Scholarship to be given in memory of Syracuse University professor, environmental pioneer
Will Carrara | Contributing Photographer
The Nelson L. Nemerow Memorial Scholarship was named after Nelson Nemerow, a professor at SU and a pioneer of environmental protection.
Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science will award the first Nelson L. Nemerow Memorial Scholarship for environmental engineering graduate students this upcoming spring.
The scholarship will be given to research focused on water conservation and preservation. It was endowed in memory of Nelson Nemerow, a professor at SU and a pioneer of environmental protection, by his son Glen Nemerow. Glen, who belongs to the Scripps Research Institute, graduated from Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1973.
Glen said Nemerow was “really ahead of the curve in terms of understanding how important clean water was.”
As a professor, Nelson founded SU’s environmental engineering program in 1976. It was one of the first programs of its kind at any university nationwide, according to his obituary in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Nelson was a well-known researcher, who sought to find “ways to reclaim polluted water … allow industry to make the best use of their resources … (and) treat water as a precious commodity,” Glen said.
His father wrote several books and hundreds of articles on water pollution, conservation and treatment, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Part of the reason Glen established the fund was to make sure the field remembers his father’s contributions.
He added that on a personal level, his father’s work inspired him to embark on his own career in biomedical research.
“My father … used to take me into the laboratories and show me how he measured bacterial contamination in the water, and so at a pretty early age, I was getting exposed to scientific discovery,” Glen said. “I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.”
Glen said he hopes the scholarship will help environmental engineering graduate students travel to conferences and other meetings and “enrich their experience.”
“What I’m hoping for is that (students) will get inspired … (to) dedicate their careers to environmental engineering and preserving water resources,” Glen said. “That’s what my father would have really liked to see as his legacy.”
Published on November 28, 2016 at 12:28 am
Contact Madeleine: mdavison@syr.edu
