Wednesday, September 5, 2007
10:00 am - 10:45 am

Dr. Deepak Srivastava, UARC Fellow at NASA Ames Center for Nanotechnology, UARC/UCSC
CTO, Nanoexa (A Clean Energy Company)
Presentation: "Nano in Near-Term Commercially Viable Energy Storage & Generation Technologies"

Biography: Deepak Srivastava is the Chief Technology Officer of Nanoexa, a clean energy company focused on quantum simulation based materials design, optimization, and product development for high energy and high power Li-Ion battery for power tools and automobile sectors, and thin-film PV materials for solar energy applications. Since last ten years, Deepak Srivastava has been a Lead Scientist and Manager of computational materials design and nanotechnology related activities at NASA Ames Center for Nanotechnology. He has given more than 100 invited talks on computational materials design, nanotechnology, nanomaterials and nanoelectronics in aerospace and defense, and next generation of Li-ion batteries for power tools. His recent awards and honors include winner of Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Theory) in 1997, Veridian Medal Paper (1999), The Eric Reissener Medal (2002), and CSC Award for Technical Excellence (2003). Dr. Srivastava has served as Associate Editor of two peer reviewed nanotechnology and computational materials sciences related journals and sits on the editorial boards of two other journals. Dr. Srivastava co-founded and served as CTO of a computational materials design company Junius Tech, which was acquired by Nanostellar, a nanomaterials design company in the automotive catalysis sector. At Nanostellar he served as a technical advisor building and advising the team and investigating new technology areas for future products on a regular basis.

Abstract: The last few years have seen a surge in the investment, growth, and development of companies in the clean energy and clean environment area. California, and bay area, have been at the forefront of such activities promoting the application of advances in nanomaterials design and fabrication in finding the alternative pathways for clean energy generation, storage and efficiency technologies. The challenges for the clean energy companies are to keep the focus on the near term commercially viable applications and yet build in the advantages of advanced materials design and fabrication through quantum simulations and nanotechnology, respectively, for the product performance and efficiency gains. This talk will attempt to sketch the needed commercial level requirements for the energy storage (Li-Ion Battery) and generation (thin film solar PV) technologies for the near term products and the incorporation of nanotechnology for the next generation.

10:45 am - 11:30 am

Arun Majumdar, University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Presentation: "GLOBAL ENERGY: Demand, Supply, Consequences, Opportunities"

Biography: Professor Arun Majumdar received a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) in 1985, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989, for research conducted in the laboratory of Professor Chang-Lin Tien. After being on the faculty of Arizona State University (1989-92) and University of California, Santa Barbara (1992-96), he began his faculty appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He currently holds the Almy and Agnes Maynard Chair Professorship in the College of Engineering. In addition to his faculty appointment, Professor Majumdar serves as the Chair of the Berkeley Nanosciences and Nanoengineering Institute. He is also a member of the Nanotechnology Technical Advisory Group to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). He served as the founding chair of the ASME Nanotechnology Institute, and is currently a member of the Council of Materials Science and Engineering at the Department of Energy and the Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation's Engineering Directorate. He also serves on the editorial board of Nano Letters, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics, and is the editor in chief of Micro/Nanoscale Thermophysical Engineering. Professor Majumdar is a recipient of the Institute Silver Medal (IIT-B) (1985), NSF Young Investigator Award (1992-97), ASME Melville Medal (1992), the Best Paper award of the ASME Heat Transfer Division of ASME (1993), Gustus Larson Memorial Award of the ASME (2001), Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT-B (2002), and ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award (2006). He is a fellow of ASME and AAAS, and is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Abstract: Over last four or five years, we have witnessed a societal transformation of monumental proportions regarding energy. The demand and supply, the consequences on the environment, as well as projections of the future have become topics of serious national and international debates, which have both geopolitical underpinnings as well as technological ones. It is truly a global issue. It must be remembered though that about thirty years ago, we had also seen a similar rise in interest, although that soon ebbed in the 1980s. What is different this time and will this interest be sustained? The long-term future is of course hard to predict, but attempts could be made based on current projections of global population and productivity growth, as well as energy reserves and economics. Based on this, it seems clear that unless we make some drastic changes in how we utilize our resources and convert/store energy, we may be doing some disservice to our future generations. Some technological solutions are there today, but their widespread adoption has not occurred. There are also some key technological challenges, which must be addressed by basic science and engineering, as well as scalable and cost-effective technology development. Furthermore, there needs to be some policy changes that could catalyze and provide incentives to create a period of intense research and innovation in energy science and engineering. This talk will attempt to provide a comprehensive view of many aspects of global energy, and try to identify some key technological opportunities that our community can address.