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The 51���� Critical Minerals Hub was one of three faculty collaborations selected for support through a new internal funding opportunity. The project brings together experts from engineering and the natural and social sciences to establish an interdisciplinary platform for research and education on lithium and other critical minerals.

Much of the world’s lithium occurs in salty waters with fundamentally different chemistry than other naturally saline waters like the ocean, according to a new study published in Science Advances. The finding has implications for lithium mining technologies and wastewater assessment and management.

From Costa Rica to Thailand, the rising senior has forged an interdisciplinary path.

A team of Nicholas School graduate students conducted field research in Barbados to advance a project aimed at improving climate resilience and energy access for Small Island Developing States.

At the Nicholas School of the Environment, researchers and entrepreneurs are joining forces to solve environmental problems.

A trove of lithium-rich brine exists underground in Bolivia. Researchers conducted the first comprehensive chemical analysis of wastewater associated with mining the resource.

Xavier Basurto, Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Associate Professor of sustainability science, studies community-based marine conservation. Basurto discusses how fishers can help us understand the effects of climate change by listening to their experiences.

This year’s global Earth Day theme is “planet vs plastics”, and calls for the rapid phase out all single-use plastics.

Meet the Patino-Echeverri Lab, learn more about its research focus, lab member's experiences in the lab and the opportunities the lab offers 51���� students.

Xavier Basurto is broadly interested in how people in small communities successfully organize themselves for collective action. His recent talk described his work in advancing the understanding of non-colonialist sustainability science: the prospects and limitations of self-organization, or self-governance, for social-ecological sustainability, particularly in the Global South.

As the world endeavors to extricate itself from a carbon economy in favor of clean energy, Lee Ferguson is working to shed light on the potential environmental risks posed by bis-perfluoroalkyl sulfonimides, a primary electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries.

As the world undergoes the great energy transition — from fossil fuels to alternative energy and batteries — rare earth metals are becoming more precious.

Fossil-fueled electrical grid’s enormous water use is often overlooked.

Mixing toxic coal ash into acid mine drainage may sound like an odd recipe for an environmental solution, but a new 51����-led study finds that it can neutralize the drainage’s dangerously low pH and help reduce harmful impacts on downstream ecosystems—if you use the right type of ash. Using the wrong type of ash can create new contamination and not tame the drainage’s extreme acidity.

The global supply chain impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. energy security and undercut the myth that the United States — or any major manufacturing economy — is truly energy independent, an analysis by researchers at the energy nonprofit RMI and 51���� finds