In the News: Mahmoud Kabalan and Maria Dahmus on the Importance of Sustainability Efforts at St. Thomas

Mahmoud Kabalan, director of the Center for Microgrid Research, and Maria Dahmus, director of the Office of Sustainability Initiatives and the Sustainable Communities Partnership at the University of St. Thomas, recently spoke with Upstream about a wide range of sustainability-related work happening at the university.

From the story:

Situated along the Mississippi River in the heart of the Twin Cities, the University of St. Thomas is inspiring the next generation of stewards. At St. Thomas, caring for our natural spaces starts with empowering students.

“We’re catalyzing universitywide engagement so that we can prepare students to be leaders in sustainability, no matter what field or path they go into. Every discipline, every person has something unique to contribute,” says Maria Dahmus...

...Kabalan’s engineering students are putting their theoretical knowledge into practice through microgrid research: “My students live the true creed of engineers: apply your knowledge to solve real-world problems,” says Kabalan.

Their groundbreaking work is receiving national recognition, and they were recently awarded over $10 million in federal funding to advance their research in clean energy technology.

Kabalan emphasizes that this technology is the future: “I believe that microgrids will be a big part of how we produce and consume electricity in the future.”