Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Events for January
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Geological Storage as a Carbon Mitigation Option
Thu, Jan 17, 2008 @ 12:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Lyman Handy Colloquium SeriesPresentingMichael Celia
Princeton UniversityAbstractThe most promising approach to solve the carbon problem involves widespread implementation of zero-emission power plants. One promising option is to use fossil fuel-based plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. While a variety of storage options are being studied, geological storage appears to be most viable. Injection of captured CO2 into deep geological formations leads to a fairly complex flow system involving multiple fluid phases, a range of potential geochemical reactions, and mass transfer across phase interfaces.
General models of this system are computationally demanding, with the problem made more difficult by the large range of spatial scales involved, and the importance of local features for both fluid flow and geochemical reactions. An especially important local feature involves leakage pathways, with one example being abandoned wells associated with the century-long legacy of oil and gas exploration and production. Such pathways also have large uncertainties associated with their properties.
Therefore, inclusion of leakage in the storage analysis requires resolution of multiple scales, and incorporation of large uncertainties.
Taken together, these render standard numerical simulators ineffective due to their excessive computational demands. A series of simplifications to the governing equations can reduce computational demands, and ultimately render the system solvable by analytical or semi-analytical methods. These solutions, while restrictive in their assumptions, allow for large-scale analysis of leakage in a probabilistic framework. An example from Alberta, Canada will be used to demonstrate the utility of these solutions.Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
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Unlocking Heavy Oil and Unconventional Resources with Heat
Tue, Jan 22, 2008 @ 12:45 AM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Anthony KovscekStanford
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
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Living Conductors: The Nature and Implications of Electrical Transport in Bacterial Nanowires
Tue, Jan 22, 2008 @ 12:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Graduate SeminarbyProfessor Mohammad El-NaggarUniversity of Southern California
Los Angeles, CAAbstract:Bacterial nanowires are conductive pilus-like appendages produced by bacteria, most notably some 'metal-reducers', in direct response to electron acceptor limitation. These recently discovered supramolecular assemblies represent a new paradigm in extracellular electron transfer, but the mechanism of electron transport remains unclear. This talk will feature quantitative measurements of transport across bacterial nanowires produced by the dissimilatory metal-reducing bacterium (DMRB) Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, whose electron transport system holds practical promise for renewable energy recovery and bioremediation. The Shewanella nanowires display a surprising non-linear electrical transport behavior, where the voltage dependence of the conductance reveals peaks indicating discrete energy levels with higher electronic density of states. These results indicate that the molecular constituents along the Shewanella nanowires possess an intricate electronic structure that plays a role in mediating the overall electron transport. We will highlight the vast implications of signal transduction at the biological-inorganic interface as well as devices that exploit this interface, such as microbial fuel cells. We will also discuss our recent efforts to develop experimental and image analysis tools that target the interactions between the living and non-living worlds at this interface.Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Seminar at 12:45p.m.
OHE 122
The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
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Exploring the Bio-Nano Interface for Recognition and Assembly of Electronic Materials
Thu, Jan 24, 2008 @ 12:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Graduate SeminarbyDr. Jennifer N. ChaIBM Almaden Research Center
San Jose, CA Abstract: As nanoelectronic device features shrink towards a critical limit, new research directions have been sought to resolve the resultant technological issues in a cost-effective manner. The ability of Nature to synthesize and assemble materials with high fidelity and precision has provided a potential means of overcoming these formidable challenges. Over the past few years, there have been numerous and extensive efforts to both understand the biological mechanisms for building inorganic and organic architectures and use biological systems to assemble nanoscale materials. New applications of current genetic engineering techniques have also been developed to overcome the difficulties of interfacing biology with non-biological substrates, enabling the use of biomolecular systems for addressing particular challenges in nanoelectronics. The first part of this talk will highlight some of the mechanisms of biomineralization and will in particular focus on the way biosilicates are both synthesized and assembled in Nature. One of the inherent reasons to understand how inorganic materials are produced in living systems is that all of these processes occur under ambient conditions, even those materials that are produced industrially under high temperature and pressure or at extreme pH. I will describe the mechanism by which one biological organism synthesizes highly ordered silica structures at neutral pH and how one can apply these mechanisms to biomimetic approaches using synthetic block copolymers. The understanding of how to chemically control both nucleation and growth of oxides at the nanometer scale led to the synthesis of highly-ordered, two-dimensional nanopatterned ceramic thin films that were used as nanoscale etch masks for producing nanoparticles of phase change materials.A significant amount of research at IBM has also been devoted to exploring nanowires and single walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as alternatives to silicon technology. Despite the unique electronic and physical properties of CNTs, however, there exist numerous technological challenges; in particular, the production of entirely semiconducting CNTs of a single or narrow range of band-gaps. The second part of this talk will focus on our recent efforts at the use of DNA to disperse CNTs and bio-combinatorial libraries to discover unique amino acid sequences that can bind a subset of dispersed CNTs. Specific biomolecular recognition of particular nanomaterials that demonstrate unique physical characteristics may impact applications ranging from nanoelectronics to nanomedicine. Thursday, January 24, 2008
Seminar at 12:45 p.m.
OHE 122
The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited.
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
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Pulsed-laser processing of ferromagnetic semiconductors
Tue, Jan 29, 2008 @ 01:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Graduate SeminarbyOscar D. Dubón, Jr.Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Berkley, CAAbstract:Because of their unique combination of magnetic and semiconducting properties and their potential as both injection sources and filters for spin-polarized carriers, ferromagnetic semiconductors have attracted much attention for spin-based electronics, or spintronics. These novel materials are formed by the substitution of a relatively small fraction of host atomsa few atomic percentwith a magnetic species such as Mn. In the prototypical ferromagnetic semiconductor Ga1-xMnxAs, inter-Mn exchange is known to be mediated by holes in extended or weakly localized states; however, the fundamental nature of exchange across the Ga-Mn-pnictide series is less clear. Unfortunately, challenges in materials synthesis have obstructed both the further understanding of these materials and their application in practical devices. Even the relatively low alloying levels necessary for ferromagnetism require the application of non-equilibrium growth strategies, in particular low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy (LT-MBE).At Berkeley we have undertaken investigations on the synthesis of ferromagnetic semiconductors using a combination of Mn ion implantation and pulsed-laser melting (II-PLM). By this simple process we have produced epitaxial, single crystalline films of ferromagnetic GaxMn1-xAs. These epilayers display the essential magnetic and electrical properties observed in films grown by LT-MBE. We have used II-PLM to produce new Ga-Mn-pnictide alloys including ferromagnetic Ga1-xMnxP. This material represents an intriguing system in which strongly localized carriers in a detached impurity band stabilize ferromagnetism. The possibility of introducing more than one species by ion implantation into a semiconductor host opens further opportunities to study quaternary alloys and probe chemical trend in the ferromagnetic Curie temperature. I will present results from our studies of these novel ferromagnetic semiconductors as well as efforts to develop laser patterning techniques for the realization of planar spintronic structures.Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Seminar at 1:00p.m.
OHE 122
The Scientific Community is Cordially Invited
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir
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Frontiers in Engineering Education and Research in the 21st Century
Thu, Jan 31, 2008 @ 12:45 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Distinguished Lecture SeriesProfessor Venky NarayanamurtiDean, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard UniversityAbsractIn our rapidly transforming world, engineering plays an ever more central role,
especially in advancing basic science, creating tools and everyday technologies, driving
economic development and meeting societal challenges in areas from energy to
environment to human health.
In this talk I will examine the changing role of engineering and engineering
research and education to address the great societal challenges of the 21st century. I will
discuss the need for educating broadly trained engineers who understand not only how
thinks work but also how the world works. Such engineers will have broad knowledge
of various disciplines and understand the enormous value of integrative thinking in
addition to reductionist thinking. They will need to be flexible and adaptable and be
able to function in a global marketplace. Such "renaissance engineers" will play a key
leadership role in the emerging knowledge economy.
I will also spend time discussing emerging science and technological frontiers to
address societal problems alluded to earlier. Translating research discoveries into
practice is a key challenge for engineering schools and industrial R & D laboratories.
The need for developing new models for university-industry collaboration and to
develop the appropriate intellectual capital will be discussed.Thursday, January 31, 2008Seminar at 12:45 p.m. in OHE 122Refreshments served after the seminar in HED LobbyThe Scientific Community is Cordially Invited.Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir