Harvard undergrads spend summer studying environmental issues in China
A group of Harvard undergraduates spent the summer in China, working on solutions to an array of environmental problems ranging from examining ozone pollution’s effects on crops to analyzing household electricity demand to studying ways to remediate arsenic contamination of groundwater. The summer internships extended from late June until mid-August and brought eight students to Beijing and Hong Kong, where they lived and worked at Beijing’s Tsinghua University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The internships were jointly sponsored by the Harvard China Project and the Harvard Global Institute. China Project faculty chair Michael McElroy, the Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, said the internships foster relationships between Harvard and institutions in China, as well as help students understand the international dimensions of global environmental issues. “My hope is that our students will gain an important international perspective,” McElroy said. “When they graduate from Harvard, they’ll be citizens of the world. They...