Sarah Green Named Jefferson Science Fellow

Sarah Green, chair of the Department of Chemistry, has been named a Jefferson Science Fellow by the US Department of State. She will spend a year in Washington, DC, and in countries around the world, working with the State Department or the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on projects to integrate science and public policy.  

Jefferson Science Fellows are selected not only for their excellence in science, but for their abilities as communicators, their interest in global cultures and their concern about science policy-making.  

"I congratulate Sarah for being nationally recognized as a Jefferson Science Fellow," said Provost Max Seel. "She is eminently qualified and deserving. She has been passionately engaged in advancing science to serve society."

The policy-making experience that the fellowship provides will benefit not only Green, but Michigan Tech as well, Seel went on to say. "We firmly believe that building strength and expertise of our faculty and students in the public policy area is of strategic importance and needs to become commensurate with our strength in engineering and science," he said.

Bruce Seely, dean of the College of Sciences and Arts, said that Green's "interests in chemistry are easily the most wide-ranging within our Department of Chemistry, ranging from smoking to biodiversity and from biogeochemistry to carbon cycling in the Great Lakes.  

"She is an advocate of green chemical practices and has worked to connect them to the chemistry curriculum," Seely continued.  "She easily moves among and between fields and can make complicated scientific information understandable to lay audiences.  She is deeply passionate about the environment and about the need to strengthen the presence of underrepresented minorities in science. Sarah lives her values more directly and less dogmatically than anyone I know. She possesses the strong belief that science can make a difference in society."

Green has served on the Green Chemistry Roundtable for the State of Michigan and has participated in Congressional Day visits sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists. She is presently on the Board of Directors of the Council for Chemical Research.

"I'm really excited to step out of academia and gain a different perspective on the world," Green said. "I hope to return to Tech with valuable insights and practical experience that will benefit the campus community and enhance our ability to conduct globally relevant research, teaching and scholarship."

Green is the second Jefferson Science Fellow chosen from Michigan Tech. Wayne Pennington, chair of the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, was a Jefferson Science Fellow in 2009.   

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.