The Academic Minute

Sustainable waste conversion techniques on Earth might one day be applied to colonies on the Moon or Mars.

Toufiq Reza, associate professor of chemical engineering in the department of chemistry and chemical engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology, examines how.

Faculty Bio:

Dr. Toufiq Reza is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech) in Melbourne, Florida. His primary research interests are thermochemical and biochemical conversion of biomass including HTC, hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), supercritical water gasification (ScWG), torrefaction, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, wet air oxidation, and pelletization. He has published more than one hundred peer-reviewed journal articles, five patents, two book chapters, and delivered more than one hundred oral and poster presentations.Educational BackgroundPostdoc, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam, Germany, 2014Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, 2013M.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, 2011B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 2008A link to the Reza Research Group at Florida Tech: https://research.fit.edu/reza/

Transcript:

Here on Earth, human waste typically goes into a sewer or septic system, while trash goes into a landfill—some might be recycled, incinerated, composted, dumped out at sea or sent to a facility as part of a waste-to-energy process.

In orbit above the Earth, astronaut waste, such as food packaging, clothing, hygiene items and uneaten food, is launched back towards Earth and incinerates on the way there. But, as humans look further into space to colonize the Moon and Mars and perhaps eventually beyond, all of this must be processed by a system of sustainable waste conversion techniques.

My current focus is on exploring the development of effective methods of waste treatment in places beyond Earth’s orbit.

This means looking into the future, perhaps decades ahead. Because, historically, the approach on Earth has often been to develop settlements and communities first and deal with the trash later—but space explorers will need to have effective solutions in place at the very start as they begin colonization.

Some of my focus considers how my previous research on sustainable waste conversion techniques on Earth might be applied to Moon or Mars colony projects dealing with waste and resource recovery. To find sustainable new ways to convert trash and waste into energy, materials and chemicals.

Possibilities include creating carbon material we call biochar (a sort of charcoal) as well as nutrients to mix with Lunar or Mars regolith to grow crops, converting some of the plastics and other material that can be 3D printed to make habitat ready commodities or useful components, sorting out fibers from discarded garments for other uses with additional processing.

An added bonus–as we create new approaches that will work in a Martian or Lunar environment–is that those advancements might in turn be adaptable to sustainable waste management back on Earth.

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How can we make the jobs of substance abuse counselors easier?

Cailyn Green, Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University, examines one resource designed to do so.

Faculty Bio:

Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., Masters-CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University. Her research in the substance use field a supported by her past clinical experience.

She earned her BA degree in psychology from Wester New England University, her MS degree in forensic mental health from Sage Graduate School and her Ph.D. in criminal justice with a specialization in addiction science from Walden University. Dr. Green is also a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor in New York State. Dr. Greens area of expertise is supporting clinicians who work in the addiction field to best serve their clients. She spent her hands on clinical time working directly with the recently incarcerated population.

Transcript:

The Group Counseling Workbook was created to offer clinical counselors a free resource they can use to make their jobs a little bit easier. This workbook was first written for active counselors in the field and it can be used as an educational component for trainees, interns or new counselors as well as seasoned counselors. The Group Counseling Workbook is a free open education resource that anyone can download and change under its Creative Commons publication.

This workbook was developed based on research I conducted investigating what resources could help our substance use counselors do their jobs. The research involved 15 participants who were all actively working as counselors in the substance use field. Their experience included working in inpatient, outpatient, residential and detox facilities. Their education ranged from associates degrees to masters degrees and years of working in the field varied from 1 to42 years. Participants who completed the qualitative interviews reported that lack of time and lack of free resources created stress in their daily work. They identified that they would use a group counseling resource to help them facilitate strong clinical group sessions.

The goal of this Group Counseling Workbook is for counselors to use it for free, but also to hopefully send additional group counseling activities so we can continue to grow this free resource. This resource is being housed in the SUNY Empire State University online library. This free resource should lighten the workload for our substance use counselors who are actively working in the front lines.

Read More:

Group Counseling Workbook

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