NJIT Forum Series Speaker Will Discuss Sustainable Environment
“Sustainability” — it’s a term that has risen to critical prominence in assessing our planet’s resources and the future well-being of society. In NJIT’s upcoming Technology and Society Forum http://tsf.njit.edu presentation, Jon Plaut, of Summit, will explore the antecedents of concerns with sustainability, including the agricultural and industrial revolutions, and increasing population.
The public is invited to the free talk set for Feb. 25, 11:30 a.m., in the NJIT Campus Center ballroom. Parking should be available on the street or in the NJIT parking garage, located at Summit and Warren streets.
Focusing on the present, Plaut will discuss the challenges of assuring a sustainable environment in the face of society’s other priorities, among them economic and political considerations on the global, regional and local levels. His overview of potential solutions will address the responsibilities of the individual, industry, government and the educational community, especially universities.
Plaut is president of the board of trustees of Global Learning, Inc., Union, an educational and environmental non-profit organization. Plaut was the former corporate director for the environment at AlliedSignal, now Honeywell, Morristown. Plaut has also held appointment to the NAFTA Environmental Commission (by President Clinton) and service with the U.S. EPA NACEPT Trade and Environment Committee, the U.S. Council for International Business Environment Committee and the United Nations Environment Committee in New York.
Plaut has taught environmental studies and management at Ramapo College, Rutgers, Penn State and Tufts University. He has a BS in engineering from Penn State, a JD and MA in law (Georgetown and New York Universities) and an MA in film studies from New York University.
NJIT Technology and Society Forum Committee, Albert Dorman Honors College and Sigma Xi are co-sponsors of the event. Upcoming talks include on March 31, 2008, Lynn Margulis, distinguished university professor, department of geosciences, University of Massachusetts – Amherst “Evolution of Life: Sex and Other Mergers.”
More upcoming events: A performance April 2, 2008 by members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; a performance April 7, 2008 by violinist Rieko Kawabata and a lecture April 30, 2008 by Charles Vest, president, American Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about 21st century engineering education.