Professor Roel Snieder, Colorado School of Mines, "The Global Energy Challenge":

Part of the “Grand Energy Challenge” lecture series

Abstract. A stable and sustainable energy supply is one of the major issues of this Century. World-energy demand is expected to increase by about 70% in the coming 20 years, while the production of petroleum — our main source of energy — is likely to peak in this period. The combination of rising demand and declining production of conventional oil raises the question: “What is the plan?” In the absence of a plan for a sustainable energy supply, coal and non-conven-tional oil are likely to become the main source of energy. These energy sources lead to much higher CO2 emissions per unit energy than the sources currently used. Combined with the expected increase in energy use, this aggravates global warming. We face the challenge to develop a strategy to develop a sustainable energy system with acceptable environmental impact. In my presentation I give examples what one can do as a teacher, student, consumer, businessman and as a citizen to make progress towards a more sustainable energy system.

Roel Snieder holds the Keck Foundation Endowed Chair of Basic Exploration Science at the Colorado School of Mines. He received in 1984 a Masters degree in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from Princeton University, and in 1987 a Ph.D. in seismology from Utrecht University. In 1993 he was appointed as professor of seismology at Utrecht University, where from 1997-2000 he was appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Earth Sciences. In 1997 he was a visiting professor at the Center for Wave Phenomena. Roel served on the editorial boards of Geophysical Journal International, Inverse Problems, Reviews of Geophysics, and the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. In 2000 he was elected as Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for important contributions to geophysical inverse theory, seismic tomography, and the theory of surface waves. He is author of the textbooks "A Guided Tour of Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences" and "The Art of Being a Scientist" that are published by Cambridge University Press. Roel is a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 2000 he is a firefighter in Genesee Fire Rescue.

Geology 143
Monday, November 15, 2010 4:00 PM
Refreshments in the Geology Lobby, beginning at 3:30 PM

Sponsored by:
IU Department of Geological Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences Themester