Alexander Orlov, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering at Stony Brook University, has received an educational award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) for Incorporating Sustainability into Chemistry Education. The 2017 ACS-CEI Award, sponsored by the Committee on Environmental Improvement (CEI), selected Orlov for his work, “Incorporation of novel education approaches, including online gaming tools and 3D printing, intro graduate and undergraduate courses focused on sustainable materials.”
The award program recognizes individuals and organizations that have made exemplary contributions to the incorporation of sustainability into chemical education.
Orlov is also a faculty member of the Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research and an affiliate faculty in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Advanced Computational Science. He said that David Ecker, director of the Innovation Lab at Stony Brook, helped his students use 3D printing as part of his course focused on sustainable materials, which led to this award.
The Innovation Lab located in Harriman Hall 210 is filled with 3D printers, green screens, video cameras, computers and more. The space gives inventive students a place to explore their creative nature while it teaches them necessary skills through a series of workshops on different types of equipment and programs used by inventors.