Can a modern American city ever be sustainable?

“Not at the rate we are going” says Kimberly A. Gray Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University who will outline her

perspective on the strides we can take to make our cities more sustainable.

She will speak at Purchase College on October 29 at 7 PM, as part of the School of Natural and Social Sciences Fall Lecture Series, room 1001 Natural Sciences Building.  Admission is free. For information call

 914-251-6631.

Purchase College is located at 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY.

Ms. Gray will discuss the requirements and the feasibility of developing truly renewable energy sources. She will also consider the role of technology in finding solutions to the problem of sustainability and will stress that technology alone will not supply the answers.  She will describe how a deeper understanding of the structure of ecological systems is key to designing sustainable cities.  She will draw on examples of re-engineering the water cycle and a 100 year vision for the City of Chicago.

Kimberly Gray holds appointments in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University.  She is also Director of the Environmental Science, Engineering and policy Program.  Her research focuses on the development of photo active materials for energy applications and on the fate of chemicals in environmental systems.  She also works closely with

The Chicago Legal Clinic to provide technical expertise to solve environmental problems for low-income urban communities.