Page 11 - CEMS Winter 2022 Newsletter

GIVING MATTERS
Halla Sustainability Scholarship
New scholarship created for students interested in driving global environmental solutions.
Nick Halla
Nick Halla (ChE ’05) recently established the Halla Sustainability Scholarship for students who have a passion for sustainable development. Numerous factors influenced Nick’s educational and professional paths, as he describes below.
“My personal passion for sustainability started early in my life. I grew up on a family dairy farm and developed
a deep connection with the
I joined Impossible Foods as the first employee in 2011, and our mission is to restore biodiversity and reduce the impact of climate change by transforming the global food system. We do this by making the world’s most delicious, nutritious, affordable, and sustainable meat, fish, and dairy — all directly from plants.
I have held several positions over the last 10 years, and
my current role is Senior Vice President of International, where my role is to build and run the businesses outside
of the United States. We currently have operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, and are building teams in Europe
and throughout Asia. 2021 was a huge year for Impossible Foods, and we launched several products that are preferred in blind taste tests over their animal meat counterparts. We have learned how to outperform animals!
I’ve devoted my career to sustainability and restoring the health of the Earth, and we need more brilliant, driven students pursuing sustainable development. I hope this scholarship will accomplish that.”
land and the environment. This led me to the chemical engineering program at
the University of Minnesota, where I worked on several sustainability driven projects, including product design in battery technology and process design in ethanol production. Specifically, I worked with Professor Jeff Roberts in the Department of Chemistry for several years, developing systems for cleaner diesel emissions. Working in undergraduate research was a great experience.
In addition, the scholarships I received while attending
the University of Minnesota meant a lot to me during my education and helped enable me to pursue my dreams. I’ve always wanted to give back once I was able to. I’m really excited to be able to contribute to the next generation
of leaders’ education and to hopefully inspire students
to tackle the most critical challenges we face today. Specifically, it’s imperative we accelerate solutions to climate change now or billions of people will suffer and the ones most impacted often have the lowest contribution to climate change. It’s our responsibility to reduce the impact and to help our local and global communities adapt.
CEMSnews Winter 2022 11