A member of the National Academy of Engineering will discuss this century’s top five environmental challenges and the technological, societal and cultural advances needed to address those issues Friday, Jan. 28, on the University of Missouri-Rolla campus.

The free lecture, titled "Environmental Grand Challenges," is open to the public and will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Room 121 of the Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building. Dr. Jerald L. Schnoor, the Allen S. Henry Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa, will reflect on the following environmental issues: water, emerging chemical contaminants, global climate change and energy choices, biodiversity and loss of species, and sustainability and the future.

Schnoor serves as the editor-in-chief of Environmental Science and Technology and is active on the National Research Council Water Science and Technology board. In addition, Schnoor has provided congressional testimony on environmental issues and served as a U.S. delegate to the Rio Earth Summit and the Johannesburg World Earth Summit.