The 2011-2012 Advisory Board consists of one staff member and six external members who represent a breadth of knowledge and expertise within the academic community. The BEAB provides guidance on our Biomimicry Affiliate Program (BAP) and our Biomimicry Fellows Program (BFP), and helps shape the future of our University Education program overall.

2011-2012 Board Biographies

Marjan Eggermont - Senior Instructor (University of Calgary)

Marjan is a senior instructor in The Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary, teaching in the area of engineering design. She is also a fine artist that exhibits nationally and internationally. Marjan teaches visualization, drawing, design history, biomimicry, and green engineering topics. She is interested in biomimicry as a teaching tool because it allows for a great deal of creativity and "bridging" of subjects: science, engineering, design, art, biology, chemistry, etc. Marjan recently started her PhD in Computational Media Design and is taking biomimetic computation courses with a focus on flocking, swarming, and evolutionary computing.

Margo Farnsworth - Adjunct Faculty (Lipscomb University)

Margo Farnsworth works as a consultant in strategic development for organizations, businesses and individuals; as an adjunct faculty for Lipscomb University’s Institute of Sustainability and as Senior Research Consultant for the Cumberland River Compact where she also served as Executive Director for seven years. While with the Compact, Margo brokered a bi-state water agreement between Tennessee and Kentucky, helped build seven watershed associations to work on nonpoint source pollution and enabled them to proceed with projects such as measuring the carbon sequestration value of buffer zones and measuring sedimentation for restoration. She has also worked as a Naturalist, Science Teacher from Middle School to University levels, Mammalogist and Park Ranger. With degrees in Science Education and Parks Administration her professional accomplishments include research in environmental education, qualitative mammal studies and service on numerous local and state environmental boards and committees. Recognition of her work has come from various disciplines including a State Resource Management Award of Excellence, the “Friend of Fisheries” award, State Environmental Educator of the Year and the Freeman Tilden Award for Outstanding Interpretation. Margo assisted General Mills in a water reuse project and is currently looking forward to integrating biomimicry into her work at all levels.

Adelheid Fischer - Manager of InnovationSpace (Arizona State University)

Adelheid Fischer is manager of InnovationSpace, a sustainable product-development program at Arizona State University. She leads the program's biomimicry initiative, which introduces students to the use of biology as a means of sustainable innovation in design, business and engineering.
 
Fischer is also a writer whose work focuses on natural history and environmental issues. She is coauthor of Valley of Grass: Tallgrass Prairie and Parkland of the Red River Region, winner of the 1999 Minnesota Book Award for nature writing. With Minnesota ecologist Chel Anderson, she has coauthored North Shore: An Ecology of Place, forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press. She currently is working on a new book that explores the ecology of grief and loss in the sky islands of southeastern Arizona. Fischer makes her home at the foot of South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, where she shares her yard, and sometimes her house, with nighthawks, southern house spiders, scorpions, coyotes, cactus wrens and the occasional javelina.

Dr. Mariappan "Jawa" Jawaharlal - Professor of Mechanical Engineering (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona)

Dr. Jawa is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his Masters/Bachelors from the Russian Peoples’ Friendship University, Moscow. Dr. Jawa is recognized as an outstanding engineering educator for his innovative and engaging teaching pedagogy. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award, and several grants. Dr. Jawa has developed a course, Biomimicry for Engineers, and his students are involved in a number of biomimetic projects including pine cone based structural design, limpets for attachment mechanisms and rip cage for collapsible pressure vessel design. His current focus is on developing a systematic approach that would help engineers to incorporate Life’s Principles early on in the engineering design process.

Before joining Cal Poly Pomona, Dr. Jawa founded and developed APlusStudent.com, Inc., an online supplemental education company focusing on K-12 math. He also served as a faculty at Rowan University, NJ and Kettering University, MI. He is well known for his innovative, K-12 robotics outreach program, which has reached hundreds of students in the US and abroad. Dr. Jawa is a scuba diver and a marathon runner. He is also a running instructor, teaching people how to run effortlessly and injury free.

Tom McKeag - Adjunct Professor (California College of the Arts)

Tom has taught bio-inspired design to undergraduate and graduate students at the California College of the Arts (CCA) and the University of California, Berkeley, since 2006. His current course, How Would Nature Do That?, is an upper division interdisciplinary studio class offered at CCA. He is also founder and president of BioDreamMachine, a California non-profit dedicated to bringing bio-inspired design to public schools. He writes a regular blog on the topic of biomimicry at GreenerDesign.

Megan Schuknecht - Director of University Education & Relations (The Biomimicry Institute)

Megan is a biologist with a strong interdisciplinary background in ecology, environmental health, education, and sustainability and social justice issues. She spent her youth in the forests, creeks, and hedgerows of eastern Wisconsin, and later served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, where she worked as a beekeeping extension agent. Most recently, she worked as a consultant for the Biomimicry Guild, helping global companies look to nature for inspiration to develop sustainable and innovative technologies. In her current role at the Institute, Megan teaches Biomimicry & Design classes and workshops, lectures on biomimicry to university audiences, and works with faculty and administrators to incorporate biomimicry tools and concepts into university classrooms and curricula. Megan graduated from Grinnell College with a BA in biology and earned an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana.

Raúl de Villafranca - Professor of Architecture (Universidad Iberoamericana)

Raúl is an architect and professor in the Architecture and Urbanism Department at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico. Raúl coordinates the diploma course on Sustainable Design and Construction and, as a core member of the environmental design program, strives to integrate ecological topics, including biomimicry, into existing design and architecture curricula. Raúl owns and operates his own design and construction firm and is certified by the National Charrette Institute as a facilitator and administrator. Recently, he participated in the Urban Revision Charrette "Framework for a Sustainable City Block," hosted by the Rocky Mountain Institute and Re:vision. For the past three summers he has organized a 9-day Biomimicry and Design workshop held in beautiful Veracruz, Mexico, and led by The Biomimicry Institute.

Past BEAB Members

Dona Boggs (PhD) - Professor of Biology (Emeritus, Eastern Washington; Faculty Affiliate, University of Montana)

Cindy Gilbert - Faculty and Program Coordinator (Minneapolis College of Art and Design; former Director of University Education at The Biomimicry Institute)

Carl Hastrich - Instructor (Ontario College of Art & Design University, Canada)

Janet Kubler (PhD) - Professor of Biology (California State University, Northridge)