EEES Department Chair Dr. David L. Freedman won the 2023 Earth Caretaker Award from his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB). The award recognizes UWGB graduates who have distinguished themselves in their professional field and are widely recognized for their career accomplishments in the areas of sustainability, environmental management, environmental policy, or other closely related areas. The award was presented to Freedman at a ceremony at UWGB in April 2023. Dr. Freedman attended UWGB when the overall mission of the university was to infuse environmental issues throughout the curriculum, from the sciences to literature. One of the more unique aspects of his time at UWGB was his participation in a student-led project funded by the National Science Foundation to design, build, and operate a pilot-scale anaerobic digester to generate renewable energy from dairy cow manure. Although a novel process at the time, anaerobic digesters are now a widely accepted technology on many US farms. Dr. Freedman has been a professor at Clemson University since 1996 and chair of the department since 2014. His main research focus is on developing methods to remediate groundwater contaminated with hazardous industrial chemicals
