Alexander Eaton, a masters candidate in Environmental Systems at Humboldt State University, has won a $15,000 Fellowship from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, Belfast, Maine, in support of his research as Executive Director of the International Renewable Resources Institute (IRRI) in Mexico City.
Mr. Eaton is one of 14 women and eight men chosen from universities in California and New England for the 21st annual Switzer Fellowships.
His research centers on the use of anaerobic digestion systems to process organic waste and produce energy for household and community use. In particular he is examining the potential to fund small- and medium-scale renewable energy systems, based on anaerobic biogas digesters. His previous work on integrating renewable energy with practical social applications took him to Alaska, Nicaragua and Russia.
The Switzer Foundation Fellowship will help finance Mr. Eatons involvement in IRRI-Mexicos effort to encourage indigenous pig farmers to use biodigester systems to convert waste into energy, in conjunction with his HSU masters thesis. He manages IRRIs biogas program with the goals of identifying funding mechanisms to support carbon emissions reduction at the community level, enhancing agricultural productivity and improving the quality of life of Mexico s small- and medium-scale farming families.
The Mexico Biogas Program hosts installation workshops to establish pilot projects in a number of different regions of the country. Correspondingly, the program weighs the social acceptance, dissemination and performance of biogas digesters.
I am thrilled to work with the Switzer Foundation and tie into the resources of an incredible network of people in both the professional and academic sides of the environmental field, Mr. Eaton said. The financial support of the foundation for my work here in Mexico will help with the travel and equipment that my research requires and allow me to be far more productive overall.
Mr. Eaton is a student in the Energy, Environment and Society option of HSUs Environmental Systems Graduate Program. At Berkeley in 2005, he took concurrent enrollment in post-degree coursework in chemistry, physics and statistics for engineers. He holds a bachelors degree in journalism and communications from Western State College, Gunnison, Colorado, and took photojournalism courses at Rockport College, Rockport, Maine.
A native of Valdez, Alaska, Mr. Eatons overseas experience includes attendance at the National Outdoor Leadership School in Kenya, where he pursued Kiswahili language studies, natural science, outdoor leadership, wilderness medicine, trekking, sailing and mountaineering. In 2006, he did course and project work on photovoltaic, irrigation and solar cooking and drying systems in Managua, Nicaragua.
Mr. Eaton is a founding vice president of a non-profit outdoor educational school, the North American Outdoor Institute in Valdez, which he served from 2004 to 2006. The author of many nature-related published articles and a former freelance journalist and newspaper reporter, he also participated in international projects on a research vessel based out of Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The Switzer Foundation, established in 1985 by the late Robert C. Switzer, co-creator of fluorescent paints and co-founder of Day Glo Color Corporation, praised Mr. Eaton as an outstanding early career environmental champion who exemplifies the foundations commitment to practical problem solving and critical analysis.