Featured Faculty Partner:
Dr. Sean McGinnis, Director
Virginia Tech Green Engineering Program

Dr. Sean McGinnis provides a critical link to the natural and
physical science disciplines. Sean is a materials scientist by
training and leads Virginia Tech’s Green Engineering Program,
whose goal is to improve students’ understanding of the
environmental impacts resulting from technology, science, and
engineering decisions. In this role, Sean has formal links to
both engineering, including engineering education, and
physical and natural sciences. Sean also taught as a co-faculty
for several years in the VT Earth Sustainability Core Curriculum Series, a student-centered curriculum in which sustainability was taught from a holistic perspective across multiple diverse disciplines. Sean’s background in design for environment, sustainable manufacturing, and life cycle assessment (LCA) supports the work of the SFI Lab by considering and quantifying a wide range of environmental impacts at the complex systems level. His work includes extensive experience with life cycle assessment in multiple contexts, and he brings facility with tools and techniques to evaluate environmental impacts of industrial processes to the team. Sean’s experience also includes development of carbon footprint analyses for industrial enterprises and local municipalities, and he is a co-PI on the green design of a manufacturing facility retrofit for Salem Vent International. He is also connected to several thrusts (bio-based materials, energy, environmental impacts of nanotechnology) related to sustainability within the VT Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS). To learn more about Sean’s work in green engineering, visit his web site or contact him via email to smcginn@vt.edu.