Grandson

 I finally found out more about our grandson Joseph's interest in the field of microbiology. In his last year at Southern Illinois University, he took part in a project known as X-Prize. He is the first person we actually know who is trying to make a change in the climate change crisis. Needless to say, we are very proud of Joe.

In the fall of 2021, SIU’s Carbon Down Under student team was selected as one of just 23 teams worldwide to receive funds in the XPrize Carbon Removal student competition, financed by the Musk Foundation, to find working technologies to fight climate change and rebalance Earth’s climate cycle.

The SIU team, now made up of Tia Zimmerman, a master’s student in micro and biochemical molecular biology, Bethany Egge, a senior in microbiology, and faculty researchers Scott Hamilton-Brehm and Ken Anderson, is working on technologies that would isolate carbon below ground.

The proposed system would liquefy everyday waste biomass – everything from grass clippings to scrap vegetables and cardboard – for injection into the subsurface. Once underground, hungry microbes would consume the carbon-rich liquid and sequester it, preventing it from re-entering the atmosphere where it could contribute to climate change.

Hamilton-Brehm said one goal of the team is to raise enough money to build an industrial-scale system aimed at making SIU carbon-negative, and to do it within 10 years.

“If we can do this in time, we could be the first university in the whole world to accurately and quantitatively state we are carbon negative,” he said.