EME 504
Foundations in Sustainability Systems

Instructor

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Instructor

Ekaterina (Katya) Bazilevskaya is an Earth and Environmental Scientist by training – she earned a BS in Applied Geochemistry from Moscow State University, an M.S. in Geosciences, and a Ph.D in Soil Chemistry and Biochemistry from Penn State.

Dr. Bazilevskaya’s research has been focused on the environmental transport and fate of metals in soils, mineral-organic interaction, rock weathering and soil formation processes. Ekaterina has been teaching environmental science courses for a number of years. She is also an expert in analytical methods for material characterization and currently works as an instrumental scientist at the Materials Characterization Lab at Penn State. Ekaterina believes that creating new materials from industrial and municipal wastes is a very promising way to achieve sustainability in resource utilization and elimination of waste. Ekaterina has been involved in multiple research projects and collaborations. One of the recent projects explored recycling carbon waste materials for air and water filtration.

On a personal note, Ekaterina is a strong believer in work-life balance and values her time with family doing outdoor activities and traveling.

Course Author

My name is Dr. Neyda Abreu. My undergraduate degrees are in Physics and Astronomy. My Master and Doctoral degrees are in Earth and Planetary Sciences. Basically, I am a Mineralogist and Geochemist who loves Math and Chemistry.

My research spans the breadth of the Solar System. You may wonder how that relates to Sustainability... Space is where the future of resource exploration lies and where we have the very real choice of extending either our best or our worst resource stewardship practices. Some of my colleagues call Lunar 3He "the Persian Gulf" of the 21st century. I am actively involved in making sure this is not so. There is also a very active conversation on mineral extraction from Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), much of which is happening in the private sector, away from international treaties and any kind of environmental regulation.