by Jessica McCann
In 1997, Charles Redman and his colleagues applied for large grant from the National Science Foundation. Lots of other groups of scientists from around the country were competing for the same grant. Redman and his partners got the money. The total was significant. Five million dollars to be exact.
The group used the money to establish the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project on urban ecology. Most people call it CAP LTER for short. Naturally, Redman wanted to share the exciting news. He worked with a friend, a Phoenix assistant city planner, to organize a series of presentations in which he would explain to the city’s managers all the wonderful research they intended to do.
His audience was, to put it delicately, less than impressed.
Redman could see them rolling their eyes, even yawning, as he explained why this project was so exciting, why it was different from other ecological studies. CAP LTER would explore the urban ecosystem, he enthused, which would include not just flora, fauna and other elements of nature, but also humans, their institutions and their structures.
That’s all fascinating, they said, but it won’t help us do our jobs today.
“That was a blow,” Redman later confessed. “It was difficult to realize that the kind of things that are exciting to scientists—and that the National Science Foundation will invest millions of dollars in—may not be of interest to a city planner or a city manager.”
The experience may have served a temporary blow to Redman’s psyche, but it also provided fresh motivation to one of his long-standing career goals. It reminded him of the need to translate scientific discovery and research into something that people other than scientists can use.
Redman’s research interests include human impacts on the environment, sustainable landscapes, rapidly urbanizing regions, and urban ecology. He first came to Arizona State University in 1983. Since that time, he has served nine years as chairman of the Department of Anthropology and seven years as director of the Center for Environmental Studies. In 2004, he was chosen to be the Julie Ann Wrigley Director of ASU’s newly formed Global Institute of Sustainability.
Redman’s interest in the field started off simple enough. Toward the end of his natural science undergraduate schooling at Harvard University, Redman became interested in archaeology and other cultures. He liked the inherent challenge of archaeology, the reconstructing of ancient ideas and cultures using fragmentary evidence. Redman continued his education at the University of Chicago, earning both a master’s and doctorate degree in anthropology.
The ASU scientist’s studies and early career took him to the Middle East, where he ran archaeological digs in Turkey, Morocco and other exotic locations. He worked in the dirt and flexed his intellectual muscles. He wrote articles and books on two areas in particular – the origin of agriculture and the formation of the world’s first cities.
When Redman was ready to put down permanent roots, he took a job with ASU.
“Arizona was probably the only place in the United States that I felt would be challenging enough and exciting enough for me as an archaeologist,” he says. “And ASU already had an excellent program in place.”
Beside the change in location, the move had a dramatic effect on Redman’s career. He was no longer just an academic working in a foreign country. He was part of a community, and he quickly became entrenched in the local social and political aspects of his field.
Within a year, then-Governor Bruce Babbitt had appointed Redman to the first advisory council on archaeology in Arizona. It would be the first of many such appointments. Redman was not just digging in Arizona. He was talking to public officials about how to preserve historic sites, attract tourism, and respect the cultural heritage of the state.
“It got me into the bigger debates of the role of past cultures in defining contemporary culture,” Redman says. “That was an evolution. I began to see my intellectual endeavor of understanding the past as being much more in the service of enriching the present.”
This intellectual evolution led Redman to explore not only how ancient civilizations created cities and adapted to their environments, but also how those cities and adaptations, in turn, impacted the environment. He expanded his circle of colleagues and acquaintances to those working in the broader environmental domain.
By the early 1990s, he had developed and begun teaching a new undergraduate course at ASU, Human Impact on Natural Environments. In 1997, he became director of ASU’s Center for Environmental Studies.
“It became quite exciting, because it was different from anything I had done,” he explains. “But it was also an area of study that I hoped would enrich the current debate on the environment. I hoped to find a role for myself and colleagues and students in the environmental debates of today and the future, based on our perspective of the past.”
Then along came a “request for proposal” from the NSF for a long-term ecological research project on urban ecology. The opportunity fit nicely with Redman’s vision. He began assembling a team to brainstorm and develop a proposal. He brought together people from throughout the university to discuss ideas on urban ecology—even those who had no prior knowledge of or interest in the subject.
“I would say, ‘I really don’t want to do urban ecology.’ And he’d say, ‘Just come to one more meeting,’” laughs Nancy Grimm, an ASU ecologist and professor. Grimm is principal investigator and co-director with Redman on the CAP LTER project.
“A lot of people will tell you they had the same experience,” she says. “The funny thing is we did come to the meetings, and we had a lot of fun, and we actually got the grant. He has an amazing ability to bring people together.”
“We gave them lunch,” Redman jokes. “That was one of our innovations.”
In fact, Redman gave them more than a meal. He gave them a unique opportunity to interact with other researchers and professionals beyond their normal scope of work. The result was a proposal that blended life science, earth science, social science, and engineering in a way that sought to understand how cities operate in their total context.
The CAP LTER grant served as a springboard for additional grants and funded research for other interdisciplinary ventures. The project defined the future of the Center for Environmental Studies and what would become the Global Institute for Sustainability (GIOS).
Today, GIOS focuses on issues of land-use change, environmental protection, water-resource management, sustainable materials, human health, planning and more. The institute strives to bring together scientists, social scientists, engineers, and government and industry leaders to share knowledge and develop solutions to real-world problems.
“It’s a huge challenge, bringing the university’s knowledge creation machine more closely in alignment to the needs of government, industry and the public interest,” Redman adds. “We’re getting closer, but it’s not something that we can just declare over. It’s a continual struggle to do better. But that’s OK. That’s the fun part.”
Charles Redman is the author or co-author of 10 books. He has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on 50 research grants from federal, state and private agencies totaling more than $41 million dollars. To learn more about his work, go online at http://sustainable.asu.edu/gios. Call 480.965.2975. Send e-mail to Charles.Redman@asu.edu