Events: 2007
The Shah Family Fund Lecture: "Catastrophic Risk: Past and Future" »
November 13, 2007 8:00 am
There are disasters, and there are catastrophes — synonymous terms, one “ill-starred”, the other to “overturn” and beloved of early geologists. This year's Shah Distinguished Lecture addresses the development and future of catastrophe risk analysis and mitigation. Risk analyses are as varied as the animals in a zoo, with comparable access and uncertainties. How do we assess these analyses, and for what do we manage? In the future, risk analysis will have to serve an increasing demand for accuracy, and assurance of inclusiveness. Not analyzing what we don't know will no longer be acceptable.
GCEP Energy Seminar: "H2 Storage in Organic Heterocyclic Liquids" »
November 9, 2007 8:00 am
In this seminar, two alternative strategies for hydrogen storage were discussed. In the first, hydrogen is stored by catalytic hydrogenation/dehydrogenation in an organic liquid. Organic liquids are innocuous hydrogen storage materials (HSMs) that can be delivered and handled like today's gasoline and thus, they may save costs, as well as greatly enhance safety and security and avoid putting H2 in the public sphere. Introduction of ring and substituent N atoms into the organic structures in 1,3 positional relationships and introduction of 5-membered rings allows us to tune the release temperature over the range 50K to 1000K thus achieving release at any desired temperature. The second strategy addresses the problems of both production and temperature of H2 storage through “virtual hydrogen storage,” in which the two steps are combined into one, thus avoiding any free hydrogen at any stage and further saving costs. In this strategy, an electrical potential from nuclear, solar, wind, etc, is used to electrocatalytically hydrogenate the same storage materials, with energy release by electrocatalytic dehydrogenation in a fuel cell.
Von Gugelberg Lecture--Social Responsibility Is Now a Business Imperative »
October 23, 2007 8:00 am
“Companies still thinking about the environment as a social responsibility rather than a business imperative are living in the dark ages,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Roberts delivered the annual Conradin von Gugelberg Memorial Environmental Lecture at the Stanford Graduate School of Business on Oct. 23, describing how a new era of global threats is changing the work of the world’s largest conservation organization, an organization that represents the concerns of its 6 million members in 100 countries.
Stanford Roundtable "Courting Disaster: The Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet" »
October 4, 2007 9:15 am
On October 13, 2007, Stanford President John Hennessy, journalist Carlos Watson, and a panel of leading figures in international affairs, energy development, media, and government joined an audience of more than 5,500 people in Maples Pavilion for the second annual Roundtable at Stanford University. The wide-ranging discussion, entitled "Courting Disaster: The Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet," covered issues such as America's role in the world, the war in Iraq and unrest in the Middle East, terrorism and nuclear proliferation, the upcoming presidential election and climate change.