As vice chancellor for advancement at the University of California at Irvine, Thomas J. Mitchell is running two campaigns: one to raise $1-billion for the university, and the other to attract and keep the people whose job it is to raise that money. Since joining Irvine six years ago from Iowa State University, Mitchell has deployed a range of…

In the 1990s, the giant mining company now known as BHP Billiton drew worldwide condemnation for the environmental damage caused by its copper and gold mine in Papua, New Guinea. Its mining practices destroyed the way of life of thousands of farming and fishing families who lived along and subsisted on the rivers polluted by the mine, and it was…

When Robert W. Van Kirk released a study in January about selenium contamination in trout streams in southeastern Idaho, he expected some flak from the influential phosphate-mining industry. He did not expect to feel pressured by the administration of his own institution, Idaho State University, where he is an associate professor of mathematics.…