Researcher and collaborator Alex Godoy-Faúndez, bestowed an honorary degree

A dedicated and brilliant scientist with a strong focus on finding new solutions to understanding complex environmental and resource management problems. A rare leader and a collaborator. An internationally recognized expert who is bringing science and engineering research into the policy-making decision process. A professional who embodies the mission and spirit of UW-Green Bay. A person able to inspire others to action through his incredible enthusiasm.

Alex Godoy-Faúndez and Chancellor Miller

All of these sentiments have been aptly used to describe the work and commitment of Alex Godoy-Faúndez, an internationally renowned researcher and previous UW-Green Bay scholar in residence. Today, Godoy-Faúndez is presented with one more commendation for his distinguished service to learning, the state and the common good of society: An Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from UW-Green Bay.

On his way to becoming an internationally regarded researcher on the environment and sustainability, Godoy-Faundez spent time as both a visiting researcher and a resident scholar at UW-Green Bay, team-teaching courses in Pollution Control and Environmental Issues in the Americas during the 2012 academic year. After Godoy-Faúndez’s second visit to the campus, a delegation of UW-Green Bay faculty and administrators traveled to Chile to set up an exchange program with the Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile, and the creation of an International Environmental Studies minor. The exchange program continues today, providing Green Bay students with extraordinary opportunities for research and scholarship.

Godoy-Faúndez is the current director of the Sustainability Research Centre and Strategic Resource Management (CiSGER) and the academic director for the Master’s program in Sustainability in the School of Engineering at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile.

Godoy-Faúndez has worked with the CiSger since 2015, leading senior researchers who are studying and promoting innovation in sustainable technologies to solve current and future environmental problems through innovation. His research focuses on the relationship between engineering, society and sustainability with the goal of developing frameworks of analysis to understand the causes and effects of current events. Through investigation into the governance of complex and evolving human ecosystems so that processes can be built to deliver simple and practical solutions to a more sustainable world, Godoy-Faúndez works with engineers, lawyers and economists, as well as postgraduate students to help solve the problems of climate change.

Godoy-Faúndez is also a research associate at the Earth Engineering Center of Columbia University, Head of Waste to Energy Research and Technology – Chile at the National Chapter of the Waste to Energy Research and Technology (WTERT) Global Council and as a researcher for trAndeS, the Postgraduate Program for Research on Inequalities and Sustainable Development in the Andean Region.

It bears noting that UW-Green Bay honorary degree letters of recommendation for Godoy-Faúndez included ones from Ricardo Lagos, the former president of Chile from 2000-2006 and Carol Perez, the current U.S. ambassador to Chile.

In addition to his research, Godoy-Faúndez is a teacher, winning the 2016 Academic Excellence for teaching at the Universidad del Desarrollo; a published author, co-authoring the First Environmental Chilean Survey on “Environment and Climate Change: Attitudes and Perceptions”; and a speaker to the media on the importance of moving towards sustainable development in newspapers and television, including CNN U.S. and Chile.

UW-Green Bay friend and colleague, Dean John Katers of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology shared: “Alex truly makes the world a smaller and better place by fostering collaborative opportunities and connecting people together through his leadership and vision. I believe these ideals fit very closely with what a degree from UW-Green Bay represents, while also taking a more modern view of our ECO-U roots.”