Ecological Engineering
The other day after church, Jennifer and I had lunch with her parents. Jennifer’s mother asked me about the classes I’m taking in chemistry and mathematics, and what I plan on pursuing in graduate school. "What, exactly, is an ecological engineer?" she asked me.
Well, according to the website for the website for the International Ecological Engineering Society, it is:
"the design of the human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both" (Mitsch & Jorgensen, 1989). Ecological engineering integrates various existing environmental fields such as classical ecology, agro-ecology, and restoration ecology. The skills of these fields are used to design low-impact systems for waste treatment, food and energy production, habitat restoration and other benefits.
Yes, it’s a big switch for me; but as my friend Craymore pointed out to me, "Big switches like that are just so you, Richard!" This is quite true, although I’m sure that the point could be made that the reason why I haven’t gotten very far in my life is that I haven’t managed to keep my focus on any one thing long enough to succeed at it.
Now, if the definition that I quote above were all the ecological engineering were, then it would be the habitat restoration that intrigues me the most in that list of possibilities. But, honestly, what really excites me are the possiblities for information technology in the field.
The use of computers in biology is something that has fascinated me since high school, when I participated in a contest to generate models of ecological systems. My own fishery model was never completed, unfortunately, but my solid waste disposal model/game was a hit in my AP biology class. And I was constantly modelling population dynamics in BASIC on my old TRS-80 Color Computer 2. Unfortunately, when I was in college, I let my interest in computer programming slide, and that proved to be a mistake for many reasons. It has only been in the past few years that my interest has been piqued again. And in the past few months, my interest in applications of computer technology to ecosystem engineering has grown, especially after a conversation I had in Westport, Ireland with a computer programmer who’s involved in that sort of work (although, honestly, I don’t remember all of that conversation, given the circumstances under which the conversation happened).
Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to the biological sciences. Generally, when people talk about bioinformatics, they refer to computer technology in the "hard" areas of biological science: molecular chemistry and genetics, to name just a couple. I have seen references, however, to the application of bioinformatics to ecology and ecosystems, and that is where my interest is. I’m convinced that there is a place for the use of bioinformatics, especially when combined with GIS technologies, in ecosystem engineering. I’ve asked a local bioinformatics special interest group that I belong to for more information about the field, but I’m told that such an application hasn’t really been developed, and that it sounds more like a PhD thesis.
I’m not certain that I want to go as far as pursuing a PhD in the field of bioinformatics or any of the biological sciences. I do know,though, that there is a lot that I should learn, about bioinformatics, about computer programming, about biology and ecology and engineering.
Who knows, though? Perhaps this will just end up being yet another pipe dream that will end up on the heap with some other ideas I’ve had. I think I saw that Starbuck’s is hiring. Perhaps that is a more realistic goal for me.
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