Sunday, March 1
8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Convention Center, Room 204A
Who Should Attend?
Graduate students and postdocs
Overview
This is a one-day workshop for graduate students and postdocs that highlights the contributions physics-related research can make towards meeting the nation's energy needs in environmentally friendly ways. The workshop is aimed at young physicists who are concerned about the environment and who would like to find ways to use their scientific and quantitative skills to help meet the challenges that the world faces.
The workshop features plenary talks by leaders in the field of energy research. After an overview talk, there are talks on different cutting-edge research areas. Each talk is aimed at the level of physics graduate students who are not experts in energy research. The goal of the workshop is to provide information to physics graduate students and postdocs on how they can contribute to energy and environmental solutions while doing exciting scientific research.
There will also be an informal reception following the workshop for meeting participants sponsored by the Journal on Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
A limited amount of travel expense assistance is available.
Email your application to Sue Carter (sacarter@ucsc.edu) no later than January 30.
There is no registration fee for the workshop, but you must apply by January 30 to be eligible to attend.
Registration is now closed.
Registration for the March Meeting is not required, but application and acceptance is required to attend this workshop.
Participants will be selected based on their answers to three questions on the registration form and their one-page CVs. Space is limited to 80 participants who have not attended previous workshops.
Application instructions are listed below.
Cost: Free
Energy Workshop Program |
|
8:30 a.m. | Welcome Sue Carter |
Plenary Session | |
8:40 a.m. | Keynote: Energy in Buildings and the Power Grid George Crabtree, Argonne National Laboratory |
9:30 a.m. | Coffee Break |
Session I: Energy in Buildings | |
10:00 a.m. | Transforming Urban Landscapes with Adaptive Materials: Smart Windows and Beyond Sarbajit Banerjee, Texas A&M Buildings consume an inordinately large amount of energy across the world and are often static structures that interact little with their outside environment. A recent report from the United Nations estimates that 30-40% of primary energy usage across the world occurs within buildings. In the United States, the Department of Energy estimates that 41% of the total energy consumption occurs within buildings. Much of the energy consumed within buildings goes towards space cooling, space heating, lighting, and ventilation. There is increasing emphasis worldwide on the development of components of the building envelope that adaptively respond to changes of climate. I will review advances in thermochromics, electrochromic, and PV-integrated fenestration with an emphasis on the underlying physics of these active structures. Electron correlation, electron-phonon coupling, polaronic motion—foundational and beloved concepts in condensed matter physics underlie the design of these adaptive materials. Beyond describing the fundamental physics and reviewing recent progress in the disciplines, I will make note of the regulatory environment and market considerations. |
10:40 a.m. | Renewable Approaches to Distributed Energy Storage Eric Toberer, CSM Development of a renewable, reliable electrical grid increasingly demands energy storage solutions. In this talk, we will explore routes to time-shift solar energy into the evening hours and how to convert this stored energy into electrical power.Techno-economic analysis suggests that thermal storage solutions and thermal-to-electric conversion are near-term solutions and will be the primary focus of this talk. Three key topics will be explored: First,the energy landscape for dispatchable electricity and a survey of possible solutions and their associated challenges. Second, we will explore how physicists can contribute to thermal energy storage challenges. Finally, we will look in depth at solid state thermal-to-electric conversion using thermoelectric materials.Emerging routes to control electron and phonon transport will be discussed and grand challenges that remain will be highlighted. |
11:20 a.m. | Panel: Challenges for Distributed Energy
Crabtree, Banerjee, Toberer, Carter (moderator) |
11:50 a.m. | Lunch |
Session II: Energy Solutions for Transportation and the Power Grid | |
1:00 p.m. | Materials for Li-ion Batteries Gerbrand Ceder, MIT |
2:00 p.m. | Status and Prospects for CO2 Capture and Storage Sally Benson, Stanford |
2:40 p.m. | Magnetism in the Energy Sector Steve Constantinides, Arnold Magnetic Energy is not only important to our quality of life, but to our very survival. Millennia ago, humankind depended upon fire for heat and light, for cooking food and for making articles of ceramic and of metal. We depend upon energy ever more greatly, but today it is made available in many ways, for example, fossil fuels for heating, transportation and generation of electricity and renewable electric generation via hydro, solar, biomass, and wind power. Electricity and magnetism are irrevocably linked—magnetism is more accurately called "electromagnetism". Some materials have useful (electro-)magnetic properties. What are these magnetic materials and what role do they play in the production, transmission and consumption of energy and how is that role changing? |
3:20 p.m. | Material Challenges for Photovoltaics
B.J. Stanbery, Heliovolt |
4:00 p.m. | Panel: Material Challenges for the Energy Sector
Ceder, Benson, Stanbery, Constantinides, Ginley (moderator) |
Session III: Career Opportunities | |
4:30 p.m. | Panel: Career Opportunities in the Energy Field |
5:00 p.m. | Reception Hosted by the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy |
Reuben Collins
Colorado School of Mines
Dave Ginley
NREL
Sue Carter (Chair)
Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
Talat Rahman
Univ. of Central Florida
Ken Cole
APS Staff/Workshop Coordinator
Photos courtesy of Joseph Ghobrial