Investing to Create Change
Engineering alumnus funds educational initiatives to address climate questions
By Emma Skidmore
Greg and his wife, Wanda Ingmire, recently created the Hamm-Ingmire Climate Mitigation Endowed Research Fund, an asset that will provide the Carnegie Mellon University community with resources on climate change mitigation, prediction and adaptation. Greg is also the second person to ever endow a CMU-Africa fellowship.
“My wife and I believe that if you want to invest in the future and make big changes, education is a really good way to do that,” Greg says.
Greg noted that while these causes — climate change and CMU-Africa — may seem separate, they both play a vital role in addressing global issues. You can’t solve one without solving the other, he believes.
“About 50% of the world lives in poverty by developed nations’ standards,” he says. “If 50% of the world focuses on growth and 50% of the world focuses on climate change, neither problem will get solved. We have to control climate and have global development at the same time. They’re both part of the same puzzle.”
Greg has been doing research on climate change since his doctoral thesis at Stanford University in 1982 and felt the CMU College of Engineering was the best place to address climate issues.
“That has made this a 45-year-interest of mine,” he reflects. “I think Carnegie Mellon University is a fairly unique place to invest. It’s a school that gets a lot out of its investment and gets a lot out of its students.”
“About 50% of the world lives in poverty by developed nations’ standards. If 50% of the world focuses on growth and 50% of the world focuses on climate change, neither problem will get solved. We have to control climate and have global development at the same time. They’re both part of the same puzzle.”
As an example, Greg remembers introductory computing courses not focused on computer language syntax but on in-depth concepts.
“At Carnegie Mellon, it was looking at, ‘What can we teach that’s going to last and be fundamental?’ rather than, ‘What are we going to teach that will allow students to solve this problem set?’” he says.
In terms of his investment in CMU-Africa, Greg strongly believes the region has the largest gap between resources and talent, and the fellowship is specifically geared toward providing resources for African women.
“I’m convinced there’s plenty of talent in Africa, but the resources that allow that talent to really accomplish something are very limited in comparison to the developed nations,” he says.
Greg says learning about CMU-Africa was one of the factors that encouraged him to start giving back to his alma mater.
“In the later stages of my career, I started doing a little more investing in the future,” he says. “The CMU-Africa program really put it over the top. I was very interested in Africa and that really connected with me.”
