The pursuit of fundamental research in waste management

摘要

Waste management is an all encompassing and vague term. The label 'waste management' can be an anathema to a researcher because it implies application, with no emphasis on innovation. Waste management does not have a clearly defined core science that is explored by the researcher and applied by the practitioner (e.g., consider the endless permutations of the Navier Stokes equation explored by researchers and applied by practitioners using computational fluid dynamic packages; the rich research fields of genomics, proteomics and metabolic engineering, in close connection with the process engineers who manufacture the pharmaceu-ticals from modified organisms). Because there is no defining core science, the link to waste management for a researcher can imply generality, perhaps even superficiality, in the eyes of those in other fields with a well defined research area.