Perspective pubs.acs.org/est
Teaching How Pollutants Behave Bernhard Wehrli†,‡,* and Peter M. Frischknecht† †
Department of Environmental Systems Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Kastanienbaum Switzerland
‡
By making best use of molecular knowledge and environmental systems science we can actually predict “what happens next”, when a pollutant is released into Lake Zurich or another environmental compartment (Figure 1). Educating the future generations of environmental scientist was one of René’s many passions for about thirty years. At ETH Zurich a new Environmental Science Programme started in 1987, one year after Chernobyl. It encompassed a multidisciplinary and broad-based curriculum providing a solid understanding of how the natural environment functions. From its beginning, the program covered natural science disciplines and mathematics as well as an in-depth knowledge of special environmental systems and related processes. Due to the mutual interactions between nature and civilisation, an special focus was also placed on social sciences and technology. Initially the new teaching program was met with ample scepticism, but today the teaching program of the Environmental System Science department at ETH is ranked number one in Europe.
René Schwarzenbach loved to be an examiner. In the oral exams with his students in Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich he used to draw a chemical structure, then he flashed a smile and asked: “Imagine that one kilogram of this substance is dumped into Lake Zurich! Now think for a minute, what happens next?” If the students were too perplexed to start a meaningful analysis, he was more than happy to solicit their questions: “What kind of information do you need? Just ask me, I can give you all the thermodynamic and molecular data you need.” In the end the precision of the student’s questions and their ability to navigate between the molecular details and the complex environmental systems were more important for getting a good grade than quick answers. René realized early on that the tremendous progress in chemical analysis and monitoring alone would not lead to a predictive science of pollutant behavior. He therefore developed a teaching and research program targeting a fundamental understanding of the partitioning and reactivity of organic pollutants under environmental conditions. Together with his research team and his colleagues Dieter Imboden and Phil Gschwend he kept the search going for a better “understanding of how molecular interactions and macroscopic transport phenomena determine the distribution in space and time of organic compounds released into the natural environment”. Their famous book defined a new chemical perspective:1 © 2013 American Chemical Society
Special Issue: Rene Schwarzenbach Tribute Received: May 14, 2013 Accepted: May 15, 2013 Published: July 2, 2013 6732
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Figure 1. Where molecules meet ecosystems: Transport and transformation processes determine the spatial and temporal distribution of a pollutant in a lake.2 Environmental professionals need the skills to integrate knowledge across scales and disciplines.
René Schwarzenbach was in charge as director of study in 2003, when the Bologna study reform resulted in the introduction of the Bachelor/Master system with a redesigned curriculum. Based on his comprehensive understanding of environmental chemistry René had a clear view which qualifications count: Graduates should have a broad and well balanced knowledge in mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, informatics, and in different areas of the social sciences and should be able to apply their disciplinary knowledge in system-oriented and interdisciplinary contexts. They should have excellent skills to analyze data and build mathematical models and be able to adapt and extend their theoretical and methodological knowledge to new applications.2 In addition, René wished that students develop sound judgment, responsibility, initiative, and innovation power during their time at ETH. The main challenge in the development of the curriculum was allocating the contested teaching hours to different disciplines and different topics within the disciplines. It was Renéś excellent record in teaching and research that gave him the persuasive power to achieve some important improvements during the Bologna reform. Compared to the diploma program he convinced the team to increase the mathematics component in order to strengthen the quantitative competence of the students. Physics, chemistry, and biology were given roughly the same weight. The program in biology was revised completely to emphasize the molecular parts without neglecting ecological and evolutionary aspects. In the first and second years, students get introduced to system-oriented, interdisciplinary approaches. This first encounter with atmospheric, aquatic, and terrestrial systems forms the basis for a specialization in an environmental system in the last year of the Bachelor and in the Master programs where students may choose between scientific fields like “Atmosphere and Climate”, “Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics”, or “Ecology and Evolution”. René was a
strong advocate for depth combined with general learning skills: Students should not only reach the frontier of research in their chosen field but as well acquire the navigation skills to deal with knowledge in other scientific disciplines. The potential success of such a “selective generalist” approach had to be backed up by evidence: Since the beginning of the study program, the department has tracked the careers of its former students by regular surveys, conducted two and six years after graduation. The results monitor the success of the graduates in the job market and are an important feedback for the curriculum. Overall, the graduates have an excellent acceptance in the job market. Most of them succeed in finding a professional position that is both satisfying and matching their educational background. About half of the actual professional activities are located in a very broad range of the private sector. Most prominent fields are environmental planning and consulting, banking and insurance. About 25% of the graduates work in public administration and education, 20% in the science sector and 5% in NGOs. The vision of René Schwarzenbach, however, was to educate personalities who assume responsibility for a change of society toward sustainability. Therefore, in 2009, he initiated a project under the title “Do Environmental Sciences Graduates Change the World?” to assess the perceived societal impact of the graduates with respect to a more sustainable development of the Swiss economy and society. In a first study a web-based questionnaire was used to analyze the careers of the graduates and their promotion of sustainable development.3 The authors found evidence for different intensities of “changing the world”. In nearly all professional fields graduates perceived their professional activity as considerably to strongly related to sustainability. The perceived influence on sustainable development was growing during a career. Not surprisingly, former students who got into leadership positions perceived stronger leverage on sustainable development. They addressed more 6733
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(3) Hansmann, R.; Mieg, H. A.; Frischknecht, P. M. Qualifications for contributing to sustainable developmentA survey of environmental sciences graduates. Gaia 2010, 19, 278−286. (4) Mieg, H. A.; Hansmann, R.; Frischknecht, P. M. National sustainability outreach assessment based on human and social capital: The case of environmental sciences in Switzerland. Sustainability 2012, 4, 17−41.
aspects of sustainability and achieved more frequently a systematic integration of different aspects. The authors also concluded, however, that former students improved environmental performance even in fields where professional activities are usually only marginally related to sustainability. In banks, insurance companies, in the health sector and in other public services, the perceived personal influence on sustainable trajectories significantly increased in the course of careers. The impact of the ETH graduates to Swiss economy and society was analyzed in a second study.4 About fifteen organisations representing the Swiss private sector, politics and public administration and civil society were interviewed. The “footprint” of Environmental Science Graduates was characterized by three different marks: • Internalization: Originally, companies employed boardsupporting staff that handled environmental issues and regulations within the industrial and service companies. Step by step, these duties and responsibilities have been embedded in the working processes of operating units. The graduates of environmental sciences acted as important promoters for this change. • Networking and standardization: Environmental scientists form a growing network that enhances communication across business sectors. The penetration of welleducated professionals in the labor market leads to a standardization of environmental practice and advice. In the view of the industry and the NGOs, this facilitates the discussion of environmental issues and promotes their integration into companies’ daily business. • Embracing the knowledge economy: Global companies look for people with strong analytical qualifications, willingness for permanent fundamental professional reorientation and excellent communication skills. Swiss small and medium enterprises are interested in specialized and “field-tested” environmental professionals. Graduates of environmental sciences were appreciated in both sectors. These studies provide some evidence that the classical approach outlined in “Environmental Organic Chemistry”1 is more general in scope: Modern environmental system science is slowly “changing the world”. But learning never ends. Students who asked the right questions and therefore passed an exam with René Schwarzenbach might have sighed in relief. All of them will have realized later that life as an environmental professional remains a permanent exam, but the world would be a better place if the examiners in real life had René’s legendary sense of humor.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*Phone +41 58 765 2117; fax +41 58 765 2168, wehrli@eawag. ch. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Schwarzenbach, R. P.; Gschwend, P. M.; Imboden, D. M. Environmental Organic Chemistry; John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1993. (2) Wehrli, B.; Schwarzenbach, R. P. From molecules to ecosystems: Topics challenges, and players in environmental chemistry. Chimia 1997, 51, 865−870. 6734
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