The Sustainable Food Energy and Water System (SFEWS) NRT is a collaboration of agricultural scientists and practitioners, engineers, economists, several departments—at two US academic institutions (Purdue University (PU) and Florida A&M University (FAMU)), two US national labs, three companies and two international institutions—to form an interdisciplinary traineeship program that will provide human resources critically required to enable sustainable supply of food, energy and water (FEW) for a “full earth”.
About
Within the next two to three generations, the global population is expected to grow from seven to more than ten billion people for a “full earth”. This increase in population, coupled with rising per capita consumption habits, will put unprecedented stress on food, energy, and water (FEW) resources. A daunting question is before us: how can we sustainably meet our current and future FEW needs?
Solar radiation is the only locally available energy resource that can meet the entirety of humanity’s FEW demands, even under a full earth scenario. However, solar radiation is a dilute resource and harvesting it would require a substantial amount of land. In the full earth scenario, energy generation by solar would likely compete with agricultural land.
However, such competition could be avoided. In this work, agricultural land use intensification will be explored to develop the co-production of food, energy, and water. Currently, the negative impacts on vegetation from existing solar energy generation practices is at odds with the use of agricultural land for energy generation. This research will explore novel photovoltaic arrangements, structures, and materials such that food, energy, and water demands can be met simultaneously without any detriment to crop output.
Our Team
Interested in joining our team? Learn more here.
Professors
Name | Project Role | Institution | Discipline | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Rakesh Agrawal | Director | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Mitch Tuinstra | Co-Director | Purdue University | Agronomy | |
Peter Bermel | Thrust Lead | Purdue University | Electrical Engineering | |
Sylvie Brouder | Thrust Co-Lead | Purdue University | Agronomy | |
Nathalie Duval-Couetil | Chair, Assessment & Dev. Committee | Purdue University | Entrepreneurship and Innovation | |
Margaret Gitau | Thrust Lead | Purdue University | Agricultural and Biological Engineering | |
Michael Harris | Chair, DERR Board & Thrust Co-lead |
Purdue University | Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Education | |
Juan Sesmero | Thrust Lead | Purdue University | Agricultural Economics | |
Aavudai Anandhi Swamy | Site Leader & Thrust Co-Lead |
Florida A&M University |
Biological Systems Engineering | |
Gang Chen | Florida A&M University |
Civil & Environmental Engineering |
Staff
Name | Project Role | Institution | |
---|---|---|---|
Melissa LaGuire | Program Coordinator | Purdue University | |
Chris Murray | Project Manager | Purdue University |
Graduate Student Trainees
Name | Institution | Discipline | |
---|---|---|---|
Elizabeth Grubbs | Purdue University | Electrical Engineering | |
Shelby Gruss | Purdue University | Agronomy | |
Val Z. Schull | Purdue University | Agricultural and Biological Engineering | |
David Rokke | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Kyle Weideman | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Jonathan Turnley | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Apurva Pradhan | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Anna Murray | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Chloe Henson | Purdue University | Agricultural Economics | |
Daniel Hayes | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Robert Spilker | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | |
Ryan Swope | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering |
Graduate Student Associates
Name | Institution | Discipline | |
---|---|---|---|
Varsha | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering |
NRT Team Alumni
Name | Institution | Discipline | Current Activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ryan Ellis | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | Senior Scientist I at AbbVie | |
Yiru Li | Purdue University | Chemical Engineering | Process Research Engineer at Sinopec | |
Allison Perna | Purdue University | Electrical Engineering | Graduate Research Intern at National Renewable Energy Laboratory |
Advisory Boards
External Advisory Board
Naoki Abe | IBM |
Klaus Koehler | Corteva |
Timothy Hebrink | 3M |
William Tumas | National Renewable Energy Laboratory |
Erick Fernandes | The World Bank |
Don Villwock | Villwock Farms |
Internal Advisory Board
Melba Crawford | Purdue University |
Tomas Diaz de la Rubia | Purdue University |
Bernie Engel | Purdue University |
Carol Handwerker | Purdue University |
Sangtae Kim | Purdue University |
Karen Plaut | Purdue University |
Ronald Turco | Purdue University |
Timothy Moore | Florida A&M University |
Robert Taylor | Florida A&M University |
David Jackson | Florida A&M University |
Carl Goodman | Florida A&M University |
Diversity, Engagement, Retention, and Recruitment Board
Michael Harris (Chair) | Purdue University |
Pamala Morris | Purdue University |
Virginia Womack | Purdue University |
Beth Holloway | Purdue University |
Audeen Fentiman | Purdue University |
Linda S. Lee | Purdue University |
Shonda Bernadin | Florida A&M University |
Charmane Caldwell | Florida A&M University |
Contact
If you would like to apply to the program, please visit the website for The Graduate School – apply here: https://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/
Purdue University
School of Chemical Engineering
Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering
480 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2100