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About the Goal

The United Nations aims to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss by 2030.

ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵis engaged in a broad range of research projects and other initiatives aimed at realizing , including efforts to , contribute to fundamental advancements in water science, and develop  experimental methods of addressing challenges associated with and in waterways.

ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵExperts and Initiatives

Patricia Beddows

is the Director of the Environmental Sciences Program, Assistant Chair, and Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern.  Beddows’ research examines karst, caves, and the paleoenvironmental records of sea level, climate change, and landscape evolution.  Her applied research examines water resource management, remote mapping of hydrological resources, biological interactions at the ecosystem to the bacterial level, geo-archaeology, and water born contaminant and disease vectors.  Beddows is also the creator of the , which is focused on the development of a submersible data logger system for long term environmental monitoring projects.

Vinayak Dravid

A ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ-led team has that selectively soaks up oil in water without harming marine life or further damaging the environment.  Typically, oil spill clean-up is an expensive and complicated process, but the smart sponge is able to absorb more than 30 times its weight in oil, and can be used to inexpensively and efficiently clean up oil spills while also being reused many dozens of times without losing its effectiveness.  The research was led by , who is the Abraham Harris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering.