Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Global Energy Challenge

Professor Roel SniederProfessor Roel Snieder, Colorado School of Mines, will talk on "The Global Energy Challenge" at the Australian National University at 6pm.
Public Lecture
The Global Energy Challenge

This lecture will be introduced by Mr Jon Ward, Manager, Environmental Policy, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia.

A stable and sustainable energy supply is one of the major issues of this Century. World-energy demand is expected to increase by about 70% in the coming 20 years, while the production of petroleum — our main source of energy — is likely to peak in this period. The combination of rising demand and declining production of conventional oil raises the question: What is the plan?

In the absence of a plan for a sustainable energy supply, coal and non-conventional oil are likely to become the main source of energy. These energy sources lead to much higher CO2 emissions per unit energy than the sources currently used. Combined with the expected increase in energy use, this aggravates global warming. We face the challenge to develop a strategy to develop a sustainable energy system with acceptable environmental impact.

In his presentation Professor Snieder will give examples what one can do as a teacher, student, consumer, businessman and as a citizen to make progress towards a more sustainable energy system.

Professor Roel Snieder holds the Keck Foundation Endowed Chair of Basic Exploration Science at the Colorado School of Mines. He received in 1984 a Masters degree in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from Princeton University, and in 1987 a PhD in seismology from Utrecht University. In 1993 he was appointed professor of seismology at Utrecht University, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Earth Sciences from 1997-2000. In 1997 he was a visiting professor at the Center for Wave Phenomena.

Snieder served on the editorial boards of Geophysical Journal International, Inverse Problems, and Reviews of Geophysics. In 2000 he was elected as Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for important contributions to geophysical inverse theory, seismic tomography, and the theory of surface waves.

He is author of the textbooks A Guided Tour of Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences and The Art of Being a Scientist published by Cambridge University Press. Since 2000 he has been a fire-fighter in Genesee Fire Rescue. Professor Snieder is an International Visiting Fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU College of Physical Sciences.

This lecture is presented by the Research School of Earth Sciences and is part of the ANU Visiting Fellow Series and Toyota-ANU Public Lecture Series 2009.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Please register attendance with ANU Events. Enquiries: T: 6125 4144 or E: events@anu.edu.au

Speaker/Host: Professor Roel Snieder, WM Keck Distinguished Professor, Colorado School of Mines
Venue: The Finkel Theatre, The John Curtain School of Medical Research, Building 131, Garran Road
Date: Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Enquiries: ANU Events on 6125 4144

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, where can I download a copy of Jon Ward's excellent presentation? Thanks

Tom Worthington said...

Peter wrote December 21, 2009 9:52 PM:

>... where can I download a copy of Jon Ward's excellent presentation?

Mr. Ward only gave the introduction to the presentation and so there is no copy of what he said. However, the slides from Professor Snieder's presentation are avialable.

The audio and/or video may be available later. There are podcasts of other environment presentations avialable.