Peking University, Beijing, June 1st, 2009: The Dow Greater China announced the list of the winners in the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge on May 25 at Peking University. Each of the awarded individuals or groups will win $10,000 as prize for their innovative researches in the field of global sustainability development.

Mr. Jim McIlvenny, President of Dow Asia Pacific, said that he was very glad to organize this activity together with PKU. They have seen Chinese students’ creativity and practical actions facing the challenge of sustainability development. The sustainable chemistry is the core of the Dow Company so that they have always tried their best to train future leaders with sustainable foresight in both China and other parts of the world. This global challenge was a strong proof.

Li Yansong, Assistant to President of PKU, expressed that it was very significant for the Dow to hold this global challenge. It is also PKU’s honor to take part in it. As one of the best universities in China, PKU has always been in the front in China’s sustainability development. He said that they were very glad to cooperate with the Dow to show PKU students’ capabilities when facing challenges of the sustainability development.

Launched in 2008, this innovation challenge aligns with Dow's 2015 Sustainability goals, which are to strengthen their relationships with the communities where they operate, continue to improve their product stewardship and innovation, and reduce their environmental footprint.

The aim of Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge is to promote the development of sustainability, interdisciplinary, and innovative solutions to global challenges. The selected universities to this activity include Cambridge University, Northwestern University, Peking University, Tufts University, University of Michigan, and University of Sao Paolo.

The challenge is supported by The Dow Chemical Company Foundation. The topics for selection include: sustainable chemistry, energy efficiency and conservation, adapting to or reducing climate change impact, life cycle product safety leadership, and sustainable freshwater supply and distribution. The Specific criteria include:

Winning work should have a potentially significant impact on sustainability, have scalable attributes, and be useful to society.

Winning work should demonstrate innovative thinking and excellence in research, such as a well-crafted premise and convincing research data.

Winning work should bear the potential of solving significant problems or the identified challenge problem. 

The topics of the three PKU winning groups are the exploring research on new generation of green transportation fuels (based on coal, natural gas and biomass energy), new substance transformation ways based on transition metal catalysts, and the status and application in China of air guard-PANs on-line monitoring instrument.

Edited by: Cai Ying

Translated by: Su Juan

Source: Beida News (Chinese)