Environmental conference to convene at U.

As part of its campaign to increase environmental awareness on campus, the University is hosting the president's forum on the environment today. The program – The Earth: Where's The Common Ground? – brings together environmental specialists in government, industry and academia to discuss cooperative approaches to environmental problems. The forum will spotlight past examples of successful interdisciplinary partnerships that tackled environmental problems, according to Mary Furash, a staff assistant in the president's office. Furash cited Biology Professor Daniel Janzen's project to stop the destruction of Costa Rican forests with the aid of the Costa Rican government and private organizations. Ann Shields, Interior Department deputy solicitor; Phillip Lewis, an environmental officer at the chemical company Rohm and Haas; and Janzen will lead a keynote session at 10:30 a.m. in the Towne building, Furash said. Janzen will discuss academia's latest attempts to stem the tide of environmental degradation, she said. Shields will focus on the Clinton administration's current environmental policies and Lewis on industry's internal efforts to combat pollution, she added. Nine separate lunch discussion sessions to examine the University's efforts to combat environmental problems will follow the lectures. Biochemistry Professor Irving Shapiro will lead a seminar on the relationship of toxic metals to human health, Furash said. The forum will give the University an opportunity to promote its new Institute for Environmental Studies. Shapiro and Geology Professor Robert Giegengack are working with 200 scholars from all disciplines to promote the development of new environmental initiatives in basic and applied sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities, Furash said. The forum coincides with the one hundredth anniversary of the Chemical Engineering Department. John Seinfeld, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, will give the Chemical Engineering Centennial Lecture this afternoon at the forum's closing session. The Medical Foundation for the Study of the Environment, Human Body Charitable Trust and the Proctor & Gamble Company are co-sponsoring this event.