ISYE NEWs
2013 U.S. News & World Report: ISyE Maintains Top Rankings The Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering
(ISyE) has once again ranked as the top industrial engineering program in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) rankings. The publication’s 2013 Best Graduate Schools edition ranked the graduate program in ISyE No. 1 for the twentysecond consecutive year, an achievement that is, from the Institute’s checks, unmatched by any other academic program in any other Georgia college or university. USNWR first ranked ISyE No. 1 in 1990 with its inaugural rankings issue, and then for twenty-two consecutive years beginning in 1992; only in 1991 was ISyE ranked No. 2.
Also maintaining its graduate ranking, the College of Engineering (COE) ranked No. 4 for the eighth consecutive year, and its programs again ranked in the top ten. The ISyE undergraduate program maintained its top undergraduate ranking in the 2013 edition of Best Colleges by USNWR. This issue marks the eighteenth consecutive year that ISyE has ranked as the foremost program of its kind in the nation at the undergraduate level. COE also maintained its 5th place ranking for undergraduate engineering programs at universities where the highest degree is a PhD and its programs ranked in the top ten.
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment to Influence Use of Alternative Fibers Valerie Thomas, Anderson Interface Associate Professor
TT R A R AN S N SP P OO
S IIAALL S R ER AATT E
MM
2
Industrial & Systems Engineering
U USS EE
Thomas is working with Wenman Liu, a PhD student in the School of Public Policy, to evaluate a wide range of environmental impacts, including water use, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and ecosystem impacts, as well as broader issues regarding land use and sustainability.
In addition to its efforts to reduce its forest fiber footprint, K-C has announced its plan to transition at least 50 percent of wood fiber sourced from natural forests to alternate fiber sources by 2025. This broad, new initiative is expected to help protect M M AANNUU FFAA C biodiversity and reduce the impacts of C TT UU fiber that the company uses, while ensuring the fiber is sourced in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Equally important, the initiative will also help insulate the company from continuing volatile price fluctuations in the world fiber market. G IN G RR I N
of Natural Systems in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, and Norman Marsolan, director of Georgia Tech’s Institute of Paper Science and Technology, are developing N an assessment for Kimberly-Clark I ON IO T T A (K-C) on the environmental and TTA RR broader sustainability issues related to using non-forest alternative fibers. K-C, the world’s largest tissue manufacturer, has partnered with Georgia Tech on this project to more fully understand and responsibly manage the impact of its decisions on fiber.
With a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy, Thomas’ research interests include energy and FFEE LLI I materials efficiency, sustainability, F F OO EENNDD industrial ecology, technology assessment, international security, and science and technology policy. Thomas is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Physical Society.