Discovery Park's Center for the Environment to be led by Tim Filley as interim director

Effective July 1, Timothy Filley, professor of geochemistry and soil science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences and the Department of Agronomy, will serve as the interim director of Discovery Park's Center for the Environment (C4E). Filley is one of the founding members of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center and serves on the executive committee for C4E.

“The Discovery Park Center for the Environment brings together a remarkably talented community of faculty, students, and staff to address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges,” Filley says. “I am honored to serve as the center’s interim director and look forward to supporting and expanding efforts to find solutions that secure a healthy, sustainable and prosperous future.”

Filley also served as the director for the U.S.-China EcoPartnership for Environmental Sustainability from 2012 to 2016, a Discovery Park project associated with the PCCRC and C4E.

The C4E’s current director, Leigh Raymond, professor of political science, has served as director since 2012. Raymond will be on sabbatical in the fall and is stepping down to focus more on teaching and research in the future. 

“In the last five years, it has been exciting to see environmental faculty, students, and staff come together with renewed energy around both long-standing and emerging environmental challenges, and the greater integration of interdisciplinary student learning and leadership opportunities with our research objectives,” Raymond says.  “I’m very grateful to the many contributors to the center’s efforts for their commitment to new solutions to pressing environmental challenges.”

During his time as director, Raymond led a campus-wide process to refresh the center’s strategic vision in 2013, facilitated the Building Sustainable Communities cluster hire bringing seven new faculty to Purdue to build the environmental research community in several key areas, and supported the creation of a new interdisciplinary certificate in environmental and sustainability studies for undergraduates across all units of Purdue.

Writer: Amy Schlueter, 765-496-7823, aschlue@purdue.edu
Source: Cliff Wojtalewicz, 765-496-3961, cliffw@purdue.edu