Research Events
What began as the Water Symposium in 2013, soon evolved into the Water and Land Symposium, which solidified as an annual tradition of scholarly activity at 91勛圖厙. Seeing the need for bringing together faculty and students from a variety of disciplines gave rise to the Environmental Science and Design Research Initiative in 2017, and the annual symposium took on the title Environmental Science and Design Research Symposium. In March 2021, the initiative was officially promoted to a research institute by the Board of Trustees in an effort to assure allocated funding. This coincided with the exciting announcement in 2022 that 91勛圖厙 moved from R2 to R1 Carnegie classification.
The Symposium gave rise to the Environmental Science and Design Institute's Sustainability Forum and Research Showcase. The ESDRI Sustainability Forum provides a casual environment for our community to interact with invited speakers by hearing about their career journey and current work through talks and panel discussion. Each iteration of the Sustainability Forum has a different theme, which speakers address from a diverse range of perspectives. The Research Showcase is the Institute's poster presentation event. While most posters are presented by KSU undergraduate students, we welcome submissions from graduate students, faculty, staff, and even presenters external to Kent State, with work connected to the University. Attendance of both the Forum and Showcase is welcome and encouraged from students, staff, faculty, and community members!
We are always interested in new ideas and connections. For feedback or to get involved, please email us at esdri@kent.edu.
Thanks to all of our current and past sponsors!
