“Those discussions forced us to think about how our physiology depends on the attributes of our home planet. The question about what to include in the Mars transport vehicle is a wake-up call for those insensitive to the elimination of biodiversity and poorly conceived urbanization globally,” said Ted Smith, PhD, deputy director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville. Smith also is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for NASA’s Translation Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) and organized the workshop.

At the next Beer with a Scientist, Smith will discuss what planning for long-range space travel reveals about the need to preserve our home planet’s health for our own survival.

Smith’s talk will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, at , 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged.

Upcoming Beer with a Scientist events:

• July 17:  Jason Chesney, MD, PhD, will discuss recent advances in using our own immune cells to cure cancer.

“I have been impressed with how far Louisville as a city has come in terms of sustainability and the University of Louisville has led the way,” said Ruhe, a longtime Jefferson County Public School special education teacher who is one of the first students enrolled in UofL’s new interdisciplinary master’s degree program with a sustainability concentration. “If it hadn’t been for the students and faculty pushing for change, none of this progress – and the recognition that has followed – would have been possible. To rank in the Top 50 is quite an accomplishment and reflects the commitment of all at UofL to become a leader in sustainability education for the 21st century.”

This marks the eighth consecutive year UofL has landed in the top 100.

Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives, said the scoring was based on UofL’s latest rating in the national . Earlier this year, UofL became the first college in Kentucky to achieve a gold STARS rating. STARS is the framework developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher ����ֱ�� to track progress in the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. 

This year, UofL scored more than 622 points out of a total of 1,000 in the annual ranking published by The Sierra Club, the oldest grassroots environmental group in the United States. The list is compiled based on data about a school’s sustainability initiatives in co-curricular education, energy, investments, food, innovation, academics, planning, purchasing, transportation, waste and water.

“What’s so exciting about this is not just that we’re doing one thing right, but that we are addressing sustainability across the board,” Mog said.