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Caltech researcher Nathan Lewis will kick off the series on Sept. 3.

By Johnny Cruz, UANews
September 2, 2008

Where in the world will our energy come from? What will it take to make a full transition from fossil fuels over to renewable energy?

On Wednesday, The University of Arizona will begin a speaker series addressing two of the issues at the forefront of an intense national discussion – energy and sustainability.

Nathan Lewis, George L. Argyros professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, will kick off the speaker series on Sept. 3 at 4 p.m. at the Center for Creative Photography Auditorium.

Lewis will discuss the planning and collaboration required – from government and industry – to bring widespread adoption of wind, solar thermal, solar electric, biomass, hydroelectric and geothermal energy. He also will discuss the technical, political and economic hurdles to a mass transition to renewable forms of energy.

Lewis has been on the faculty at Caltech since 1988 and has been the principal investigator of that school's Beckman Institute Molecular Materials Resource Center since 1992. From 1981 to 1988, he was on the faculty at Stanford University. Lewis received his doctorate in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Most recently, Lewis has helped to initiate a $20 million NSF-funded Chemical Bonding Center at Caltech, a joint venture with MIT and several other university partners, called "Powering the Planet." The center is focused on the development of nanoscale materials to make fuel from sunlight and water.

The Sustainability Speaker Series is being organized by the UA's campus sustainability committee and is co-sponsored by the colleges of Science and Engineering.

Glenn Schrader, chair of the campus sustainability committee, is looking forward to engaging the general public by discussing common-sense solutions to the energy debate.

"The idea for the series came from the standpoint of how we address the area of sustainability and the rising energy crisis," Schrader said. "Looking at these problems together is a goal of the series."

The dramatic rise in energy costs this year, Schrader said, has prompted him to seek opportunities to expand outreach efforts beyond the advancement of sustainability efforts on campus.

"We have to think about all of these areas together. We have to find ways to produce more renewable supplies of energy."

The Sustainability Speaker Series is expected to feature one public lecture each month throughout the 2008-2009 academic year. Future speakers include Arizona Corporation Commissioner Kris Mayes and Raymond Orbach, the under secretary for science in the U.S Department of Energy.