A Deeper Look at the Great Lakes (algae)
Making a Plan to Protect: NRRI joins effort to conserve and preserve Minnesota's resources with the Legislative-Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources
Rejuvenated focus on small business: NRRI kicks off new Product Development Fund
Antarctica: A month teaches geolgist about Minnesota rocks
Looking beneath the surface: NRRI transfers technologies to historic wood structures
Duluth's Apprise Technologies take off with Ecolab Inc.: NRRI response to an entrepreneur led to start of high-tech company
Making resources last: NRRI partners with Kiev scientist to gauge international sustainable development
Jerry Niemi receive Biennial Award for Great Lakes Science: Work on GLEI project is respected in U.S., Canada
Rapid Prototyping is so much more: Additive fabrication is at tipping point of industry
Johnson (Lucinda) joins University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment as 'founding fellow'
NRRI scientist Amy Kireta should be enjoying the cruise, satellite television, high-speed internet, three delicious meals prepared daily, exercise room, not a bad gig for a researcher on a month-long sampling expedition this spring in the heart of the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, there's no escaping sea sickness and storms.
Kireta is the phytoplankton specialist aboard the Environmental Protection Agency's research vessel Lake Guardian. The collected single-celled phytoplankton (algae) and zooplankton (microscopic animals) are going to supply reams of information about changes taking place in the waters of the Great Lakes. So at all hours of the day or night, seasick or not, the scientists get a 15 minute warning to don steel-toed shoes, life vest and hard hat before reaching their next sampling station.
NRRI received a $1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to play a significant role in collecting water quality data from the Great Lakes. Kireta and Lead Scientist Euan Reavie will use the algae to provide long-term information on the impacts of invasive species, excessive nutrients, and possibly, climate change in the lakes. The five-year project will investigate how these lowest links on the food chain are faring in the face of human disturbance. Reavie and Kireta will gather, identify, count and sort thousands of species of microscopic algae.
"Algae are a critical piece of the Great Lakes food web and can track the impacts humans have had, and will have, on fisheries and the lake ecosystem," Reavie explained.
Algae were used as indicators of the Great Lakes coastal zones during NRRI's recent Great Lakes Environmental Indicators project, but sampling in open water is fundamentally unique, the water moves mightily and the impacts are more diffused. Unlike localized coastal disturbances, results in the open water track whole-lake impacts.
Kireta uses a rosette sampler (see cover photo) to collect phytoplankton samples from the surface down to 65 feet below. The open waters and 6 to 10 foot waves could be a challenge, but the Lake Guardian and their tools are built for the task. And, Kireta added, "We have an experienced captain who keeps us pointed in the best direction and over the correct GPS point."
Once the samples are in the lab, the microscopic work begins. The soft algae are analyzed separately from the diatoms which have cell walls made of biogenic glass. This is followed by seemingly endless data compilation and analysis. The data are transformed into answers for critical ecological questions, like "How have we impacted the quality of the Great Lakes?" and "What does the future of the food chain look like?"
Not only will the scientists track long-term changes in the base of the food chain, but they will use their new understanding of what each tiny species can tell them about water quality to build computer-based models. These models will serve as tools to allow scientists to efficiently "read" a water-quality situation through the composition of the algae.
This research is part of a vast, multidisciplinary team of scientists, government officials and public representatives whose goal is the protection and restoration of the largest single source of fresh water in the world.
"Like the Rosetta Stone was used to translate the hieroglyphic alphabet, algae are a cypher we use for environmental quality. The Rosetta Stone, uncovered by Napoleon's army in Egypt in 1799, allowed for significant progress in reconstructing the ancient hieroglyphs commonly found on Egyptian architecture. Similarly, the environmental information we develop using calibration approaches can be used to decipher environmental information from algae found in modern samples and sediment cores."
What are the most significant challenges facing industry in Minnesota? Availability and sustainability of natural resources. That was the overwhelming message last fall from NRRI's Advisory Board industry representatives, especially for Minnesota's large forest-dependent industries.
But even more than jobs and products, our forests provide recreational spaces, plants, soils and wetlands to protect our water supplies, and they are home to wildlife large and small. We demand a lot from our forest landscape.
Yet, look at the map. About three-fourths of the land in Minnesota is privately owned and subject to the whims of landowners for development, clearing or dividing into increasingly smaller parcels. Minnesota's water resources are also showing signs of stress with 199 rivers and 916 lakes listed as impaired, and as testing continues more are added to the list.
What can NRRI do? Play a key role in development of a Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan for Minnesota's natural resources. The Legislative-Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) has assembled a comprehensive group to tackle this massive project.
NRRI will help lead research teams in land and wildlife issues as well as provide major input on water and data management. The project also includes groups working on air quality, fish, and recreation resources. NRRI's expertise in geographic and data systems will serve all areas of the project by managing an intranet information sharing system and conducting spatial analyses.
"NRRI's long history of research in natural resources has created an extensive library of species and landscape information that is precisely what is needed for this project," said George Host, director of NRRI's Geographical Information Systems lab and is also leading the information and land teams for this project."
The preliminary phase of the project will be compiled int he first six months with another milestone due in 18 months. The first phase will document baseline conditions of Minnesota's resources, basically what was here before European settlement, farming, logging and development changed the landscape. The next phase will be to understand the effect of those changes and develop future scenarios outlining options for use of Minnesota's resources. What will we have if current policies and actions continue? What can we hope for if a statewide conservation and preservation plan is implemented?
"Minnesota's comprehensive planning effort is way behind many other states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and California to ensure adequate availability of public open spaces for recreation, such as hunting and fishing," said Jerry Niemi, NRRI center director and co-leader of the project's wildlife team. "We are also behind in ensuring that we have publicly available forest resources to support a diverse forest-based industry and adequate protection of our state's biological diversity."
Minnesota's quality of life and economic strength relies on state conservation funding, but in spite of increased threats to natural resources, funding in this area has decreased more than one-third in the past five years (from MN Campaign for Conservation). Ultimately, this conservation and preservation plan will help identify where we need public investments in land resources to maintain our natural resource industries, but also to protect our strong outdoor heritage.
This may surpise you. Eighty to 90 percent of the jobs in Minnesota come from small businesses, and over 95 percent of the businesses in Northeastern Minnesota are classified as "small." With this in mind, NRRI has built a strong infrastructure to help entrepreneurs launch new businesses and help small businesses grow.
A large part of that successful economic development focus relied on state funding that allowed NRRI to assist these burgeoning enterprises with research and technical expertise. But, in 2001, state funding was retrenched and these resources to assist entrepreneurs became much more difficult to find. Unfortunately, it's at these early stages of business development when small companies often have neither the resources nor the expertise to devote to essential product or process development.
Today, we have good news. NRRI received grants from the Knight Foundation to start a Product Development Fund that will allow NRRI to expand its efforts to work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to create new jobs or retain existing jobs.
"I'm very excited about this new opportunity," said NRRI Director Mike Lalich. "NRRI's mission includes assisting with economic development in terms of retaining and creating new jobs and small, entrepreneurial businesses play a key role. It's extremely satisfying to help them get a strong start and assist in their growth through the years."
This is a role in which NRRI excels. A prime example is Northern Contours of Fergus Falls. Back in 1992, two entrepreneurs came to NRRI for help with research and development of membrane press technology to make kitchen cabinet components. Today, that ocmpany employs more than 500 people with more than $55 million in sales. And NRRI researchers continue to work with Northern Contours as they expand their product line. Over the years, NRRI has helped launch or expand a number of businesses.
The long-term benefit of the new Product Development Fund is that small business owners will incorporate new product development processes, from idea generation to market research, and make them part of their overall strategic plan as their company grows.
Pam Sarvela, NRRI business development specialist, says the fund fills an identified gap betwen business consulting services available for entrepreneurs to start a business and the various financing options available. "This money will help move a pr5oduct off the drawing board to commercialization," Sarvela said. "Most small companies don't have the resources to have their own research and development department. This gives them valuable access to NRRI's existing infrastructure and skills. "
NRRI's Product Development Fund is allowing small business owner Dan Brown to receive some needed technical assistance from NRRI wood products specialists for his growing WhiskeyJack Paddles business (named after the Grey Jay bird). His paddles can be purchased in Minnesota at Piragis Northwoods in Ely, Red Rock Wilderness Store in Ely, Wilderness Waters Outfitters in Grand Marais, and Hoigaard's in St. Louis Park or online at www.whiskeyjackpaddles.com.
NRRI has been working alongside Loll's sister comapneis TrueRide (skate park ramps) and Epicurean (cutting surfaces) from the beginning withproduct and process development. Loll is now leaning on NRRI's Product Development Fund to develop a strong manufacturing plan as they launch a line of outdoor furniture made with recycled plastic composites. The furniture can be purchased online at www.lolldesigns.com.
Geologists learn by looking at rocks. Of course, it's not that simple. Here in Minnesota, the tapestry of mineral-laden geology lies buried under forests, soils and parking lots. This makes Dean Peterson's job difficult. As one of NRRI's economic geologists, his job is to understand Minnesota's geology, where and what types of ore mienrals were deposited some 2.7 to 1.1 billion years ago. Here, geologsits figure it out by reading scattered outcroppings and drill holes. It's doable, but it's difficult.
So when Peterson was offered an opportunity to spend a month in Antarctica's Dry Valleys, he jumped at the chance. Yes, that's a long way from Minnesota, but surprisingly, the geology is the same. Both areas were focal poitns of dynamic magmatic systems associated with continental rifting, molter rock flowed up from the earth's mantle, forming intrusions in the uppercrust. The geologic setting was the same.
But the beauty of Antarctica for geologists is the 100 percent exposure of rock. They can look at layer upon ancient layer of deposits, up to 10,000 feet high.
In Minnesota, the Duluth Complex was the hot spot for dynamic magmatic molten movement. It's where NRRI's economic geologists go to identify valuable mienral deposits.
"In the Duluth Complex, I study the 'plumbing' of the intrusions. That's the key to finding the higher grade ore deposits," said Peterson. "so in the Dry valleys I can actually see how the magma moves up fromt he earth's crust, how it crosses certain rock bodies, and where it picks up sulfur to form sulfide minerals. In Antarctica I could see the 'plumbing' that I can't see in Minnesota."
If that wasn't exciting enough for Peterson (which it was) he also spent a month with one of the most renowned geologists in the country, Bruce Marsh of Johns Hopkins University.
"Spending time seeing this fabulous geology and learning from Dr. Marsh is really something special," said Peterson. Other scientists on the geologic expedition were from Poland, Slippery Rock University and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. This trip was funded by a grant the National Science Foundation.
* Antarctica is not as cold as people might think. Temperatures were, on average, in the 20w to 30s Fahrenheit and sometimes down to 10 at night, but we got used to it right away. After a day we were in shirtsleeves and a windbreaker. The sun is always out and intense.
* When the wind stops blowing there is utter silence. There is nothing to make a noise. It's eerie at first, but then I got used to it. The silence really gives you time to think. When we went back to McMurdo (U.S. Field Station) the noise created by 1,100 people living in close quarters was unbelievable.
* Humans have evolved in humid environments where water vapor in the atmosphere selectively absorbs lights, as you look into the distance things get bluer and bluer. We unconsciously perceive distance using the air's absorption of light. Antarctica is the driest place on earth. The humidity in the Dry VAlleys averages about 1 or 2 percent. The air's dryness adds an additional dimention to an Antarctic experience, light doesn't change color with distance. Mount Erebus, 120 miles away, will look exactly like it would if you were right next to it. It's hard to visually calculate any distance.
They've seen history rot away before their eyes. Walt Okstad and Bill Clayton do their best to keep watch over the old log buildings in the Superior National Forest, but the decades of rain, snow and wood-burrowing animals have wreaked havoc on the structures.
Built between 1933 and 1942, the forest is sprinkled with Civilian Conservation Corps buildings, valuable pieces of the history of rural Northeastern Minnesota, the U.S. Forest Service and President Roosevelt's work relief mission. Forest Service engineers and facilities workers do their best to maintain them, but as wood will, rot can hide insidiously within the log, not always apparent until it's too late.
Okstad and Clayton work for the Superior National Forest as historian and archeologist, respectively. When they learned that NRRI has the newest technologies for nondestructive wood testing, and that it was successfully being applied to historic wood structures, they had an answer to their problem.
NRRI's Brian Brashaw and his wood products team met the Superior National Forest crew at the East Bearskin Lake guard cabin on the Gunflint Trail, just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe and Wilderness Area. The cabin is used regularly by summer portage crews, fire crews and other staff.
Working with Steve Schmieding from the USDA Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisc., the team did a visual inspection first, noting many areas of decay. Then the big guns come out, ultrasound/stress wave timing and resistance micro-drilling technologies. These two technologies allow the inspectors to "see" what's going on inside the wood without cutting or boring into the logs.
'This is the first time we'd had access to these technologies," explained Okstad. "The methods we typically use are primitive by comparison. We tap with a hammer and bore with a drill, which is damaging in itself. The fact that this equipment exists, and folks who know how to use them are in this area, is very useful to us." The technologies found decay that the visual inspections missed and confirmed the severity of the decay seen in the visual inspections. The historian and archeologist now have a clear map of the damaged logs and can make plans for restoration.
"We had a building in the Boundary Waters that we had an historic architect look at," Clayton explained. "He gave it a fairly decent bill of health. Then we went up a couple of years later and four logs were completely rotted through. They missed all of that because they didn't have the right tools. It would have been nice to get a deeper look into those logs before they fell apart."
Brashaw worked with the Madison Forest Products Lab to develop a web portal and web seminar (webinar) to share nondestructive wood testing techniques for historic wood structures. The portal gives access to technical information, reports, and case studies, as well as archived and "live" webinars for historic home inspectors and preservationists. The webinars offer a 60-minute overview of important inspection techniques and a case study of one structure. The June 2007 webinar will highlight the Bearskin cabin project and will focus on log structure testing techniques. The web portal can be accessed online at qp.ntht.org/ historicwoodstructures.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief program for young men from unemployed families established on March 19, 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first hundred days. It was part of the New Deal designed to combat the poverty and unemployment of the Great Depression in the United States. The CCC became one of the most popular New Deal programs among the general public and operated in every state and several territories. The young men went to camps of about 200 men each for six month "periods" where they were paid to do outdoor construction work.
(Source: Wikpedia.com)
"Can you come up with something that will..." It's those words that get Apprise Technologies brains ticking. And it was NRRI's economic development mission that moved that creative energy forward. The Duluth optical sensor company got its start from an NRRI initiative to assist an entrepreneur who needed more efficient ways to do water analysis on lakes and streams. The young business was incubated at NRRI in 1997 and moved to its own location in 1999. (See "The Early Years" at right.) This past February, Apprise was acquired by Ecolab Inc.
Throughout the years, its mission hasn't changed; the Apprise staff develops solutions to problems that optic sensors can fix. The sensors are used in everything from hardening finishes, detecting purity of drinking water, and keeping turbine engines burning. Those versatile little optics have proven themselves in a wide variety of uses.
And it was those innovative uses that caught the attention of Ecolab Inc., the world leader in premium commercial cleaning and sanitizing, with global sales of $5 billion.
"Key to this acquisition, and what will make this a success for Ecolab, are the people here in our Duluth location," said Christopher Owen, former NRRI scientist and, more recently, co-founder, president and CEO of Apprise Technologies, before becoming corporate scientist and head of the Sensors and Controls Group for Ecolab Inc. "They've purchased the ingenuity of our people to apply sensor solutions to Ecolab problems. This is an area in which we really excel."
The Duluth location currently employs 25, but as success ultimately breeds success for Ecolab with this acquisition, the anticipated growth in science, engineering and high-end assembly jobs in Duluth will be very appreciated for the local economy.
"Our employees certainly have roots here and we want to demonstrate the value we can bring to Ecolab from Duluth," Owen added.
For the St. Paul-based company, the sensor solutions are a good fit. Accurate and proper dispensing of Ecolab products are critical to the effectiveness and economics of customer solutions, and sensors are a valuable enabling technology. And as products and systems become more sophisticated and demanding, they'll require even more accurate and robust optical sensing technologies.
"We had been successfully working with Apprise as partners on several projects for two years," said Susan Nestegard, Ecolab Inc. senior vice president of research development and engineering. "We made the decision to acquire the company because of the truly world class capabilities and team."
NRRI Director Mike Lalich expressed pride in the diligent efforts of Rondi Erickson, Apprise CEO during some very difficult transitional years, and former NRRI scientists Christopher Owen and Eugene Tokhtuev.
"We're very pleased that NRRI was able to help Apprise get its start in Duluth," Lalich said. "Most important, in my mind, is the prospect for continued growth in terms of high technology jobs for our region. We wish Apprise and Ecolab all the best as they transition into an exciting new phase of growth and development."
A solar-powered buoy system, the Remote Underwater Sampling Station (RUSS), was the first sensor deployment device developed in cooperation between researchers at NRRI, the private sector and UMD.
The RUSS was designed to deploy water quality sensors up and down the water column and provide real-time water quality analysis to remotely located scientists using cellular phone technology. The need to measure a variety of water quality parameters quickly led to a focus on development of optical sensors. Eugene Tokhtuev, a Ukrainian optical physicist, joined the NRRI development team to lead the optical sensor effort, along with NRRI researchers Christopher Owen and Rich Axler, in cooperation with UMD Chemistry Professor Robert Carlson. With the help of various individual and institutional investors, and based on the success of RUSS and the optical sensors, the University of Minnesota joined with the Blandin Foundation, SOTA TEC, the NRRI development team, and entrepreneur Alan Cibuzar to form Apprise Technologies in 1997.
Can we keep growing and maintain our quality of life well into the future? Will our environment continue to meet our needs for food, products and recreation? Can our global societies progress toward more tolerance and less conflict? These are questions of sustainable development and some countries are doing better at it than others.
Rector of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in the Ukraine, Dr. Michael Zgurovsky, met with NRRI scientists and administrators at the University of Minnesota to explore a partnership that will further refine and apply his Sustainable Development Gauging Matrix. It was developed to scientifically rank countries around the world based on how well they're doing on sustainable eocnomic, environmental and society development.
A mathematical model was used to build the matrix using internationally accepted indexes to measure a broader picture of a country's development progress. Examples of indexes used are the Growth Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum), the Environmental Sustainability Index (Yale University), and the Human Development Index (United Nations Development Program).
"The essence of the concept of sustainable development," according to Zgurovsky, "is the systemic coordination and harmonization of economic, ecological and human development in a manner in which the quality and safety of life should not decrease from one generation to the next, the environmental conditions should not worsen and the social progress should meet the needs of every person."
Using this matrix, the United States ranked 13 in 2005, then moved up to eight in 2006. The highest ranking countries with sustainable development are Finland, Iceland and Sweden and the Ukraine ranks near the bottom of the list.
Pavel Krasutsky, NRRI director of the Chemical Extractives Lab, was a colleague of Zgurovsky and brought him together with NRRI. Since it's inception in 1983, NRRI has maintained its focus of economic development with environmental sustainability and this project is a natural extension of that mission.
"Harmonization of the three directions of development is very important," explained Krasutsky. "For instance, we can have strong and sustainable economies, but it may be at the loss of sustainable environmental development. All three areas need to balance."
NRRI and the Kiev Polytechnic Institute agreed to coordinate their efforts on sustainable development. Krasutsky further emphasized that after gauging each country's sustainable development ranking, this index must be used to make improvements through legislation and government.
"We will visit Kiev this summer to plan the next steps of our cooperation and clarify new mutual projects on sustainable development," said Krasutsky.
During his trip, Zgurovsky also met with University of Minnesota Duluth administrators to discuss future cooperative projects in education and science between the two universities.
Many rivers and some of the largest lakes in the world lie along, or flow across, the border between the United States and Canada. The International Joint Commission is an independent bi-national organization established by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. Its purpose is to help prevent and resolve disputes relating to the use and quality of boundary waters and to advise Canada and the U.S. on related questions.
This important commission has awarded the Biennial Award for Great Lakes Science to NRRI Center Director Jerry Niemi for his leadership on the Great Lakes Environmental Indicators project.
This award was established in 2002 to publicly recognize the importance of science and engineering in the management of the Great Lakes. It recognizes Niemi as an outstanding scientist whose research has had a positive influence on environmental quality and the health of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem.
"Dr. Niemi's leadership in facilitating collaboration among Great Lakes researchers and his visionary research on indicators will enhance our understanding of the environmental health of the Great Lakes for years to come," said Dennis L. Schornack, U.S. co-chair of the IJC.
"It was observing birds that made biology come alive for me." So it was in 1971 when Jerry Niemi began his career as an avian ecologist when he took a course in ornithology from Jack Hofslund at UMD.
"Everything in biology began to make sense when I could see how important ecology, physiology, and even physics, were to the successful study of birds," said Niemi.
Niemi had completed his bachelor's degree in biology in 1974 and then completed his master's degree in zoology in 1977, both at the University of Minnesota Duluth. In 1979 Niemi was hired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a wildlife biologist in the Nongame Migratory Bird and Habitat Research Lab.
While pursuing a Ph.D. at Florida State University with advisor Frances James, Niemi received a Fulbright-Hays scholarship to study the bird communities on different continents at the University of Helsinki in 1981. It was there he forged professional, collaborative relationships with Finnish scientists that continue today.
"Jerry combined his talent for studying birds in peatland habitats and his tolerance for mosquitoes with his Finnish heritage by conducting a path-breaking analysis of bird communities in New World (Minnesota) and Old World (Finland) peatland habitats," explained James, professor emeritus at Florida State's Department of Biological Science. "The results of this project were published in the journal Ecology in 1985. He was a pleasure to have as a doctoral student."
Niemi's professional relationship with the Environmental Protection Agency offered him opportunities for more innovative applications for his avian knowledge. After many years of sharing his scientific expertise, Niemi took a leave of absence from UMD-NRRI to work as a research ecologist at the EPA. There he led research in predictive toxicology, now known as quantitative structure-activity relationship.
Gilman Veith was director of Duluth's EPA Laboratory at that time. He credits Niemi with the "scientific flexibility" to apply his mathematical methods for describing and tracking the changes in the shapes of birds to quantifying shapes of chemicals for their toxicity. This research on predicting chemical behavior was essential to the EPA's Toxic Substances Control Act which screens more than 2,000 new, untested chemicals every year.
"Jerry's work produced a series of papers on the importance of chemical shape to their behavior in the environment," Veith explained. "One paper on how to predict the biodegradability of chemicals and their environmental persistence is still the best model in literature."
Upon his return to NRRI, Niemi was named associate director of the Center for Water and the Environment, becoming director in 1989, while continuing his role as professor in biology, conservation biology and integrated biological sciences.
"Jerry not only led the effort to grow the Center for Water and the Environment to its current level of prominence, he did it in a manner that gained the deep respect of his colleagues and clients," said NRRI Director Mike Lalich. "Jerry is so well-respected that I've heard his research quoted by people on the opposite sides of an environmental issue on a number of occasions."
Over the years, he has contributed to improvements in land and water use at the local, state, and federal level. His special interests are in natural resource use, conservation biology and the Great Lakes.
"There wouldn't be any avian research in Northern Minnesota if it wasn't for Jerry Niemi," said Janet Green, NRRI advisory board member and secretary of the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory board. "He has been the spark behind research for the Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, the Forest Resources Council, especially in sharing the important ecological role of birds with land managers.
Among Niemi's accomplishments are several awards, numerous committee positions, over 200 peer-reviewed and technical papers, peer reviewer for 29 professional journals and advisor to graduate students.
"I don't think Jerry has ever met a problem that was too big for him to tackle. His recent multidisciplinary, multi-investigator work on environmental indicators to both estimate environmental condition and suggest plausible causes of ecosystem impairment in the coastal Great Lakes certainly was cutting-edge for the nation, and epitomizes what the IJC's Biennium Award is about."
Michael E. McDonald, Director of EPA Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program
"Jerry has always been an outstanding advocate for Minnesota's northern forests. He always advocated a strong ecosystem approach that brings together a diversity of economic and biological interests, united in the goal of sustainable forest conservation. Perhaps most important, he has always advocated for applying strong scientific principles to addressing outstanding forest issues."
Lee Pfanmuller, Director, Division of Ecological Resources, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
"Jerry's work as an ornithologist, toxicologist and statistician, three very different fields of research, have opened doors of new possibilities. This gives him insights that other scientists with more narrow perspectives couldn't obtain."
Lucinda Johnson, Associate Director, NRRI Center for Water and the Environment
You've boldly gone where no man has gone before. Your phaser is on the blink. What would Captain Kirk do? He'd go to his replicator, have new parts made in a flash and ask Scotty to put it together.
Unbelievable to most of us, replicator-like technologies are here today (although not for food products, as often used in the 1960s Star Trek television series). What it takes to be a believer is spending three days with almost two thousand people jazzed on technologies that are capable of building things faster than we can dream them up.
The Rapid 2007 conference held in Detroit, Mich., in May, marked 20 years since the first stereolithography machine lasered its first part. The first vision for this technology was for product development design, fit and function prototypes. The evolution of new technologies and materials has grown the applications to the point where the more inclusive name, additive fabrication, is gaining favor, additive being the opposite of the traditional subtractive methods of machining parts. The new technologies join together liquid or powder to form parts, producing plastic, metal, ceramic or composite parts micro-layer by micro-layer.
Speed, combined with detailed, freeform, anything-you-can-imagine, capabilities means that people-generated designs, not machines, will soon be the "bottlenecks" in production. (Fear not. It appears that something called rapid design is also on the horizon.) With the strong competition U.S. industries face across the ocean, we'd do well to adapt these technologies into any and every niche we can.
Name your industry: architecture, product design, medical, aerospace, industrial manufacturing, widgets and gadgets, all are going to be touched, and perhaps revolutionized, by the new manufacturing technologies available today.
According to Terry Wohlers, additive fabrication industry analyst, 3D printers are increasingly becoming line items in company budgets because they're easy to use, less expensive to operate and office friendly. The industry as a whole has grown an average of 23.2 percent in the past year.
The largest industry segment benefiting from additive fabrication, is consumer products and electronics (23.7 percent) followed by motor vehicles (19.1 percent), medical/dental (13.6 percent), industrial/business machines (9.8 percent) and aerospace (7.7 percent). Architectural and GIS applications, government/military, academic institutions and other uses make up the remaining 26.1 percent. (Wohler's 2007 State of the Industry Report)
Surprisingly, the jewelry market, a $70 billion industry worldwide, is the hot application for prototyping by far this year. Dental restoration, an $8.5 billion industry in the U.S., is moving fast and strong into this area, especially for dental crowns. Architectural applications are also growing steadily. A survey of prototype service providers (85 responded) showed that almost five percent of their customers are in the architectural or GIS fields.
Sintering of metal powders is the latest up-and-coming application for the additive fabrication industry and the bugs are rapidly (pun intended) being worked out. This will also offer more applications for rapid manufacturing, a newly coined phrase to describe the direct production of finished goods using additive fabrication techniques, eliminating the tooling process.
As Wohler explains, "[Rapid manufacturing] will eventually affect a wide range of industries and applications around the world. Product ideas that were once impractical due to tooling costs will become a reality."
Lucinda Johnson, NRRI associate center director, was named one of 15 "founding fellows" of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment.
Established in 2006, the Institute on the Environment will coordinate the university's breadth and depth of environmental skills and programs to make it easier for researchers to share knowledge with each other and the public. The institute will bring the university's wide-ranging environmental experts closer together, helping to trigger even greater discoveries and further enhance the university's reputation as an environmental leader.
Fellow selection criteria included being a leading scholar in an environmental field, with a robust record of scholarly accomplishment in publishing and research support; having experience in multi-investigator and multidisciplinary research; being excellent leaders, team-builders, communicators and institute ambassadors; and having a strong commitment to the mission of the institute. Johnson's research projects include the effects of multiple stressors, including climate change, on aquatic communities, and quantifying responses to stress in coastal ecosystems using fish and macroinvertebrates.
NRRI Center Director Jerry Niemi praised Johnson's 15-plus years as a key scientist, facilitator and administrator at NRRI.
"She has experience in many disciplines including aquatic ecology, landscape ecology, and expertise in geographic information systems, watershed management, and climate change," he said. "Lucinda will be an excellent representative and conduit of information for cooperation between the Institute of the Environment and UMD."
Check us out: www.nrri.umn.edu
Michael Lalich, director
Center for Water and the Environment, Gerald Niemi, director
Center for Applied Research and Technology Development, Donald Fosnacht, director
Center for Economic Development, Elaine Hansen, director
NRRI Now
Nora Kubazewski, managing editor
June Kallestad, editor/writer
Trish Sodahl, graphic design
The Natural Resources Research Institute was established by the Minnesota Legislature in 1983 to foster economic development of Minnesota's natural resources in an environmentally sound manner to promote private sector employment.