2015-2016 Luce Scholar

Yunnan Province Research Center of Biogas Engineering and Technology Yunnan Normal University Kunming, CHINA



Nick Clarke will be placed with the Yunnan Province Research Center of Biogas Engineering and Technology, at Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, China, where he will work on clean tech initiatives and public/private partnerships that address environmental and sustainability challenges. One of the Center’s biogas projects, also known as anaerobic digestion, would converts organic waste and organic material, such as food waste from colleges and cafeterias in the university area, into methane gas that could be used as fuel for public buses or to generate electricity. The project would involve a public/private partnership that brings together the Kunming municipal government, several research institutes and the private sector.

Nick Clarke graduated from Westminster College in Salt Lake City in 2012, with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a minor in French. After graduation he was awarded the Sustainable Technology Fellowship at Oberlin College where we worked with Dr. John Petersen, Dr. David Orr, and others on research around resource literacy, use, and conservation using data from a network of hundreds of real-time sensors throughout the Oberlin community. Since leaving Oberlin, he has continued his work in sustainable technology as a computer engineer for Lucid Design Group, a real-time energy and resource monitoring company. He hopes to continue his work in sustainable technology to help transform the ideals of sustainability into an established pillar of business practice and a ! 2! cornerstone of individuals’ lives. Nick’s interest in sustainability has been fostered by a fascination with globalization. As a francophone, he has had the privilege to live and work in Paris, France and Montreal, Canada. In addition, he has worked as a volunteer in Haiti and Zambia. These experiences, and others, have impressed a deeply felt responsibility for global citizenship that directs his career and personal life today. Beyond his interests in sustainability and globalization, Nick is an avid backcountry skier, cyclist and mountaineer, born from a youth spent roaming the Wasatch Mountains and deserts of Utah.