Karl Aspelund, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design at the University of Rhode Island. His interests lie in examining the role textiles and design play in the creation of identity, the impact of the textile life-cycle on the Earth’s environment, and how the design community can contribute to the goal of environmental sustainability. He worked as an artist and designer for 20 years after graduating from the Wimbledon School of Art (1986,) with a degree in 3d design. Among other projects, he collaborated on the development of biomimetic sculpture involving research into cellular automata and natural morphology to develop algorithms and computerized methods for the auto-generation of structural forms obeying organic principles. Karl was head of the Department of Industrial Design at The Reykjavik Technical College in Iceland, before coming to URI in 1996. He recently completed a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Material Culture from Boston University (2011,) where his dissertation was awarded the University Professors Edmonds Prize as the best dissertation of the academic year 2010-2011. Karl is the author of two design textbooks, “The Design Process,” (2006) and “Fashioning Society,”(2009.) The third, an introduction to designing, is due in 2013.