Messadi Named Inaugural 21st Century Chair in Sustainability for Fay Jones School

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Tahar Messadi, associate professor of architecture, has been named the inaugural 21st Century Chair in Sustainability for the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Tahar Messadi has been named the inaugural 21st Century Chair in Sustainability for the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas.

This $1.5 million chair is one of many endowed positions funded through a $300 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation as part of the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century.

“Tahar is certainly the face of sustainability for the school,” said Jeff Shannon, dean of the school. “He is one of the leading advocates for sustainability in the Fay Jones School, and certainly one of the leading proponents at the university level.”

Messadi, an associate professor of architecture, has long been interested in issues of sustainability, even before coming to the university campus in 2003.

“After so many years of teaching and conducting research in this field, I have come to realize the crucial importance of making sustainability a legitimate discipline within the university,” Messadi said. “My top priorities will be the development of viable curricula and teaching models to better prepare the next generation of our graduates for a rapidly changing workforce, as well as the formal establishment of research approaches that are comprehensive and robust enough for the appropriate resolution of current and future challenges in sustainability.”

In 2010, Messadi was appointed by Provost Sharon Gaber to serve on a committee to develop sustainability curricula on campus. The result of that is an undergraduate minor in sustainability, which was first offered to students in fall 2011, and a graduate certificate, which began in fall 2012.

The “Foundations of Sustainability” minor is a multidisciplinary program that is open to students in departments from across campus. The curriculum is designed to leverage existing faculty expertise and courses on campus. Messadi and Steve Boss, director of the university’s environmental dynamics doctoral program, are co-directors of the sustainability programs.

About 150 students are enrolled in the minor, Messadi said. A large percentage of those are architecture, landscape architecture and interior design students. The curriculum for both the minor and the graduate certificate is organized around four major thematic areas of sustainability: built systems, natural systems, managed systems and social systems.

With the minor and a graduate certificate already launched, the sustainability program’s steering committee continues to meet regularly to review and discuss new courses on sustainability that are proposed by faculty from across campus. They’re also busy preparing a bachelor of science in sustainability, “which would be a major leap forward in terms of growth of this domain,” Messadi said.

In his time on campus, Messadi has been involved in several sustainability initiatives. Early on, he co-founded the U.S. Green Building Council for Northwest Arkansas. He also led and organized several symposia, among them a forum of renowned architects in Arkansas to discuss the present state of sustainability in architecture. He also attends the annual national conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, which continues to be an excellent resource for curricular matters and new degree development.

Messadi will also play a major role in weaving sustainability issues into the curricula of the Fay Jones School of Architecture. This summer, he will be teaching a five-week sustainability seminar at the University of Arkansas Rome Center.

As 21st Century Chair in Sustainability, Messadi will also receive funding for his education and research, as well as promoting sustainability at local and national levels.

“I think it’s a great symbol of the commitment to the whole sustainability movement, particularly in the design arenas,” Shannon said.