Biography of Robert V. Lange, President and Founder of the International Collaborative

Robert V. Lange

Background

Robert V. Lange attended the California Institute of Technology and received his doctorate in Theoretical Physics from Harvard University. After post-doctoral research at Oxford, Lange became a faculty member of Brandeis University where he is retired. He continues to teach in the Sustainable International Development Master’s Degree program of the Heller School.

Founding the ICSEE, now the International Collaborative

In 1992 Robert V. Lange founded the International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment,(ICSEE). It is a non-profit corporation that formed its initial programs by helping to establish women’s businesses and clean water resources in remote Zanzibar villages.

While seeking opportunities to begin projects in South Africa and Eritrea, the ICSEE developed affiliations with organizations bringing improved stoves and solar energy systems to Senegal, Eritrea, and Ghana. The ICSEE applied this experience towards primary projects in Tanzania. It first entered this arena of action by establishing a project in stove development and solar energy on the island of Timbatu. It is located off the northwest shores of Unguja, the southern island of Zanzibar.

Maasai Stoves & Solar Project

While supporting a secondary school in the Maasai village of Eluwai, the ICSEE was invited by the school’s founder to visit and evaluate a serious issue. The founder asked Dr. Lange to review the challenge of health-threatening indoor smoke and high wood fuel consumption plaguing the homes of the people. When Lange viewed the conditions the Maasai were facing, he decided to focus on this area as one particularly appropriate for the stove and solar work of the ICSEE. As a result, this commitment led to the establishment of the Maasai Stoves & Solar Project.

International Work

Lange’s work in Tanzania began twenty-five years ago when he  joined the faculty of the University of Dar es Salaam as a visiting physics professor. He continued with the Ministry of Education of Zanzibar as an adviser and program developer from 1988 to 1995.

Dr. Lange organized a cooperative endeavor of the World Bank and the Danish government to establish a Science Teaching and Training Center at the Nkrumah Teacher Training College of Zanzibar. He did research and consulted on access to science education and opportunities for girls and women in science for the Donors to Africa Education.

Lange developed teacher training methods in the U.S. and Tanzania at the elementary and secondary levels. His environmental education service includes work in Zanzibar, establishing the Zanzibar Land Animal Park, and organizing the 1999 Halki Ecological Institute, a retreat for the study of environmental science for clergy and journalists near the Black Sea.