. Musser Professor of Industrial Ecology, has been a pioneer in developing approaches and practical techniques to enable industrial operations to interact optimally with the environment.

He is also an authority on atmospheric change and the corrosion of materials by the atmosphere, as well as on the stocks and flows of material reservoirs.

In addition to his post at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Graedel is a professor in the departments of chemical engineering and geology and geophysics.

In the 11 books and over 250 technical papers he has authored or coauthored, Graedel has provided both the perspective and techniques to help industrial operations design processes and manufacture products in such a way as to minimize and optimize their environmental interactions. These include the textbook "Industrial Ecology," first published in 1995 and soon to be released in an expanded second edition; three related books -- "Design for the Environment," "Industrial Ecology and the Automobile" and "Streamline Life-Cycle Assessment; and "Atmosphere, Climate, and Change," which won the American Meteorological Society's Louis J. Battan Author's Award in 1995. He is coauthor of the forthcoming book "Atmospheric Corrosion."

Graedel's environmental assessment ma-trix, which he developed for AT&T Bell Laboratories, is now a standard industrial tool for streamlined life cycle assessments of the environmental impacts of products, processes and facilities. With colleagues, he has also characterized regional and global cycles for such technologically important resources as copper and zinc, and his techniques for developing cycles for the stocks and flows of materials provide a new basis for assessments of resource sustainability, environmental impacts over time and related policy initiatives.

Graedel was one of the first scientists to warn of the increase of urban methane and carbon monoxide concentrations. He and a colleague initiated an extensive experimental and theoretical program on materials degradation from exposure to the atmosphere, resulting in the first comprehensive studies of the effects of sulfur gases on copper and silver. Graedel also worked with other scientists to develop the first computer model designed to study the chemical interactions of the atmosphere with metals. Because of his expertise in atmosphere-metal interactions, Graedel served as a consultant to the Statue of Liberty Restoration Project between 1984 and 1986.

The Yale scientist has also been an adviser to the government, serving as chair of both the National Research Council Panel on the Atmospheric Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft and the National Research Council Committee on Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences, among others.

Graedel currently is a member of the National Science Foundation's Advisory Committee on Environmental Re-search and Education, which is defining and prioritizing environmental science research areas for the next two decades. He serves on the board of directors of the Environmental Research and Education Foundation and on the executive committee of the International Society for Industrial Ecology.

A graduate of Washington State University, Graedel earned an M.A. in physics from Kent State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Michigan. He was a member of AT&T Bell Laboratories' technical staff from 1969 to 1996 and was named a "Distinguished Member" of the staff in 1984.

Graedel has been a named lecturer at Washington State University, York University in Toronto, the University of Virginia and the University of Florida. A member of numerous professional organizations, he is a fellow of Pierson College.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale formally dedicates Environmental Science Center

Team discovers fossil of 40-foot crocodile

Scientists develop otential vaccine for West Nile virus

Journalist considers gap between 'red' and 'blue' America

Michael Dove is appointed Musser Professor of Social Ecology

Thomas Graedel named Musser Professor of Industrial Ecology

Yale Art Gallery receives gift of major work by Courbet

U.S. Senator James Jeffords to give talk

Noted journalist James Fallows to present annual Fryer Lecture

Estrogen therapy ineffective in preventing stroke, study finds

Noted statistician Francis J. Anscombe dies

Influential physician Dr. Alvan Feinstein dies

Symposium to explore Palestinian and Israeli cinemas

Yale affiliates invited to serve as Thanksgiving hosts

Campus Notes