Sue Okerstrom is a scientist and biomimicry researcher in Minnesota. Having grown up in a mining family, she worked in the iron mines so she could earn her BS in Environmental Studies. She is now the founder of Lichen Labs with an MS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MS in Biomimicry from Arizona State.
Sue has been gathering data with other scientists that predicts serious contamination from a PolyMet copper sulfide mine that has been proposed for Minnesota. The Land of A Thousand Lakes unfortunately will easily distribute this contamination thoughout the water table, into the Great Lakes and the St Louis River. The effects would be long term and devastating.
However, research in biomimicry and reclaimation present new possibilities for gathering copper. Sue will discuss potential methods, learned from and in collaboration with plants, to extract copper from water as well as methods for reclamation of used copper.
We encourage any researchers, environmentalists, journalists, community members, representatives, fishers, hunters, hikers, birders, or even industrialists to attend and learn more about this new research.
