Young Researcher

Weslynne Ashton (Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and Stuart School of Business - EUA)

Weslynne Ashton is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Management and Sustainability at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Stuart School of Business. Her research focuses on two core areas: industrial ecology, industrial symbiosis and collaborative approaches to environmental management, and sustainability strategies for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and new ventures. She teaches courses in Industrial Ecology, Business Sustainability, and Social Entrepreneurship across business, public administration and environmental management programs. She strives to develop business solutions to social and environmental challenges in low income and developing regions through her research and teaching. She currently leads the “Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas” project - an eight country, interdisciplinary partnership focused on education for cleaner production (CP) and its implementation in small and medium enterprises in Latin America.

Prior to IIT, Weslynne led Yale University’s “Industrial Ecology in Developing Countries” program where she trained researchers and graduate students in South and Southeast Asia in IE concepts and methods, holding visiting faculty appointments at TERI University in India and the National University of Singapore. She was a consultant on CP promotion strategies for the Inter-American Development Bank, and also worked as an environmental engineer and technology entrepreneur. She has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and master’s and doctoral degrees in Environmental Science from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, and lives in Chicago, USA.

Highlighted Academic Work (5th IWACP)

Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas: Educational initiatives towards a Sustainable Transition - ASHTON, W. S.; HURTADO MARTIN, M.; KHALILI, N. (Illinois Institute of Technology, USA); PANERO, M. (New York Institute of Technology, USA) [abstract] [paper]

Sergio Ulgiati (Parthenope University - Naples - Italy)

Sergio Ulgiati has expertise and research interests in Energy Analysis, Environmental Accounting and Emergy Synthesis, Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability indicators, Evaluation and impact assessment of renewable and nonrenewable energy systems. In most recent years his research activity expanded to the evaluation of options for zero emission technologies and strategies (ZETS) also by means of sustainable biotechnologies applied to agricultural and agro-industrial processes.

Ulgiati is member of the Editorial Board of the International Journals of Energy, Ecological Modelling, Ecological Economy, and Environment, Development and Sustainability. He is also guest Editor of the Journal of Cleaner Production for a Special Issue on “Zero Emissions Technologies and Systems” (January 2007), with more than 200 papers and Chapters published in international Journals and Books. He is president 2010-2012 of ISAER - The International Society for the Advancement of Emergy Research.

Highlighted Academic Work (5th IWACP)

CA of MSW Management. The Environmental Impacts of Wrong Choices - RIPA, M.; FIORENTINO, G.; VACCA, V. (Partenope University of Naples, Italy); ULGIATI, S. (Parthenope University of Naples, Italy/Beijing Normal University, China) [abstract] [paper]