Assistant Professor Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin is an Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University. He completed his graduate and post-graduate studies at the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Michigan. He develops models to understand the multi-scalar environmental impacts of cities and to explore issues of environmental justice. Research domains include food systems, energy use, and corporate sustainability.
PhD Student - Ali Taghdisian
Ali got his B.S. in Civil Engineering, and his M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering. After graduating, he tested designed novel waste technologies to re-use of saline waste to tackle water scarcity and food security in his home country of Iran . Since then, he has shifted away from conventional engineering solutions towards system analysis of the underlying social and political drivers of environmental change. He likes to link quantitative and qualitative concepts, and move beyond pure technological silo-based answers to sustainability problems of socio-natures.
He has experiences as an engineer, researcher, and lately as geospatial data scientist. His current focus is on how human society, specifically urban areas, interact with their environment and metabolize socio-ecological flows and co-evolve. Sustainability of urban food system and supply chain are areas that he is currently researching on through urban metabolism lens.
MSc Student - Estefany Cabanillas
Estefany completed her bachelor's degree in industrial engineering at Cetys University and enrolled as a master's student in Bioresource Engineering at McGill. She is passionate about technology, social sustainability, community engagement and is currently working towards finding environmentally friendly ways to create innovative solutions for an efficient urban food system. She is interested in optimizing food production with a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) system and satisfying society's food demand without endangering future generations' resources.
MSc Student - Sadie MacDonald
Sadie has a joint position in the SURF Lab at U-M and the Ecological Engineering Lab at McGill University. She is studying the carbon footprints of urban organic waste systems across Canada.
MSc Student - Danielle Levy
Danielle is a master’s student at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. She received a Bachelors of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University, where she also minored in political science. Prior to returning to school, she spent five+ years producing documentaries and podcasts for CBS News. She is interested in finding solutions to overconsumption and uneven development using systems thinking, industrial ecology and ecological economics. She is currently researching urban symbiosis, or the beneficial material and energy sharing within urban environments.
When: Summer and Fall '21
Project: Carbon footprint of Montreal urban agriculture.
MSc Student
When: Jan 2021-Sept 2023
Project: Fighting Fire with Fire: Carbon-Negative Heat Production in Canada's North Using Pyrolysis of Fire-Killed Trees
MSc Student
When: Jan 2022-Sept 2023
Project: Growing Greener Cities - The potential for engineered wood construction to reduce Montreal's environmental impact