The master’s student was outside in the summer heat, filling 500-gallon tanks with potable reclaimed water at the Metropolitan Sewer District’s Floyds Fork Water Quality Treatment Center. The four tanks were heading to four Louisville craft breweries, where the water would be used in some new brews as part of a pilot project.

Shipman, 22, knew better than just about anyone that it was ready to drink. So on that hot July day, he took a couple of gulps.

“And I’m still standing here,” he laughed.

Shipman is one of 20 University of Louisville Speed School students who had a part in the water pilot project, which has been named Next Round Brewing (motto: “Good as New, Great for Brew”). He is using the project for his master’s thesis.

Next Round is a joint effort among UofL, MSD, Louisville Water Co., the breweries, the Kentucky-Tennessee Water Environment Association, the Kentucky-Tennessee section of American Water Works Association and Isopure Corp., the world’s leading manufacturer of FDA-registered equipment for dialysis water treatment, which built the purifier. The goal was to find a way to turn something no one would consider drinking into something everyone would want to drink.

Milad Ebrahimi, a Speed School doctoral graduate who works as an MSD regulatory compliance analyst, had the idea about a year ago. He proposed a capstone project for seniors in the chemical engineering department: What are the best ways to remove enough contaminants from treated wastewater to make it drinkable? 

Five teams of four students each took on different challenges for the small-scale wastewater treatment system, including experimenting with chemicals and filters, adding copper ions and water softeners and zapping the water with UV light. Ebrahimi and his team took the best ideas from each student group and incorporated it into Next Round’s water purification system.��

“They all did a great job,” he said.

The team tested the water, tweaked the system, then tested it again, then tweaked it again. This happened over and over and over and over until, by July, lab tests showed the water met the standards for drinking water. It’s the first time this has been successfully done in Kentucky and Tennessee, Ebrahimi said.

“This process is not fast,” Shipman said. “But quality and safety is not to be rushed.”

An informational video about Next Round emphasizes that the amount of water on Earth is finite, and parts of the world are already struggling with the demand for clean drinking water.��

“Inspiring and promoting dialogue about diversifying our nation’s water portfolio is an important part of a national water strategy,” Ebrahimi wrote in an article describing the project.��

The four breweries — Gordon Biersch, Holsopple Brewing, Akasha Brewing and Apocalypse Brew — will serve their beer Aug. 18 at Louisville’s Waterfront Park during the celebration of water event sponsored by the Water Professionals Conference.��

“The source isn’t really quite as important as what comes out,” said Nick Landers of Gordon Biersch.��

Read about the breweries in this WFPL .��

Check out more about this project here:

News arrived this spring that UofL was ranked highest in Kentucky in a key sustainability measure, the international Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS).

“UofL’s unwavering commitment to the health of our planet is another reason to be proud of this institution, but this is not the time to remain idle,” said Neeli Bendapudi, UofL president. “We will and we must continue this hard work to ensure a bright future. I am so proud of our faculty, staff and students who are devoted to this issue for the university and in their daily lives.”

STARS, part of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher ����ֱ�� (AASHE), relies on institutions to report the steps they are taking regarding environmental, social and economic stewardship. Schools’ ratings are valid for three years, and the total points they earn result in awards that range from platinum (highest) to bronze.

UofL scored for 2019, a 1% increase since UofL’s last STARS rating in 2016 and the highest rating for any college or university in Kentucky. The score also notched UofL’s second consecutive gold award. UofL ranks fourth among ACC schools with a STARS rating.

“This is the fourth STARS report we have submitted since 2011 and we continue to increase our score each time,” said Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives. “Our new score puts UofL in the top 100 most sustainable schools on the planet. We can attribute this progress to the ongoing commitment of our university’s administration, faculty, staff and students to this increasingly important issue.”

Among the efforts that helped push UofL to the top were the new, the and our annual maple-tapping project on campus.

Recycling still a priority

With a gold STARS rating on our side, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that recycling remains a priority at UofL.

Our participation in the North American RecycleMania competition in February and March resulted in a No. 1 ranking in Kentucky in two categories: diversion and per capita. We recycled 57.6% of our trash overall for the eight-week period, or 16.8 pounds per person.

Additionally, the Sustainability Council recently issued UofL’s , showing UofL last year recycled or composted more than 6.5 million pounds of waste, or slightly more than half our total waste.

UofL’s , begun in 2010 and run by philosophy lecturer Brian Barnes, will expand this fall with the addition of a student intern to manage worm composting operations.��

In its 30^th year, the Trustees Award recognizes one faculty member annually for his or her outstanding contributions to student life. The award is the most prestigious faculty honor at UofL.

This year’s recipient is Jeffrey C. Sun, JD, PhD, chair of the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development’s Department of ����ֱ��al Leadership, Evaluation, and Organizational Development (ELEOD). He is a nationally known scholar in higher education law who five years ago arrived at UofL and began the nation’s first faculty development program for U.S. Army ROTC instructors. The course, taught at Fort Knox, is attracting attention from others who want to partner with UofL, such as the U.S. Navy and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and has made UofL the leading ACC institution for percentage of student body who are military-connected.

Students and fellow faculty members alike wholeheartedly recommended him for the award, saying Sun’s unwavering support for his students despite his full schedule makes him stand out.

“I came to the University of Louisville to work with Dr. Sun,” wrote Megan J. Pifer, PhD, associate professor of higher education and senior assistant director of the Master Educator Course (MEC). “He cultivated his vision around what students need today, what they will need tomorrow, and how we must better prepare them for their lives and careers.”

She praised Sun for never letting his large-scale projects detract from his teaching and mentorship. “He is known for recognizing students by name and remembering the details of their journeys—the institutions where they work, their recent promotions, the names of their children, their ambitions. I have personally delivered thank-you notes to him hand-written by students who want to express their appreciation for his effort to see him, sometimes among hundreds at a time, as individuals with fears, goals and talents.”

William Kyle Ingle, PhD, associate professor and assistant ELEOD department chairperson, pointed out that Sun further impacts students indirectly through his leadership as department chair. Sun led the department to adopt four goals: enhance the student experience, value research and inquiry, develop partnerships and create a culture of community building and systems development.

“Dr. Sun is tireless in his pursuit of these goals and his dedication and work ethic are an example to us all,” Ingle wrote in his nomination letter. “… When a faculty member says he or she cannot, Dr. Sun says, yes you can.”

U.S. Army Master Sgt. Raul Cantu, a former student who is senior military instructor at Stephen F. Austin State University and an 18-year active duty serve member, said thousands of cadets have benefited from what their leaders learned in the Sun’s MEC (formerly known as the Cadre and Faculty Development Course).

“Hundreds of students have completed (the course) and taken that knowledge to their host universities/programs,” he wrote. “…I can honestly say that my experience with the University of Louisville, (the MEC) and Dr. Sun has been transformative for me professionally and personally.”

Sun has a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master of Philosophy  from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and Teachers College at Columbia University; a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Moritz College of Law – The Ohio State University; and an MBA, and International Business Certificate and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University. He is a member of the bar in Ohio.

During his career, he has won more than $10.3 million in grant and contract funding. He has more than $1.7 million in external funds under review.

Sun received the news that he won after the trustees voted on the award at their April 18 meeting.

“Given the many dedicated, high-quality professors at the University of Louisville, receiving this award is surprising and humbling,” Sun said.

The award is accompanied by a $5,000 prize. Sun plans to use $500 to establish a student scholarship fund in honor of Kelly Ising, a 42-year UofL employee who retired recently as ELEOD’s administrative associate. The rest he hopes to use on well-deserved break – a family vacation that will include his siblings and 10 nieces and nephews.

When asked his reaction to winning the Trustees Award, Sun provided his personal “Statement of Teaching.” He noted that he won similar teaching awards from his previous institutions.

“While the awards are emblems of my progress,” he wrote in his statement, “I recognize that my role and professional responsibility include continuous development–especially in terms of incorporating new technologies and applying findings from new research on graduate teaching and advising.”

More history of the Trustees Award and previous Trustees Award winners can be found .

The editors found themselves with dozens of boxes of bound BloodHorse magazines dating back to 1940 and no place to put them. They were a duplicate set, and some of them were even bound in a green cloth valuable to collectors.

“These magazines contain a wealth of historical information, and the last thing we wanted to do was throw them into a dumpster,” said Eric Mitchell, bloodstock editor at BloodHorse. “One of our first calls was to Sean (Beirne) at the UofL Equine Industry Program, which BloodHorse has supported for years by offering internships to students, providing guest lecturers, and hiring graduates of the program.”

That’s why, one cold day in March, Beirne and equine administrative assistant Liz Young found themselves driving to Lexington in a rented truck. What they came back with is unique to UofL.

BloodHorse Magazine’s donation to the University of Louisville Equine Industry Program marks the first time the program has been the recipient of a book collection. While the equine program is a part of the College of Business, the donated volumes will be kept in Ekstrom Library on Belknap Campus.

The collection consists of a continuous run of BloodHorse Magazine from 1940 to 2018 bound in 332 volumes. It contains more than 4,100 issues, many bound in green cloth. Also donated were a selection of Goodwin’s Turf Guides that date back to the mid- to late-1800s.

“This donation gives researchers an enormous amount of thoroughbred racing history and breeding in one place,” said Beirne, director of the Equine Industry Program. “On behalf of our students, faculty members and researchers, I thank BloodHorse for trusting UofL with this invaluable collection.”

UofL’s Equine Industry Program offers an accredited business degree with an equine focus. Graduates can be found in all aspects of the industry, from training to broadcasting.��

BloodHorse offers comprehensive and broad-ranging coverage of thoroughbred racing and breeding. The company’s website, , offers daily news, analysis, race entries and results.

“We were thrilled that UofL wanted the books and recognized their value,” Mitchell said.  “It really does offer peace of mind that they have a home where they are appreciated and used.”

• Shower doors made with “smart glass”
• Zero-waste systems for distilleries
• Systems to turn wastewater into purified water for brewing craft beer
• Methods to minimize plastic waste in the ocean
• Methods to prevent corrosion in concrete roads and bridges
• Products to keep children from being forgotten in hot cars

From solar batteries to building designs to a specialized Alexa product for Papa John’s franchisees, the projects and prototypes demonstrated at the first Engineering and Design Innovation Showcase showed the depth and breadth of UofL engineering students’ ingenuity and enthusiasm.

The event, held in the Student Activities Center April 18, featured teams of seniors — as well as a select group of first-years — demonstrating their capstone projects. Almost 90 teams totaling more than 350 students showed their posters and prototypes to representatives from the president’s office, members of the boards of trustees and overseers, faculty, industry professionals, administrators, fellow Speed students, K-12 students and even a few proud parents.

Fifty teams had company sponsors for a total of $168,000. Additionally, four companies sponsored coveted industry awards — DuPont, Papa John’s, Qk4 and TOPY America Inc.

One team, Saf-T Child, took home two of the four industry awards: DuPont’s Innovation to Thrive Award and the Papa John’s Most Innovative Award, each worth $1,000. The team designed a weight-sensing pad that alerts drivers if a child remains in the car after it is turned off. Team members were Clay Groeschen, Hadassah Lamppin, Michael York and Kendall Ogden.

The QK4 Engineering Award, worth $500, was given to the team Technology for People Living with Dementia, which came up with an affordable computer system that those with dementia can use when caregivers cannot help with tasks. Team members were Kody Arvin, Robert McKinney and Daniel Padgett.

The winner of the TOPY America Inc. Environmental Award, also worth $500, was Operation: Save the Turtles. The team’s goal was to protect ocean life by coming up with an alternative to recycling plastic that would convert plastic into useful products such as diesel fuel. Team members were Delaney Coovert, Allison Melvin, Miao Ting Li and Jianchao Zhao.

“I could feel the excitement and the interest of those who were attending,” said Speed School Dean Emmanuel Collins, who promised to make the showcase an annual event.��

Check out video from the event: 

Frankie Lewis is a self-trained fashion designer whose impressive resume includes working on costumes for the Louisville Ballet and P!nk’s Beautiful Trauma Tour. She has been a featured designer on the KMAC Couture: Art Walks the Runway show and has founded her own company, Ann DeEvelyn Clothing. A Louisville native, Los Angeles is her new home base, but she travels frequently to the city where it all started for her.

“I hope Card Nation is proud of me,” Frankie wrote in an email.

Frankie credits UofL, and especially the place she calls, “The Shop,” with launching her career. She graduated in 2010 with a bachelor of science degree in theater with a focus on acting and costume design/construction.

“The theater department at UofL has amazing opportunities for students, one of them being the costume shop,” she said. “There I was able to learn valuable skills that have led to so many opportunities. The relationships I’ve made there will be ones that I keep the rest of my life.”

It was her network of UofL friends and colleagues that helped Frankie land both the ballet and P!nk jobs.

“‘The Shop,’ as I call it, functions like a family,” she said, “in that different generations of students look out for or seek help from other generations. My first employee was a costume shop graduate who I never shared any actual school time with.”

Frankie said she always dreamed of being on “Project Runway,” which is in its 17th season (). She is one of 16 designers competing for the largest cash prize in the show’s history at more than $250,000.

“I’ve always dreamed of being on ‘Project Runway,’ and when I received the official call that I was chosen this year, I cried and thanked God,” she said. “My family and close friends and I are going to hang out on the couch and watch together.”

and check out her designs on and her Instagram account, @frankiee_leww. Catch the 90-minute “Project Runway” on Bravo at 8 p.m. EST.

Located in SAC W303C, the pantry will offer a variety of donated non-perishable goods, hygiene products and recovered foods. The hours will be Monday, Wednesday, Friday, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Efforts to open the food pantry began last summer when students on the began discussing the issue of food insecurity.��The Sustainability Council’s Free Store in Unitas Tower, offering no-cost clothing and household items as a way to encourage recycling, had been stocking some food items, but there wasn’t enough space for a full-fledged pantry.

Food insecurity is defined as “a lack of consistent access to healthy food options,” said Kathy Meyer, coordinator of student leadership and service and adviser to the Engage Lead Serve Board. “From our conversations, we shared general observations about the need for safe and easily accessible free food resources for students with limited funds. We also discussed opportunities to provide support and education about the importance of food sustainability and eliminating food waste on campus. As a group, we decided to focus on developing a campus food pantry, which the Student Government and the Engage Lead Serve Board were in full support of establishing.”

Last fall, . The network’s 230 nationwide chapters are aimed at combating hunger and food waste. As part of the network, students collected leftover food such as bagels from Einstein Bagels and delivered it to local food banks and shelters. The UofL chapter has recovered over 1,900 pounds of food, with some now going toward the food pantry.

Just last month, the federal government published a on college students and food insecurity, recommending colleges and state agencies do a better job providing information that would help eligible students obtain assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“In fiscal year 2017, the federal government spent over $122 billion in grants, loans and work-study funds through federal student aid programs to help make college accessible to students,” the study said. “This substantial federal investment in higher education is at risk if college students drop out because they cannot afford basic necessities like food.”

UofL brought the topic to the forefront last year in awarding its Grawemeyer Award in ����ֱ�� to Temple University’s Sara Goldrick-Rab. Her eye-opening research into the modern struggle to pay for college, published in her 2016 book, “Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid and the Betrayal of the American Dream,” details students’ struggles with not only tuition and books, but also food insecurity, homelessness and lack of transportation. Her nonprofit research center, the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, studies these issues to improve the lives of what Goldrick-Rab calls “#RealCollege students.”

“I’m delighted to see University of Louisville students acting to support their classmates’ basic needs” Goldrick-Rab said. “For far too long, insufficient food and poor housing marked college life, undermining a learning experience that should be immensely rewarding. Louisville is a welcome addition to this national movement.”

Blowen is the founder of Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement sanctuary based in Georgetown, Kentucky. A retired Boston Globe movie critic and arts journalist, he established Old Friends in 2003 and, ironically, the first big name Thoroughbred entrusted to his care was Sunshine Forever, who had been owned and beloved by the award’s namesake, Galbreath.

The Galbreath Award has been given annually since 1990 to honor entrepreneurial leadership that has had a significant and positive impact on the equine industry. Galbreath was the visionary owner of Darby Dan Farm in Lexington and a former Churchill Downs chairman who distinguished himself as both a businessman and a horseman.

A facility like Old Friends devoted solely to retired Thoroughbreds without bells and whistles to interest tourists “was an unproven idea … and skeptics predicted it wouldn’t work,” said attorney Milton C. Toby in his nomination letter for Blowen. “They were wrong.”

“I am flabbergasted,” Blowen said, “especially when I think that John Galbreath’s own Sunshine Forever helped me build a foundation for success. I had a simple idea and I was always surprised someone else hadn’t done it before me. This award reinforces our belief at Old Friends that aftercare is an important part of racing.”

Today, Old Friends has a main facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, and two satellite farms. It is unusual in that it accepts retired stallions. The organization has grown from a leased paddock and one horse to a 236-acre farm, a herd of over 200 rescued and retired horses, and the two satellite facilities: Old Friends at Cabin Creek just outside of Saratoga, New York, and Old Friends at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Kentucky.

“Michael Blowen represents everything the Galbreath Award celebrates,” said Sean Beirne, director of the equine program. “He saw an opportunity to showcase Thoroughbreds in their twilight years and let them continue to thrill their fans in a unique way. UofL is proud to acknowledge his achievements.”

A dinner in Blowen’s honor is scheduled for Jan. 16, 2019 at the University Club.

Van Clouse, a 30-year UofL professor who co-founded the entrepreneurship MBA program, and Henry “Hank” Conn, a UofL alumnus who pledged over $20 million to create the J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s , were this year’s honorees at the Nov. 16 ceremony.��

Their names were inscribed on a plaque located just outside the college in Jane Goldstein Plaza.

Clouse, who will retire at the end of the academic year, is the Cobb Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the . He has taught hundreds of students and coaches entrepreneurship MBA teams in regional, national and international .

“It saddens me that the time has come for me to retire,” said Clouse, who came to UofL in 1986. “I will continue to follow the program, but I feel like our current program is in really good hands. … I’ve told my colleagues if you ever have a question, give me a phone call and you may find me if I’m not out on a trail hiking somewhere.” 

Conn earned his undergraduate degree from the Speed School in 1966, an MBA from COB in 1969 and a Master of Engineering from Speed in 1972. Since 1983, he has been involved in more than 25 startups.

He said his MBA “was priceless for me all the way through,” and said he was honored to be recognized in the Circle of Fame.

Clouse and Conn bring to 16 the number of honorees in the Circle of Fame, begun in 2012.

Past honorees are W. Stewart Cobb, ’56 (2012); Thomas R. Davidson, ’62 (2012); Terry E. Forcht, ’59 (2012); David A. Jones, ’54 (2012); James A. Patterson, ’55 (2012); Daniel C. Ulmer, ’55 (2012); Kenneth C. Gardner, ’72 (2013); Kent Oyler, ’80 ’82 (2014); Thomas A. Wimsett, ’86 (2014); Randall J. Bufford, ’81 (2015); Sean O’Leary, ’95 (2015); Diane Medley, ’80 (2016); W. Earl Reed III, ’73 (2016); and William J. Ready, ’01 (2017).

Erin, 22, is a senior who will graduate in December. Her double major is in anthropology and sustainability, and she has worked as the university’s Zero Waste intern for the UofL Sustainability Council since fall 2017. Henny, 19, is a sophomore who majors in anthropology and sociology and has been the sustainability office’s communications intern since fall 2017.

They recently founded a chapter at the University of Louisville, making it the second chapter in the state. The national Food Recovery Network (FRN) is a student-led effort with 230 chapters nationwide aimed at combating hunger and food waste. Bellarmine University started Kentucky’s first FRN chapter in 2014 and has donated more than 10,000 pounds of food.

“We are so thrilled to have UofL join the national movement to transform food waste into social justice,” said Justin Mog, UofL’s assistant to the provost for sustainability. “It is exactly these kinds of efforts which we had always dreamed would grow out of our Sustainability Internship program and our new sustainability major. I’m so proud of all the hard work Erin and Henny have put into this and delighted to welcome Erin in December as the very first sustainability alum at UofL.”

Erin and Henny were joined recently by 20-year-old junior Melissa Sternberg, who transferred from Bellarmine University, where she was already involved in its FRN chapter. Melissa is also a sustainability major and is the sustainability assistant in the housing office.

The students are dedicated to environmentalism and social change. When Brian Barnes, a philosophy professor who runs the EcoReps program, brought a student from Bellarmine to UofL to talk about the FRN, Erin and Henny wanted to get involved. They soon became partners and friends.

“Recovering unsold food and delivering it to those who need it not only fulfills a need in the community, it keeps food waste out of landfills,” Erin said. “Sustainability is as much about social issues as it is about environmentalism.”

So far this year, the students have recovered more than 1,000 pounds of food and delivered it to St. Vincent de Paul or Wayside Christian Mission. For the most part, the food has consisted of bagels, pastries and salads from Einstein’s, but leftover fresh mushrooms and potatoes from summer orientation events were also donated by Aramark, UofL’s dining services contractor. The students will train anyone who wants to participate using FRN training materials.

“We get a text from Einstein’s letting us know they have food for us to take,” Henny said. “One of us goes to get it. We package it in paper lawn waste bags because they are not plastic and they are big. We weigh it and just drive it over. Sometimes we’re busy, but we do our best. We are always looking for more volunteers.”

Among other things, affiliating with the FRN will help the students formalize the process with rules that ensure food safety and track progress.

Erin and Henny have recently secured a space for a food pantry on Belknap Campus (tentatively to be located in the Student Activities Center) for students, staff and faculty. The pantry, expected to open later this semester, will be in addition to the Sustainability Council’s Free Store in Unitas Tower.

Their project is in line with research conducted by Sara Goldrick-Rab, UofL’s 2018 Grawemeyer Award winner in education. Goldrick-Rab’s 2016 book, “Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid and the Betrayal of the American Dream,” discusses the soaring costs of higher education that often results in food and housing insecurity for students.

Look for the students at this year’s Sustainability Fair Oct. 24 in the Humanities Quad for more information. The fair is part of UofL’s annual celebration of Sustainability Week, with more events .

For more information about sustainability at the University of Louisville, .