Outdoor Science Talk: State of Energy Address—Are We on the Right Track?

Please join us for Stanford’s acclaimed Summer Science Lecture Series on the lawn adjacent to Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center on four Thursday evenings. You are invited to come early and wander through the art museum, buy dinner in the Art Center’s Cool Café or bring your own picnic, and then settle on the lawn outside to hear informal lectures about cutting-edge research from four of Stanford’s most esteemed professors.

We promise that all of the talks will be delivered in terms understandable to the lay public. So bring your entire family (high school age and up) and enjoy! The Outdoor Science Series is sponsored by the Stanford Office for Science Outreach, the Cantor Arts Center, and Stanford Continuing Studies.

Outdoor Science Talk 3: State of Energy Address—Are We on the Right Track?

At the time of this talk, it will have been six months since a new administration came into power in Washington. Throughout the election campaign, President Obama strongly emphasized the need for change in energy and environmental policies. During the Senate hearings on Steven Chu’s nomination as Secretary of Energy, some of the new policy ideas became clearer. Chu talked about a strong emphasis on energy efficiency, incentives for development of solar and wind energy, even construction of new nuclear power plants. Has the new administration walked the talk? What policies have been changed or initiated and how effective are they likely to be? What new programs can we expect in the next few years? Come join us for a “state of energy and the environment address” and a critical analysis of the new plans and policies coming out of Washington.

MARGOT G. GERRITSEN
Associate Professor of Energy Resources Engineering and, by courtesy, of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Margot Gerritsen specializes in enhanced oil recovery processes and tidal energy systems. She has a wide range of other research interests that include sail design, flight dynamics, and computational mathematics. She also runs a podcast site on energy issues at www.smartenergyshow.com. She received a PhD in scientific computing and computational mathematics from Stanford. Earlier, she taught at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Thursday, July 23
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Lawn outside Cantor Arts Center
FREE; no registration required
Open to the public