SEF News
News of 2009
September 23,
2009
1. SEF
Leadership Election
As you may have known, the current leadership team will finish its term
at the end of the year. This means that the Forum will have a new leadership
team for the term of 2010-2011.
According to the Bylaws, the current vice chair of the Forum will
automatically succeed to the chair. Thus, the Forum will have the following
positions open for nomination: (i) vice chair, (ii)
treasurer, (iii) secretary, (iv) programming chair,
(v) award chair, (vi) membership chair, (vii) technical advisor, and (viii)
industrial liaison. Note that the current education chair is finishing the
first year of service of the two year term, so this position is currently not
up for election. In addition to the positions listed above, the chair and vice
chair positions of all the three technical areas, Sustainability General,
Sustainable Biorefinery, and Sustainable Energy, are
open. In total, we will have 13 positions to fill.
Recently, a nomination committee was formed, composed of the
Forum’s current and past chairs and current vice chair, the executive
director of the Institute for Sustainability, and an industrial leader. The
committee encourages the SEF members to send nominations (including self-nominations)
to Prof. Yinlun Huang via e-mail (yhuang@wayne.edu) by October 7, 2009. Each nomination
should include the following information: the nominee’s name, affiliation
and job function, contact information, the position(s) suitable for the
nominee, and the nominee’s experience relevant to the position(s). The
election result will be announced in late October.
2. Student
Poster Paper Competition in ICOSSE ‘09
The First International Congress on Sustainability Science and
Engineering was very successfully held in
At the undergraduate level:
1. Luke Richardson, Chemical Engineering,
2. Michaelangelo
Tabone, Civil Engineering,
At the graduate level:
1. Fernando Merida-Figueroa, Chemical Engineering,
2. Zheng Liu,
Chemical Engineering and Materials Science,
During the conference, a short award ceremony was held in the poster
session area. Each winner was
recognized with a plaque. The
Institute for Sustainability also generously provided a cash award of $300 to
each winner. Moreover, each winner
will receive a travel grant of $300, if attending the SEF sessions of the AIChE Annual National Meeting in
Awardees with judges as well as conference organizers.
A group of students gathered in a local restaurant
after the poster paper competition.
3. SEF
Co-sponsoring Another Sustainability-Focused International Conference
The 2nd International Symposium on Sustainable Chemical Product and
Process Engineering will be held in
The symposium will provide a unique forum for researchers, scientists,
and practitioners to assess and critique the current status and future
directions of research and development in integrating sustainability into
chemical product and process systems engineering. The theme for the symposium will be
Design for Sustainability. Key
thrust areas of the symposium include:
• green chemistry and engineering in product design
• emerging technologies (nanotech, biotech, and IT) in product
design
• multiscale systems science and
engineering in sustainability
• integrated material, product and process design
• alternative and renewable energy and systems
• LCA and systems analysis and decision making for sustainability
• sustainable chemical processing
• green reaction engineering & separation
• value/supply chain and large scale system sustainability
You may visit the conference website: http://www.gct.zjut.edu.cn/ for
more detailed information. The host
city,
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News of 2008
March 17, 2008
Pre-meeting materials for the third virtual meeting in 2008 have been
uploaded. The subject of this
meeting is “Livestock’s Long Shadow – Sustainability Aspects
of Confined Animal Feeding”. Date and time: March 20, 10:00 AM ET. This
will be a traditional SEF Virtual Meeting; using PDF files for visuals and a
conference call for audio. Slides
have been posted.
The
Next SEF Meeting: April 22, 2008 "Earth Day and Sustainability".
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Feb 13, 2008
Pre-meeting materials for the second virtual meeting in 2008 have been
uploaded. The subject of this
meeting is “Impacts of Freshwater Pollutants on the Chesapeake Bay”.
Date and time: February 19, 2 pm
ET.
Log
on procedure: To access the meeting itself, please browse to http://aiche2.webex.com a few minutes before
2 pm on February 19, 2008. Click on the webinar name,
fill in your name and email address and finally click 'Join Now'. After
a few moments, you will be brought in to the WebEx viewer where you will be
presented with a popup window that gives call-in details (phone number, meeting
number and attendee ID). This virtual meeting is sponsored by the AIChE Institute for Sustainability and ASME.
Note-takers
are needed; please volunteer. Also, if you have a short presentation or discussion
of some related items for this topic, please let Dr. Beaver know soon. Any questions? Just E-mail Dr. Beaver Erbeav@aol.com
or Fred Tutman fred@paxriverkeeper.org. This
Virtual Meeting is free. Visuals
will be posted here on Tuesday morning.
The next SEF Meeting:
· March 20, 10 am ET: Livestocks’
Long Shadow - Speaker to be
announced.
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Jan 18, 2008
Pre-meeting
materials for the first virtual meeting in 2008 have been uploaded. The subject of this meeting is “Reducing non Power Plant Mercury Emissions”. Note-takers
are needed; please volunteer. Also,
if you have a short presentation or discussion of some related items for this
topic, please let Dr. Beaver know soon.
Any questions? Just E-mail
him Erbeav@aol.com or Bill
Byers at Bill.Byers@CH2M.com.
This Virtual Meeting is free. Visuals will be posted on Monday.
Next two SEF Meetings:
· February 19, 2 pm ET. Impacts of Freshwater Pollutants on the
· March 20, 10 am ET: Livestocks’
Long Shadow - Speaker to be
announced
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Jan 08, 2008
The SEF leadership has been updated.
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News of 2007
December 14, 2007
The purpose for this message is to provide details on the 9th
SEF Virtual Meeting in 2007. Subject: “Sustainability Aspects of Brownfields and Greenfields”. Pre-meeting materials
for this meeting have been uploaded.
We will conduct this
Virtual Meeting using the new AIChE webex system.
The event is being advertised to all AIChE
membership via the December AIChE Exchange (the
monthly newsletter to all AIChE members) to give the
SEF additional visibility.
The process for the attendees to login to the meeting: 1.
Go to http://aiche2.webex.com a few minutes before the start. 2. On that page, see that days meeting
and click on it, then click "join" to be brought in to the
meeting. For this Virtual Meeting,
membership numbers, etc., will not be needed; that may be added in the future
if the SEF chooses to continue to use the WebEx system for the Virtual
Meetings.
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November 27, 2007
Information on the next SEF Virtual
Meeting has been posted. Subject: “Sustainable Actions
an Individual Can Take”.
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October 22, 2007
Details on the next SEF Virtual Meeting
has been posted. Subject: “Planting the Seeds of Sustainability with the Next
Generation”.
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October 12, 2007
The Fall 2007 Sustainable Engineering Forum newsletter (Vol. 1, No. 2) has been posted. It will give you an update on recent and
current SEF activities.
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August 21, 2007
The first
five SEF Virtual Meetings of 2007 have been well-attended and successful as
have the Environmental Division Virtual Meetings. We will have approximately four more.
Now, it's
time for you to work a bit. First,
help with topics. Second, help with
the format. Third, send Dr. Beaver
E-mail addresses of "lost SEF members" or folks you feel we should invite.
Please vote
on topics for the remainder of the year.
Please indicate your first, second and third choices for future SEF
Meeting Topics by placing a "1" a "2" or a "3" by
those choices and replying to Dr. Beaver by E-mail. You may cut, paste and reply or simply
write the first few words of a topic and your vote in an otherwise blank
message with subject "SEF Vote."
Dr. Beaver
will tally the results and let you know.
If you wish to offer other selections, please let him know and he will
include them in the next poll.
Choices:
Sustainable
Actions One Individual Can Take
Planting
the Seeds of Sustainability with the Next Generation
Design of
Sustainable Laboratories
Coal Bed
Methane and Associated Water
Proteomics/Genomics/Nanotechnology:
How Can We Know What to Do when the Vocabulary is 'Foreign'
Oceans:
Impacts of freshwater pollutants entering with rivers & runoff, cruise
lines & shipping
Sustainability
issues in Confined Animal Feeding, e.g., Mad Cow Disease, waste runoff.
Biodiversity
and the Effects of Invasive Species
Exploration
of the New, Warm Arctic
Sustainability Aspects of Brownfields
and Greenfields
Urban
Sprawl -- Suburban Invasion -- Rural Marauders
"Livestock's
Long Shadow"
Reducing
Non-Power Plant Mercury Emissions
Format:
Comment on
increased use of webcasting.
Do we need
"Video" (even if there's a small fee)?
Comment on
the length (currently 90 minutes).
Comment on
the frequency (~10 per year).
Comment on
the Day of the Week, the Time of Day and the Possibility of Running Each One
Twice at Different Times to Encompass the Globe.
Any other comments or suggestions are most welcome.
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August 8, 2007
The purpose for this message is to provide details on the next SEF
Virtual Meeting. Subject: “Individual Drinking Water Wells”. Materials
for this meeting have been uploaded.
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May 3, 2007
The first AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum Newsletter has been posted.
The First International Symposium on Sustainable Chemical
Product and Process Engineering (SCPPE) is to
be held in
Please follow the provided links for more information.
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May 1, 2007
The purpose
for this message is to provide details on the next Virtual Meeting. A new version of “References and Resources” has been posted.
This version contains brief excerpts and/or reviews of the items. Please let
Dr. Beaver know how you like it.
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April 12, 2007
Job opening announcements will be posted on the SEF
website from now on. You can check
the updated announcements under Jobs & Links > Job Openings.
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April 12, 2007
This is a notice of Today's SEF Virtual Meeting (“The Shift in the View of Climate
Change”-Sequel & Counterpoints). Materials have been posted.
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March 24, 2007
This is a
notice of Wednesday's SEF Virtual Meeting ("Nuclear Waste - Bury it or
Reprocess it"). Some materials have been posted. We have 22 registrants and 30 lines, so
feel free to share this invitation with groups of students and associates who
may wish to use a conference telephone. Note-takers are needed; please
volunteer. Also, if you have a
short presentation or discussion of some related items for this topic, please
let Dr. Beaver know soon.
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March 14, 2007
The purpose
for this message is to provide details on the next two Virtual Meetings the
second of which is a sequel to the February 28 Virtual Meeting.
1. The next two SEF Virtual Meeting calls have
been set up as follows:
March 27
(Tuesday) from 10:00-11:30 AM (ET) with 30 lines on the topic-- "Nuclear
Waste: Bury it or Reprocess it"
April 12 (Thursday)
from 1:00 - 2:30 PM (ET) with 30 lines on the topic--"The Shift
in the View of Climate Change - a Sequel"
> "An Inconvenient Truth"
> "The Great Global Warming Swindle"
> "From a Rapt Audience: a Call to Cool the Hype"
> Additional specifics chosen
by participants
Call in
number for both calls: 513-569-7897, conferee code 2484#.
Please RSVP by March 20 for the
first one and by April 5 for the second one, at which time Dr.
Beaver will distribute the final agenda and pre-meeting materials and post them
on the SEF website. We have 30 lines each time, so feel free to share
this invitation with groups of students and associates who may wish to use a
conference telephone.
Note-takers are needed; please
volunteer. Also, if you have a
short presentation or discussion of some related items for this topic, please
let Dr. Beaver know soon. Any questions? Just E-mail him Erbeav@aol.com
or Erbeav@sbcglobal.net. You may register by sending him a short
reply. Virtual Meetings are free.
A "Reader and Bibliography" for "Nuclear Waste; Bury it or Reprocess it" is attached.
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Feb 16, 2007
Early materials related to the upcoming SEF
Virtual Meeting have been uploaded.
February 28
(Wednesday) from 10:00 - 12:00 AM (ET) with 30 lines on the topic— "The Shift in the View of Climate
Change"
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Feb 08, 2007
There are
three purposes for this message: 1) to provide details on the next two Virtual
Meetings, 2) to give you the
outcome of the SEF poll of preferences for upcoming topics during the remainder
of 2007, and 3) to inform you of an
Environmental Division Virtual Meeting. Note the similarities (and differences)
in the SEF Meeting topic and the Environmental Division topic. It's a great opportunity for two
different perspectives on Climate Change and Global Warming.
1. The next
two SEF Virtual Meeting calls have been set up as follows:
February 28 (Wednesday) from 10:00 - 12:00 AM
(ET) with 30 lines on the topic--
"The Shift in
the View of Climate Change"
|
March 27 (Tuesday) from 10:00-12:00 AM (ET)
with 30 lines and a probable topic--
|
"Nuclear Waste: Reprocess or
Bury" |
Call in number for both calls: 513-569-7897,
conferee code 2484#.
Please RSVP by February 21 for the first one
and by March 20 for the second one, at which time Dr. Beaver will distribute
the final agenda and pre-meeting materials and post them on the SEF
website. We have 30 lines each
time, so feel free to share this invitation with groups of students and
associates who may wish to use a conference telephone.
Note-takers are needed; please volunteer. Also, if you have a short presentation or discussion of some related items for this topic, please let Dr. Beaver know soon. Any questions? Just E-mail him Erbeav@aol.com or Erbeav@sbcglobal.net. You may register by sending him a short reply.
2. The votes are in and the top four
winners of the SEF Virtual Meeting Topics Poll are:
Nuclear Waste: Reprocess or Bury
Global Freshwater Resources
Coal-to-Liquids; Coal-to-Gases
The Shift in the View of Climate Change
Dr. Beaver is gathering materials now. If you would like to contribute, to speak, to submit a discussion question or to nominate a speaker, send him an E-mail.
3. Environmental Division Virtual Meeting
This is to announce an upcoming ENV virtual meeting. There are two speakers, Sunil Hangal, Principal of RTP Environmental Associates, and Bill
Reynolds, North American Director of SGS Climate Change Program, who will speak
on the subject of Verifiable GHG Emissions. If you wish to contribute material or
agree to make some limited remarks, contact Ray Smith at USEPA. To contact Ray for any reason, he is
available at 513-569-7161 or by E-mail before the meeting. A final agenda and pre-meeting materials
will be sent by February 20 for the virtual meeting which will occur on
Thursday, February 22, 4:00 - 5:30 PM (Eastern Time).
The speakers have suggested that we ask you whether you have particular areas within GHG monitoring, reporting and verification where you would like them to focus. Also, if you have questions with regard to particular process emissions, it would be good for them to know in advance. RSVP to Smith.Raymond@epamail.epa.gov via E-mail to reserve a line for the virtual meeting. Note-takers are needed for this meeting also; please volunteer.
December 24, 2006
1. This is a notice of the upcoming SEF Virtual Meeting. Please RSVP by January 18, at which time Dr. Beaver will distribute the final agenda and pre-meeting materials and post them on the SEF website. We have 30 lines, so feel free to share this invitation with groups of students and associates who may wish to use a conference telephone. Note-takers are needed; please volunteer. Also, if you have a short presentation or discussion of some related items for this topic, please let Dr. Beaver know soon.
2. Please vote on topics for 2007. Please indicate your first, second and
third choices for future SEF Meeting Topics by placing a "1" a
"2" or a "3" by those choices and replying to Dr. Beaver by
E-mail. You may cut, paste and
reply or simply write the first few words of a topic and your vote in an
otherwise blank message with subject "SEF Vote" to Erbeav@aol.com. Dr. Beaver will tally the results and
let you know. Some topics were
included in last year’s vote; others are new. If you wish to offer other selections,
please let Dr. Beaver know and he will include them in the next poll. The AIChE
Environmental Division may choose certain topics and facilitate Virtual
Meetings on those topics.
Choices:
Nuclear
Waste: Reprocess or Bury
Global
Freshwater Resources
Coal-to-Liquids;
Coal-to-Gases
The Shift
in the View of Climate Change
Design of
Sustainable Laboratories
Coal Bed
Methane and Associated Water
Sustainability
and Environmental Implications of War
Oceans:
Impacts of freshwater pollutants entering with rivers & runoff, cruise
lines & shipping
Sustainability
issues in Confined Animal Feeding, e.g., Mad Cow Disease, waste runoff.
Invasive
Species: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Sustainability
Aspects of Brownfields and Greenfields
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