When Bill Chameides retired from what he called a "standard scientific career" at the Georgia Institute of Technology, he chose to do more to move environmental issues forward in the political realm.
Now, after three years serving as chief scientist for Environmental Defense, Chameides is drawn back to academia as the newly appointed dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.
But he has not lost his desire to address environmental policy and programs.
"The Nicholas School is really unique in that it trains students and professors to work on all aspects of the environment," Chameides said. "Duke is one of the very few schools that does this."
After only two weeks serving as dean, Chameides has already begun to implement changes toward a more socially conscious school.
"As a faculty, we need to refocus efforts to address major environmental problems of the coming decade," he said.
The three most pressing issues facing the country and the global environment are ecosystem management, climate energy and human health in the environment, Chameides said.
Since ecosystems provide billions of dollars of services to humans--including clean air, water and waste cleanup-we must work to protect and harvest their benefits, he added.
In order to have a greater influence on policies regulating these issues, Chameides said he would like to see more Nicholas School students get involved in the corporate world. Currently, only 7 percent of graduates enter the private sector, he said.
"Companies such as Apple, [General Motors Corp.] and DuPont are where most decisions on environmental policy occur," Chameides said. "There are tremendous needs for these companies to have environmentalists to give them a competitive edge."
In addition to focusing on the needs of students in the Nicholas School, Chameides has begun to incorporate his environmental vision into the rest of the campus.
Every Duke student should take a course in the environment at some point in their career, he said, adding that all students should be included in greening the campus.
The Nicholas School's greening initiative will include the construction of a new building, Nicholas Hall, which will be a showcase of how to build an environmentally friendly construction, he said. The building is still in the planning stages.
"President [Richard] Brodhead wants us to be climate neutral on campus," Chameides said. "That is a big step, but also a big job that is going to take help from everyone."
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