The University Of Vermont's 'Revolutionary Mind'

One of the best things about the green revolution now taking place on America's campuses is that it is demolishing the ivory tower. Academics are engaging the real world, and often in surprising ways.

Saleem Ali, an associate professor of environmental planning at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, has been recognized by SEED magazine as one of eight "revolutionary minds" for 2007. According to the university, Ali has gotten India and Pakistan to sit down for talks later this year to turn the Siachen Glacier that straddles their border into a peace park. The park could be a place for both nations to cool their quarrels--and preserve the glacier's ecosystem in the process.

The award was revealed in the October issue of SEED, a relatively new magazine. But it is unfortunately not part of its online content.

Ali, who is also an adjunct faculty member of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, devotes his research to the causes and effects of environmental conflicts, as well as to using the environment as an agent for peace. In September, MIT Press published his new book, "Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution".