Dr. Gregory Keoleian is a Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment and in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and serves as Co-Director of the Center for Sustainable Systems (http://css.snre.umich.edu/). He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1987. His research focuses on the development and application of life cycle models and sustainability metrics to guide the design and improvement of products and technology. New methods that he has pioneered include life cycle design, life cycle optimization of product replacement, life cycle cost analysis and life cycle based sustainability assessment. He has led over 50 life cycle projects of diverse systems including analyses of conventional and alternative vehicle technology, renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics and biomass energy, buildings and infrastructure, consumer products and packaging, and a variety of food systems. Over the past two decades he has collaborated with a wide range of businesses across diverse sectors, national labs, and government agencies at the national, state and local level.
He recently helped launch the Engineering Sustainable Systems dual masters’ degree program between the School of Natural Resources and the Environment and the College of Engineering to train a new breed of engineers in sustainable systems. He was selected as an AT&T Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellow and currently is a Faculty Fellow with the University of Michigan Energy Institute. He teaches interdisciplinary graduate courses on sustainable energy systems and industrial ecology. In 2011, he began a two year term as President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology.