"...phenomenal, eye-opening and engaging."

It was a little known fact that mushrooms can help save the world. That is, until Paul Stamets, an expert on the fleshy fungi, began to spread the word about his research. He shared some of his findings March 28 during the GoalFive Conference held on campus and organized entirely by students from The Claremont Colleges. The two-day event featured speakers whose work aligns with the fifth goal of HMC’s Strategic Vision, “Global Engagement and Informed Contributions to Society.”

Stamets described just how helpful mushrooms can be. They can synergize with other species to imbue them with traits such as heat tolerance (some up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit), clean up industrial waste, and soak up the collected oil from spills and use it as an energy source.

Participants reviewed and discussed the film “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, which describes the short history of General Motors’ EV1. Chelsea Sexton, one of the cast members from the documentary, spoke about the progress their film had caused in General Motors and other companies. Chemistry major Ryan Pakula ’09 said, “It was great to hear what power the film, synthesized from individuals’ collective desire for a product that was truly good for the world, had in shaping developments we now see coming into the foreground of the commercial vehicle market (i.e. hybrid vehicles, one shown below)."

The conference featured a social networking dinner on Friday and presentations on Friday and Saturday. Invited speakers discussed HIV treatment and prevention, Chinese environmentalism, energy efficient engineering, micronutrition, environmental modeling, public policy, and scientific approaches to aiding government officials in decision making.

Alumni speaking at the conference were Hal Bohner ’69, Henry Brady ’69 and Kent Mesplay ’84. Former dean of faculty and Emeritus Professor of Engineering Samuel Tanenbaum shared some “Surprising Energy Facts” with participants.

Pakula complimented his peers on their work putting the conference together. “It was an amazing opportunity to discuss issues that Mudders sometimes tend to lose sight of on a week-to-week basis when we get lost in all our work,” he said. “The conference was truly phenomenal, eye-opening and engaging.”