Stanford University Professor Arun Majumdar is the featured speaker for the School of Mechanical Engineering's Annual Distinguished Lecture. A reception will follow.

About the talk:
For almost every action we take in our lives today, we receive the benefit of 250 years of industrial revolution, which has been arguably the most remarkable period of human history. Our global economy and our prosperity grew exponentially, and our population grew ten fold. The industrial revolution has been largely about how we sourced, distributed and used energy. It was and continues to be predominantly based on fossil energy. Science has shown that our current course is unsustainable. The choice that our society is asked to make is often posed as follows:

Should we continue our exponential economic growth based on fossil fuels and ignore the environment, or should we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions at the cost of our economic growth?

This is a false choice because it is based on extrapolating the past. It does not account for the capacity of research based on science and engineering to create new options for a sustainable energy future, one that allows the economy and our environment to be mutually inclusive. This talk will discuss a variety research opportunities and challenges in stationary power and transportation systems that could create such technological options and enable the transition of our energy economy to a sustainable one. Technology is necessary, but not sufficient. The talk will also briefly discuss options for public policy to create conditions for such technological options to be utilized.