Speaker
Nancy Tuchman
Nancy Tuchman is founding dean of the School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago. Her vision for the School of Environmental Sustainability is to raise public awareness of the unsustainable consumption of Earth’s natural resources with the goal of transforming behavior, developing policy, and inspiring and preparing the next generation of science-based environmental leaders. To that end, the school engages students, faculty, staff and administrators in activities designed to lower their campus consumption of energy and natural resources and reduce their waste production. Under Dr. Tuchman’s direction, SES has developed several flagship programs, including producing biodiesel that converts waste vegetable oil into fuel to be used in intercampus shuttle buses; using waste glycerin to produce soap, which is being sold in campus stores; and growing food organically at SES’ 4-acre student-run farm and on the urban campus gardens. Dr. Tuchman’s research focuses on human impacts on aquatic ecosystem structure and function. Her work has spanned from investigating the effects of greenhouse gases on stream ecosystem food webs, to the impacts of invasive plant and animal species on Great Lakes coastal ecosystems, to the effects of emerging contaminants such as plasticizers (Bisphenol A) and pharmaceuticals (e.g., antibiotics and endocrine disruptors) on streams and lakes.