The National Academies
07/16/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/16/2024 08:20
Winner of the 2024 Frontiers Planet Prize Discusses His Research in Sustainability Science
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Winner of the 2024 Frontiers Planet Prize Discusses His Research in Sustainability Science
Feature Story| July 16, 2024By Solomon Self
Jason Rohr, Galla Professor and chair of the department of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, is one of three winners of the 2024 Frontiers Planet Prize, a global scientific competition that celebrates breakthroughs in sustainability science. Finalists were selected by organizations in their country or region known as National Representative Bodies; the National Academies serve as the U.S. representative body. The Frontiers Planet Prize awards the three champions 1 million Swiss francs each to further their research at their home institutions.
We sat down with Rohr to talk about his work - which focuses on disease, food, and water challenges in Africa - and the future of sustainability.
Can you tell us a bit about your award-winning research?
Rohr: That work is focused on human schistosomiasis, one of the most common parasitic diseases in the Global South. It's caused by a worm transmitted from snails to humans when they enter bodies of water. We found that those snails live in submerged aquatic vegetation, and those habitats were more common in communities with high agriculture and fertilizer usage.
Jason Rohr
We hypothesized that removing this vegetation would reduce the rates of schistosomiasis in school children and tried to provide an economic incentive for removal by converting the vegetation into inexpensive compost, livestock feed, and fuel for biodigesters that provide cooking gas or off-grid electricity production.
[Classified as a neglected tropical disease, schistosomiasis affects almost 240 million people worldwide, and its effects include anemia, growth stunting, impaired cognition, and organ damage.]
Your work is both interdisciplinary and international, primarily taking place in Africa. Why is that so important, and how do you approach that thoughtfully?
Rohr: There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that represent the biggest challenges to humanity, many of which concern poverty alleviation. Despite evidence that they intersect in many ways, we noticed that they are often studied individually.
We moved forward with this project because we felt it was crucial for these marginalized communities, and to address their poverty, disease, food, energy, and water concerns, we unquestionably needed to form an interdisciplinary team.
Winning the prize comes with money and publicity. How do you plan on using both to advance your research?
Rohr: For our research, we're excited to further hone our remote sensing technology, increase community engagement, and expand our trials. We're also looking into commercially viable scaling options, new technologies for vegetation removal, and whether this innovation can be effective in other parts of Africa.
It's been truly life-changing for me and the team. The number of events I've already been asked to participate in is truly surprising. The challenge has been deciding whether I should be accepting them all or not, because flights have a pretty major carbon footprint, and I need to think about that.
One of those events is the National Academies' Climate Crossroads Summit, where you're a panelist. How does that connect to this research?
Rohr: The panel is on planetary health, and our study was right at the intersection of planetary health and sustainability science. Our project is really a circular economy study with co-benefits for human health, so it's well placed within the realm of the panel.
What are your thoughts on the work going on in the sustainability space right now?
Rohr: I think there's a lot of work to do; things are looking dire but promising at the same time. There's a lot of momentum. I am optimistic about the future because there are historical examples of nations coming together to address global challenges that have been successes, whether it be the hole in the ozone layer or reducing HIV deaths. We're capable of doing it, and I hope that continues to happen. That's why we need events like the climate summit to bring people together to address these urgent challenges.
The Frontiers Research Foundation and the National Academies are gearing up for the third edition of the Frontiers Planet Prize. Do you have any words of wisdom for researchers who are interested in applying?
Rohr: One of the panelists at the Frontiers ceremony said, "Do science that is caring, sharing, and daring," and I really love that. In sustainability science, it needs to be caring - it needs to be people-centered. It also needs to be daring. We need to be ambitious. Finally, we need to be sharing our data and our approaches. We need communities intimately involved in the process. I really liked that three-word mantra, and I hope it will be helpful to future applicants.
To learn more, please visit the National Academies' Frontiers Planet Prize web page.
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