Title: The Urgent Need for Science and Innovation to Accelerate the Energy Transition
Bio:
Dr. Richmond is currently serving as the Undersecretary for Science and Innovation at the Department of Energy (DOE). In this role she oversees the DOE‘s Office of Science, the largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences in the U.S., DOE’s applied R&D offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Nuclear Energy, and Electricity as well as 13 of DOE’s national laboratories. She is on leave from the University of Oregon where she holds the Presidential Chair in Science and Professor of Chemistry. Her research focuses on laser-based and computational methods to understand the structure and dynamics at liquid surfaces with relevance to environmental and technological interests. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards including the National Medal of Science. A career-long advocate for underrepresented groups in STEM fields, she is the founding director of a grass-roots organization called COACh that has helped over 25,000 women scientists and engineers in career advancement in the U.S. and in dozens of developing countries around the world. A native of Kansas, Richmond received her B.S. in chemistry from Kansas State University and her Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Abstract:
The impacts of high levels of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere are apparent everywhere as our forests have ferociously burned, our lakes and rivers dried up around the globe and agricultural products destroyed. We are fortunate that there is now leadership in our country, both in the public and private sector, that is taking this challenge on in more serious ways than ever before. This presentation will describe the very aggressive and all-hands-on-deck programs that the Department of Energy has launched that provide funding for such efforts that span from the very basic science side, to application and deployment.
Host: Prof. Gil Nathanson & Judith Burstyn