Olin College Graduate Awarded Fulbright Scholarship

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Fulbright recipient Steven Zhang

NEEDHAM, MA (06/07/2012)(readMedia)-- Steven Zhang, a recent graduate of Olin College, has been selected to receive a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship -- the largest U.S. international exchange program -- for study in one of the programs' most competitive countries, China. Zhang, an electrical and computer engineering major at Olin and member of the Class of 2012, will use the opportunity to do research next fall with Professor Jiaping Wu, an expert in resource management at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou (about 110 miles southwest of Shanghai). His research will examine the circular economy model of manufacturing firms in Zhejiang province.

"Chinese factories are not what most people think of when they think about sustainability," said Zhang. "Cheap labor costs combined with many other factors have created some interesting and innovative processes in China and Zhejiang province in particular. I'm excited to see firsthand what factory owners think about sustainability and resource reuse."

Zhang plans to meet and talk with firms to determine how they view and manage resources, analyze their manufacturing practices, as well as perform life cycle analyses of representative products.