Appeal for Greater Priority on Sustainability in Science

Prof. Jürgen Rödel, head of the division of Nonmetallic-Inorganic Materials, has called on researchers from all disciplines to make the pressing issue of sustainability more visible. In an article in the Journal for Materials Science, Rödel and his co-authors Alexander Frisch and Dragan Damjanovic urge their colleagues to raise society's awareness of the need for a fundamental transformation as well as findings on possible solutions. The open access article entitled “The scientists' responsibility in communicating the sustainability crisis” is available at the following link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10853-023-09031-z

With this Rödel is once again endeavoring to give the sustainability crisis a higher priority and more presence in the scientific community. In 2022, he published an open letter to the editors of the Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society. This letter is available online: https://ceramics.org/wp-content/bulletin/2022/September2022/September2022.html#p=4

Rödel himself is setting a good example. He has long recognized the relevance of the topic as a scientist and as a private individual. He works tirelessly to raise public awareness of the issue: For example, in the Ceramic Tech Chat podcast, he explained the need for the transformation towards a sustainable society, how this can take place and what role materials science plays in this. Find out more in our news article from January 25th, 2023.

Lecture on the Topic

On 21.11.2023, 17:00, Prof. Rödel will give a lecture entitled “Sustainability Crisis and Scientific Societies” as part of the GDCh Colloquium. Further information on the event is available on the corresponding website: https://www.chemie.tu-darmstadt.de/aktuelles_chem/veranstaltungen_chem/gdch_kolloquien_chem/index.en.jsp