September 17, 2020 | 9AM – 4PM | Virtual Event

The 2020 symposium explored leading work that contributes to decarbonizing Washington’s most influential economic sectors – aerospace, land use, and technology – and securing our citizens’ prosperity and employment prospects in a carbon constrained future.

Agenda

9:00 – 9:05 AM Welcome – Roger Myers, WSAS President

9:05 – 9:20 AM Introduction and Framing – Dan Schwartz, Boeing-Sutter Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director, Clean Energy Institute, UW


9:20 – 9:40 AM Keynote – Chad Frischmann, Vice President and Research Director, Project Drawdown

From Drawdown to Regeneration: Creating the Future We Want Today


9:40 – 10:00 AM Keynote – Representative Gael Tarleton, WA State Legislature, 36th District

How WA State’s 100% clean electricity bill became “the best of the bunch”


10:05 – 10:50 AM Session 1: Decarbonizing Land Use

Moderator: Chad Kruger, Director, Center for Sustaining Agriculture & Natural Resources, WSU

  • Janet Jansson, Chief Scientist for Biology and Laboratory Fellow, PNNL – Climate change impacts on the soil microbiome and soil carbon cycling
  • David Montgomery, Professor of Geomorphology, UW – Growing a Revolution: Farming to Improve Soil Health

10:55 – 11:40 AM Session 2: Decarbonizing Aerospace

Moderator: Michael Wolcott, Regents Professor and Vice President for Research, Director, Office of Clean Technology, WSU

  • Manuel Garcia-Perez, Professor and Director, Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory, WSU – Production of Cheap Alternative Bio-Jet Fuels: A Carbon Balance Problem
  • Jim Heidmann, Manager, Advanced Air Transport Technology Project, NASA Glenn Research Center – The Electrification of Aviation

11:45 – 12:30 PM Session 3: Decarbonizing Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Moderator: Stuart Adler, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, UW

  • Sean James, Director of Datacenter Research, Microsoft Corporation – Decarbonizing Datacenters
  • Baosen Zhang, Keith and Nancy Endowed Career Development Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UW – Integrating Data Center Battery Storage with the Grid

LUNCH


1:00 PM Keynote – Mary Collins, Policy Advisor, Energy and Environment, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office

From Local to Global: The Road to COP26 in Glasgow


1:25 – 2:30 PM Parallel Workshops: RD&D for decarbonizing leading WA export sectors

What is the role of state, federal, and private RD&D to accelerate decarbonization as we look out 10 to 20 years? Panelists will spark conversations about needs in WA related to the research enterprise (see sessions below).

Land Use Panel, Malin Young, Associate Laboratory Director for Earth and Biological Sciences, PNNL (Discussion leader)

Panelists:

  • William Pan, Professor of Soil Science, WSU
  • Kirsten Hofmockel, Earth Scientist, Biological Sciences Division, PNNL and President, Soil Ecology Society
  • Chad Kruger, Director, Center for Sustaining Agriculture & Natural Resources, WSU
  • Dan Brown, Director and Professor, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, UWv

Aerospace Panel, Michael Wolcott (Discussion leader)

Panelists:

  • Mehran Mesbahi, Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics, UW
  • Roei Ganzarski, CEO, magniX
    Sean Newsum, Director of Environmental Strategy, Boeing
  • Marianne Csaky, Director of Environmental Affairs, Alaska Airlines
  • John Holladay, Co-Director, Bioproducts Institute, PNNL

ICT Panel, Stuart Adler (Discussion leader)

Panelists:

  • Olga Marina, Chief Scientist, Energy and Efficiency Division, PNNL
  • Dustin McLarty, Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, WSU
  • Jack Brouwer, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Associate Director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center and Advanced Power and Energy Program, UC Irvine
  • Baosen Zhang, Keith and Nancy Endowed Career Development Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, UW

3:00 – 3:30 Reporting out from workshops

3:30 – 4:00 Roles for WSAS, WA State and the Private Sector