Conference to examine future of energy, nanotech

Conference
to examine future of energy, nanotech
…………………………………………………………………

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News Staff

One of the most important technical
challenges of this century is to provide a sustainable and universally available
supply of clean, affordable energy to the world’s growing population, especially
the 1.6 billion people who currently live without electricity.

Advocating that a solution to the
global energy problem will require revolutionary new technology, as well as
conservation and evolutionary improvements in existing technologies, four entities
at Rice have invited a select group of nanoscientists, policy-makers and business
leaders to campus May 2-4 for a conference titled “Energy and Nanotechnology:
Strategy for the Future.”

“Energy is not just a critical
national concern to the United States but also a global one,” said Amy
Jaffe, the Wallace Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice’s James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy, which is cohosting the conference with
the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), the Environmental and
Energy Systems Institute (EESI) and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.

“Advancement of nanotechnology
solutions can be an integral component of solving the energy problem,”
said Richard Smalley, University Professor, the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor
of Chemistry and professor of physics. “Breakthroughs in nanotechnology
open up the possibility of moving beyond our current alternatives for energy
supply by introducing technologies that are more efficient, inexpensive and
environmentally sound.”

The conference is intended to provide
an opportunity for scientists to confer not only among themselves but also with
policy specialists and experts from other disciplines to examine energy issues
both from a policy and technological perspective and to examine creative alternatives
to traditional approaches, said Jaffe, who also is associate director of the
Rice Energy Program.

The conference is a lead-in to a
science workshop on energy and nanotechnology Rice University will be hosting
in November for the National Nanotechnology Initiative, with support from the
National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

The conference hosts also hope the
program helps broaden public understanding of how scientific disciplines such
as nanoscience, which can appear esoteric with little bearing on people’s
lives, in reality spawn technologies that can have a direct impact, including
the potential to help solve the challenge of developing cheaper, more efficient
and environmentally sound energy supplies.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison will
deliver the welcome address at 5 p.m. May 2 in the Shell Oil Company Foundation
Auditorium of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.

The sessions May 3 and 4 will be
held in Doré Commons at James A. Baker III Hall. The morning program
May 3 will feature sessions related to energy policy and societal impact; the
afternoon sessions will focus on America’s energy future. The theme of
the program May 4 will be “Energy Choices: Possibilities and Barriers,”
including a look at fossil fuels, renewables, fusion and fission, efficiency
and transportation.

Among the speakers are Edward Djerejian,
director of the Baker Institute, who will discuss U.S. strategic energy policy;
Smalley, who will outline the possibilities of a nano-energy initiative; Richard
Russell, associate director for technology, Office of Science and Technology
Policy, Executive Office of the President of the United States, who will discuss
national science initiatives; Steven Currall, the William and Stephanie Sick
Chair in Entrepreneurship and associate professor of management, psychology
and statistics at Rice and founding director of the Rice Alliance for Technology
and Entrepreneurship, who will comment on technology and economic development;
Jeremy Rifkin, author of “The Hydrogen Economy,” who will focus on
the transportation challenge; Walter Chapman, professor in chemical engineering
at Rice, and Gerald Dickens, associate professor of earth science at Rice, both
of whom will discuss methane hydrates; Peter Hartley, chair and professor of
economics at Rice, who will give a presentation on electrical grids; Neal Lane,
University Professor, senior fellow at the Baker Institute and professor of
physics and astronomy at Rice, who will introduce the speaker for the closing
plenary address — Dean Kamen, chairman of Segway L.L.C. and president of
DEKA Research and Development.

For a complete list of speakers and
the times of their presentations, visit <www.cnst.rice.edu/whatwedo.cfm?doc_id=1220>.

The conference is closed to the general
public, but Rice students, faculty and staff can attend the presentations.

Portions of the conference are part
of the Baker Institute’s Shell Lecture Series Event. Other sponsors include
Matthew Simmons, Simmons & Company, John Thrash, The Baker Institute Roundtable
and the Baker Institute Energy Forum.