Please join us Wednesday (2 PM Eastern) for a presentation by Michael Webber at the University of Texas at Austin. Michael is the instructor for Energy 101, a MOOC with 44,000 enrolled. He also has a Nationally Syndicated show "Energy at the Movies" produced by PBS. Michael works closely with Tom Edgar as the deputy director of the Energy Institute at UT Austin.

Please note that pre-registration through AIChE is required. AIChE members will need to use one of their free credits to participate in the live event or view the recorded session that will be posted afterwards. There are currently 50 participants registered for the event and we expect the number to grow over the next week. The audience will be able to hear the speaker and provide questions in a chat window.

Prof. Michael Webber, University of Texas at Austin
Thirst for Power: The Global Nexus of Energy and Water
May 28, 2014
2 PM Eastern

Registration and Announcement: http://www.aiche.org/resources/chemeondemand/webinars/nexus-energy-and-water
Michael Webber's Faculty Profile: http://www.me.utexas.edu/directory/faculty/webber/michael/
 
Upcoming Webinar Sessions (with "Add to Calendar" links):
http://apmonitor.com/wiki/index.php/Main/ApplicationWebinars

Abstract:

In this presentation, Dr. Webber builds from his extensive body of research, his course lectures, and his congressional testimony to share his perspective on the global nexus of energy and water to outline trends while identifying technical and policy options that might mitigate the challenges.

Energy and water are precious, global resources, and they are interconnected. The energy sector uses a lot of water -- the thermoelectric power sector alone is the largest user of water in the U.S., withdrawing 200 billion gallons daily for powerplant cooling. Conversely, the water sector is responsible for about twelve percent of national energy consumption for moving, pumping, treating, and heating water. This interdependence means that droughts can cause energy shortages, and power outages can bring the water system to a halt.

Given recent trends towards increasingly water-intensive energy and energy-intensive water, the problems might become more extreme if the currently segregated funding, policymaking, and oversight paradigm of these resources are not integrated.

Biography: 

As Deputy Director of the Energy Institute, Co-Director of the Clean Energy Incubator, Josey Centennial Fellow in Energy Resources, and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Michael E. Webber trains the next generation of energy leaders at the University of Texas at Austin through research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization. 

He has authored more than 200 publications, holds 4 patents, and serves on the advisory board for Scientific American.  His television special Energy at the Movies is currently in national syndication on PBS stations, and his massive open online course (MOOC) "Energy 101" launched globally in September 2013 to over 42,000 students. 

Webber holds a B.S. and B.A. from UT Austin, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford.  He was honored as an American Fellow of the German Marshall Fund, an AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow, and on three separate occasions by the University of Texas for exceptional teaching.