Abstract:
The dependence on oil and other fossil fuels for over 80% of our energy and the continued emission of carbon dioxide threatening stable climate are captured in a single term: sustainability. Although we generally agree that sustainability is valuable, there is less agreement on how much sustainability is necessary or desirable. In this talk, three criteria describing increasingly strict features of sustainability will be presented and applied to evaluate the alternatives to oil and carbon dioxide emission, such as tapping unused energy flows in sunlight and wind, producing electricity without carbon emissions from clean coal and high efficiency nuclear power plants, and replacing oil with biofuel or electricity. The implementation of these more sustainable alternatives will require new cost effective nanoscale materials. The successful development of such materials will have a marked impact on the production of energy in a sustainable and environmentally benign fashion.
Speaker: George W. Crabtree, PhD., Senior Scientist and Distinguished Fellow in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory and Distinguished Professor of Physics, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois at Chicago.
He has won numerous awards for his research, most recently the Kammerlingh Onnes Prize in 2003 for his work on the physics of vortices in high temperature superconductors. This prestigious prize is awarded once every three years; Dr. Crabtree is its second recipient. He has won the University of Chicago Award for Distinguished Performance at Argonne twice, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Award for Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment in Solid State Physics four times, a notable accomplishment. He has an R&D 100 Award for his pioneering development of Magnetic Flux Imaging Systems. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a charter member of ISI’s Highly Cited Researchers in Physics, a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Association of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Crabtree has many credentials in science and energy. He has published more than 400 papers in leading scientific journals, has collected over 15,000 career citations, and has given over 100 invited talks at national and international scientific conferences. His research interests include materials science, sustainable energy, nanoscale superconductors and magnets, vortex matter in superconductors, and highly correlated electrons in metals. He has led workshops for the Department of Energy on hydrogen, solar energy, superconductivity, materials under extreme environments, basic science for energy technology, and computational materials and chemistry for economic competitiveness. He co-chaired the Undersecretary of Energy’s assessment of DOE’s Applied Energy Programs. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on the hydrogen economy and on meeting sustainable energy challenges.
Topic Resources:
Energy = Future
Controlling the Functionality of Materials for Sustainable Energy
Event Details
What: Sustainable Energy: Fact or Fiction
When: Tuesday, January 31st 2012
5:00pm Reception & Registration
6:00pm Presentation
Where: Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)
McCormick Tribune Campus Center
McCloska Auditorium
3201 South State Street
Fees: $10 Advance Reg / $15 Door / $5 Student
Parking is available for free at Lot A3 (31st and Wabash) with parking permit displayed on the dashboard of the vehicle. Click here for parking permit
C2ST Presents live streaming video of Sustainable Energy: Fact or Fiction
Click on the link below between 5:45pm-6:00pm on January 31st and enter the username and password for access to the live stream
Media IIT Online
username: webcast
password: c2stevent
