This article appeared in December of 2011 in Perspective. 

The offer was expansive: a chance to join the leadership of a new center for environmental technology in a brand-new building and a brand-new lab, collaboration with one of the leaders in the field of environmental engineering, and a chance to work in a state—Arizona—with huge support for public education. Perks, in other words, that Madison couldn’t afford to offer Dan Noguera, then an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.

That was 2005, and Noguera, an award-winning researcher focusing on drinking-water quality and biological approaches to wastewater treatment, was tempted to say ‘yes’ to the Arizona State University professorship. “It was a beautiful offer and a great research environment,” he says. “The topics I could investigate were cutting-edge.”

But Noguera wasn’t ready to leave Madison. He had just started two new research efforts, for one thing…

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