Abstract
Modern life depends upon the availability of plentiful energy at reasonable cost. Standards of living, industries, agriculture, and healthcare all assume availability of energy on demand. Is this situation sustainable? These days we see daily headlines, news articles, and commentaries about energy issues. What are the facts behind the headlines? What are the parameters that are driving the current situation and will determine the future state? Have new technologies significantly altered the balance? Is there a short term problem or is there a lasting paradigm shift?
The speaker will consider these questions and seek a perspective on the energy challenge facing the world. He will discuss the macroeconomics of energy supply and demand, and will attempt to anticipate future developments and the conditions that are likely to impact our lives, industries, society, and environment.
About the speaker
Prof John C. Chen received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Michigan in 1961. He was faculty at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and the State University of New York from 1965 to 1970. He joined Lehigh University in 1970, and had been Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics and Carl R. Anderson Professor of Chemical Engineering. He is currently Professor and Dean Emeritus of Engineering.
Prof Chen’s work has impacted engineering practices for power generation, energy systems, environmental technologies, and chemical processing. He has pursued experimental and analytical research on various multiphase transport phenomena. His core objective has been to develop understanding of the key mechanisms that govern these often complex phenomena.
Prof Chen is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AlChE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He received numerous awards including the Melville Medal for distinguished archival literature and the Classic Paper Award from ASME, the D. Q. Kern Award from AIChE, the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award and the Max Planck Research Prize from the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Max Jakob Award for seminal contributions to the science of heat transfer from AIChE and ASME. As President of the AlChE in 2006, Prof Chen founded the Center for Energy Initiatives. He has presented keynote lectures on energy at the invitations of the engineering societies of France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and USA.
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