Leiden University Awarded AT&T; Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship

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Leiden University Awarded AT&T; Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship

NEW JERSEY, BEDMINSTER, Feb. 24 -/E-Wire/-- AT&T; selected researchers from six leading universities, including Leiden University, Netherlands, to receive an AT&T; Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship. Researchers at Leiden University received a $25,000 grant to support their project, "Materials and Energy Terms of Information Society â Measuring the Weight of Information".

Industrial Ecology is a multidisciplinary field that studies industrial and economic systems and their linkage with natural systems. It also intersects with disciplines such as law, economics, anthropology, business studies, engineering, and the social and physical sciences. Other recipients of this year's faculty fellowship include Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Penn., University of California, Davis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and University of Missouri-Rolla.

"We are just about to enter a new era of the information society and questions are ahead of us," said Sangwon Suh, Research Assistant at Leiden University. "Is the information society sustainable? If not in its current form, then how? It is very encouraging to have support from the AT&T; Foundation, which has led both the movement towards the information society and developments of industrial ecology, in searching for the answer to those questions."

Generation and use of information requires energy and relevant infrastructures and devices such as networks, personal computers, and cellular phones. Therefore, the information society inherently relies on underlying industrial production, which consumes materials and energy. The objective of this study is to better understand the complex interplay between specific technologies, social and technical structure, and the scale of the information sector to estimate its materials and energy terms and to envisage a desirable future industrial metabolic structure.

The main tasks of the research team are to visualize the historic changes in materials and energy intensity, demand on information and to quantify information density; estimate the total amount of materials and energy requirements in the future information society; and envisage an industrial metabolic structure with which the information society can close its material cycle. The team expects that their work will have implications in designing and recycling information infrastructures and information and communication technology devices, informing policy directions for the information society, and identifying bottle necks and key technologies for sustainable information society.

"Industrial ecology recognizes that all services, such as information systems, rely on physical products," said Brad Allenby, AT&T; Environment, Health and Safety vice president. "We are pleased to support Leiden University's important research into how information technologies can be managed to provide function in an environmentally appropriate manner."

The AT&T; Foundation established the Industrial Ecology Grants Program in 1993 to encourage academic activity in this field. Since then, the program has awarded faculty research fellowships, supported the Colloquium on Industrial Ecology at the National Academy of Sciences and a number of conferences on research in the field, and helped launch the Journal of Industrial Ecology. The program is consistent with AT&T;'s environmental and social responsibility and its support of environmental initiatives and organizations.

The AT&T; Foundation invests in projects that address a range of public concerns. Emphasis is placed on programs that serve the needs of people in communities where AT&T; has a significant business presence; initiatives that use technology in innovative ways; and programs that AT&T; employees are actively involved with as contributors and/or volunteers. For further information, please visit the AT&T; Foundation web site at c

About AT&T; AT&T; (www.att.com) is among the premier voice, video and data communications companies in the world, serving businesses, consumers, and government. The company runs the largest, most sophisticated communications network in the U.S., backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T; Labs. A leading supplier of data, Internet and managed services for the public and private sectors, AT&T; offers outsourcing and consulting to large businesses and government. The company is a market leader in local, long distance and Internet services, as well as transaction-based services like prepaid cards, collect calling and directory assistance. With approximately $40 billion of revenues, AT&T; has relationships with about 50 million consumers and 4 million business customers, who depend on AT&T; for high-quality communications. AT&T; has garnered several awards for outstanding performance and customer service.

AT&T; 'Safe Harbor The foregoing are "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events made by and information currently available to management. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside AT&T;'s control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please see AT&T;'s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T; disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This information is presented solely to provide additional information to further understand the results of AT&T.;

AT&T; Environment, Health & Safety

John Heath, AT&T;, (908) 234-8579, [REDACTED-EMAIL]

http://www.att.com/foundation

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