- Environmental Fridays

Seeks to:

• Inspire and immerse, educate and engage the next generation of youth in environmental concerns,
  
  
• Promote evidence-based, socially responsible critical thinking about the environment and sustainability,
  
  
• Create awareness around environmental justice challenges, problems, and issues,
  
  
• Supplement core science classes and content with real-world, environment-based examples and applications,
  
  
• Provide career information in the environmental and sustainability fields,
  
  
• Create an accessible network of role models and mentors for students in the environmental and sustainability fields,
  
  
• Brainstorm and encourage individual and or corporate environmental action.

- Director

Dr. Desmond Hartwell Murray, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Andrews University and former Chemistry Instructor for Berrien County Math Science Center is Founder of Building Excellence in Science and Technology (BEST Early), Lead Editor for and Chapter Author in the 2016 American Chemical Society Symposium book – The Power and Promise of Early Research, and Editor and Columnist for Benton Spirit Community Newspaper.

He served as Academic Partner with the State of Michigan’s Office of Clean Water Public Advocate, and first Chair of Andrews University Community Engagement Council. He was recognized as the 2010 Thought Leader in Science Education for Southwest Michigan, as the 2012 College Teacher of the Year for the State of Michigan, and as a 2018 recipient of Andrews University’s highest faculty honor – the John Nevins Andrews Medallion.

He earned a BSc in Chemistry from Andrews University, a PhD in Chemistry from Wayne State University, and was a postdoctoral fellow in chemistry at Harvard University. In 1995 he became the first black professor of chemistry at his alma mater, Andrews University, teaching and researching in the very building that was dedicated in 1974 by the late Dr. Eric E. Williams, the first Prime Minister of the country of his birth, the twin island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

For the last 25 plus years he has simultaneously taught, supervised and mentored over 1200 students in interdisciplinary chemistry-biology research at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels. For more about his early research efforts see the employee tribute at ttps://www.andrews.edu/agenda/57837 and the recent interview featured in the April 13 issue of our student newspaper at A Quarter Century of Research.

- Catch The Action

Click on these links to see the schedule, speaker bios, and last year’s guest lectures.