Perspectives on Energy

Free and open to the public.

Light snacks at 6:00 pm while they last.

Seminar starts at 7:00 pm.

For AIChE members, this lecture qualifies for 1 professional development hour (PDH) credit. PDH certificates will be provided to interested attendees.

Energy – clean, sustainable, affordable, and environmentally responsible – is the grand challenge of our time. As we consider the science, technology and policy needs for the creation of a sustainable energy future, it is important to focus on solutions that are scalable to levels that can make a measurable difference in energy supply, use, environmental impact, etc. At the University of Michigan Energy Institute (UMEI) we build on the University of Michigan’s strong energy research heritage at the heart of the nation’s automotive and manufacturing industries to develop and integrate science, technology and policy solutions to the world’s pressing energy challenges. This talk will provide background on current and future energy challenges, and discuss some of our projects and initiatives aimed at solutions from the local to the global.

Mark A. Barteau is the Director of the University of Michigan Energy Institute and the inaugural DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research. He holds academic appointments in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry. Before joining the University of Michigan in 2012, he served as the Senior Vice Provost for Research and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Delaware, where he held appointments as the Robert L. Pigford Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006. He received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MS and PhD from Stanford. He was an NSF Post-doctoral Fellow at the Technische Universität München, before joining the University of Delaware faculty in 1982. He has held visiting appointments in chemical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and in chemistry at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research, presented in more than 240 publications and a similar number of invited lectures, focuses on chemical reactions at solid surfaces, and their applications in heterogeneous catalysis and energy processes. Dr. Barteau was named in 2008 as one of the “100 Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2001 Alpha Chi Sigma Award and the 1991 Allan P. Colburn Award, presented by AIChE; the 1998 International Catalysis Award, presented by the International Association of Catalysis Societies; the 1995 Ipatieff Prize from the American Chemical Society; the Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis, given by the North American Catalysis Society, and the 1993 Canadian Catalysis Lecture Tour Award of the Catalysis Division of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He has served as associate editor of the AIChE Journal and WIRES Energy and Environment, and on the editorial boards of a number of other Journals, including Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research and the Journal of Catalysis. He currently serves on the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academy of Science and on science advisory boards for the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Lab and for the National Institute of Clean and Low-Carbon Energy (NICE) China.