ASU News - Sustainability and environment + Sustainability and environment

ASU, UAE partner for global decision-making platform

gpuente — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:01:41 -0700

Arizona State University is partnering with the United Arab Emirates on a decision platform designed to provide real-world, knowledge-driven decision support, planning and action-oriented outcomes to some of the most critical challenges confronting our nations and the world today.

A delegation of high-ranking officials from Abu Dhabi, UAE, came to ASU's Tempe campus in November as a follow-up to a series of recent of meetings in the UAE with ASU President Michael Crow, Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs R.F. “Rick” Shangraw and other ASU representatives. During that visit, the ASU delegation offered a series of proposals for collaborative projects, including creation of a Global Decision Network located in the UAE. The network would be based on the ASU Decision Theater, an innovative research facility designed to address shared challenges and explore a new decision-making landscape through the application of focused research within a flexible platform.

“The UAE is positioned among the most important countries in a critical region of the world,” said Crow. “A cutting-edge initiative like the Global Decision Network will create and advance a set of innovative processes and tools to help regional leaders and decision makers in both the UAE and Arizona address some of the most complex economic, social and environmental challenges we face today while building toward a more sustainable global future.”

The Global Decision Network will move beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to link science, technology and principles of objectivity to the process of decision-making through the design and application of advanced analytic and systems-modeling tools and the integration of decision makers’ needs at all levels of the process. With founding centers and hubs in Abu Dhabi and Arizona, the network can expand to incorporate new partners, talents and creativity in regions across the globe.

“This is really about the application of state-of-the-art scientific knowledge to real-world problem-solving,” said Shangraw. “We live in a complex world. The Decision Network not only will be a means of finding the best solutions to manage current problems, but also will function as an international learning center to train the next generation of leaders and decision makers and build future decision-making capacity on a global scale.”

The UAE delegation had the opportunity to view ASU’s Decision Theater in action with presentations focused on university efforts in the areas of sustainability, urban planning, water resource management and public health crisis preparation.

The group also met with President Crow and Vice President Rick Shangraw to discuss next steps to move the initiative forward. ASU will work directly with the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council to develop a plan and time frame for advancing the Global Decision Network.

The ASU team will include the Office of Research and Economic Affairs, the Global Institute of Sustainability, Decision Theater and Decision Center for a Desert City.

Gitzel Puente, Gitzel.Puente@asu.edu
ASU Research and Economic Affairs

ASU plays key role in Arizona’s landing of Suntech

cderra — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:17:56 -0700

The sun shines bright in the Valley, but that is not the reason why China’s leading manufacturer of solar panels, Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., decided to locate its first manufacturing plant here. It is its longstanding ties to Arizona State University that helped convince the manufacturer of the benefits of metropolitan Phoenix, said Jonathan Fink, a Foundation Professor professor in ASU’s School of Sustainability and the School of Earth and Space Exploration.

“These earlier steps, which date back more than a decade, represent the apolitical, technology based cultivation that universities are best suited to carry out, usually behind the scenes,” Fink said.

Suntech announced its choice of the Phoenix metropolitan area for its first U.S. plant on Nov. 15 and cited several reasons, including the research strengths of ASU, Arizona’s statewide renewable energy policies and the favorable local business climate fostered by groups like the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. While Suntech will provide a modest initial commitment of about 75 new jobs and a facility of about 100,000 sq feet of space, it is the fact that they chose the Valley that has many people excited.

“It is great news for the Valley,” said R.F. “Rick” Shangraw, ASU vice president for Research and Economic Affairs. “This is the place where the largest solar module manufacturer in the world chose to have its first U.S. manufacturing base. They chose it in large measure due to the value they see in industry university partnerships.”

But it took a personal touch to get them interested in the Valley.

"If it wasn’t for ASU and Jon Fink, I doubt Suntech, especially Dr. Zhengrong Shi its CEO, would have taken much interest in Arizona in the first place,” said Rob Melnick, executive dean of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.

Suntech first learned about ASU in the 1990s through the school’s Photovoltaic Testing Laboratory (PTL), where their solar modules were tested and certified. In 2006, PTL’s director, Mani Tamizhmani, provided a group of ASU administrators a letter of introduction to Suntech’s Shi. Fink, who at the time was ASU’s vice president for Research and Economic Affairs, traveled with a small group to Suntech’s headquarters in Wuxi, China, to meet with Shi.

At the time, Fink and Melnick (then the associate vice president for economic affairs) were talking to many solar companies in Germany and China about possibly setting up operations in the Valley. Their message was simple and powerful.

“We took all of our solar pieces, some of which dated back to the 1960s, packaged them into a coherent program and then described ASU as the one place that has an end-to-end approach to solar,” Fink explained. “Not only did we have scientists discovering new materials and making new types of devices, but also architects creating new kinds of building-integrated photovoltaics (PV), the only PV testing lab in the U.S. (PTL), and dialogues with real estate developers about how you can design new communities that best incorporate renewable energy, particularly solar.”

After several formal meetings and, more importantly, many informal email exchanges, Shi and Fink found that there was more than just a good technical match between Suntech and ASU.

“Dr. Shi has a deep philosophical commitment towards sustainability,” said Fink, who also is director of the Center for Sustainability Science Applications. “As one of China’s strongest proponents of environmentally sound economic policies, he was impressed by the leading role ASU was taking in sustainability research and education.”

In 2007, Shi invited Fink to give a presentation in China on the many ways that universities can support the solar industry. “I was the only American academic to talk at this gathering of several hundred Chinese industrialists, government officials and academics, organized by the U.S. Department of Energy and Suntech,” Fink said. “It was excellent exposure for Arizona.”

When ASU sought to expand the solar expertise on its faculty, Fink turned to Shi for advice. Two recent senior recruits, Christiana Honsberg and Stuart Bowden, had been colleagues of Shi when he got his Ph.D. in Australia.

One of the most crucial pieces in the Suntech recruitment was a meeting in China in June 2007 when Shi mentioned to Fink that he and his senior leadership were planning a trip to the U.S. the following month to meet with political leaders. Along with representatives from Arizona Public Service, Fink was able to persuade the Suntech team to make their first visit to Phoenix, where he arranged for them to meet with former Governor Napolitano, William Harris of Science Foundation Arizona, staff from the Arizona Department of Commerce and several local business leaders. In the months that followed, the Suntech leaders frequently referred back to the positive impression of that early visit.

“Suntech coming to Phoenix says a great deal about how research universities, if they choose to, can help with economic development,” Fink said. “If you want to advance these new technologies, you need places where new ideas will be generated and that usually occurs in research labs. We hope their local manufacturing presence will lead Suntech to build scientific and technical collaborations with ASU, so they can tell us which important questions need to be answered to improve their ability to bring solar to market.

ASU’s expanded role in driving the Valley’s economic development has been an important part of Michael Crow’s presidency. Other recent steps include the securing of funding for several key alternative energy projects, like its new Energy Frontier Research Center, two large and highly competitive ARPA-E grants and the start up of the LightWorks initiative. Fink sees all of these as reflections of how ASU can help the Valley diversify its economy.

“We weren’t just suggesting Suntech should come here because there is a lot of sunshine,” he added. “We were saying there is also the potential for a lot of new ideas and if we partner with you, you can incorporate those into your R&D strategy.”

Bacterial ‘ropes’ tie down shifting Southwest

mcoulomb — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Researchers from Arizona State University have discovered that several species of microbes (cyanobacteria), at least one found prominently in the deserts of the Southwest, have evolved the trait of rope-building to lasso shifting soil substrates.

These tiny filamentous cyanobacteria are typically found in the environment as multicellular single strands or threads. Though known as pioneers in the biostabilization of soils, scientists have long puzzled over the factors that control and promote the twisting of some species’ individual threads into thick cords sometimes inches in length.

Ferran Garcia-Pichel and Martin Wojciechowski, researchers in ASU’s School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, examined genetic markers of rope-makers, relating them to shear stress, soil particle size and friction velocity (linked to erosion) to develop an understanding about the relationship between bacterial behavior, evolutionary fitness and environmental effectors.

The results of their study, published Nov. 17 in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE, revealed that rope-building cyanobacteria, typically found in fine, sandy desert soils, marine subtidal stromatolites and coastal sand flats, are able, because of their larger size, to hog-tie sand grains and resist eroding wind and fluid at velocities that would typically wash away their thread-like relatives.

"While forming thick ropes seems to have apparent disadvantages, such as limiting access to light or nutrients, bundling-up actually turns out to be, literally, like throwing your neighbor a life-line," Garcia-Pichel says.

Wojciechowski adds: “These microbes rope-building attributes have added to their success as the true Western pioneers.”

Garcia-Pichel believes that it was environmental effectors that led to the selection of genetic traits to promote rope-building. Phylogenetic analyses performed by the researchers have further shown that the evolution of the trait occurred separately in three different genera; an example of convergent evolution, rather than a tie to a single common rope-building ancestor.

In the desert, the initial stabilization of topsoil by rope-builders promotes colonization by a multitude of other microbes. From their interwoven relationships arise complex communities known as “biological soil crusts,” important ecological components in the fertility and sustainability of arid ecosystems.

Climate change expert named Lincoln Professor of Law, Ethics and Sustainability

jbmagrud — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:08:18 -0700

Daniel M. Bodansky, a pre-eminent authority in international climate change law, has been appointed the Lincoln Professor of Law, Ethics and Sustainability at Arizona State University, according to Paul Schiff Berman, Dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Bodansky also has been named an affiliated faculty member in the College of Law’s Center for Law and Global Affairs and in the Global Institute of Sustainability’s School of Sustainability at ASU. His appointment is effective Aug. 1, 2010.

“The hiring of Dan Bodansky is a tremendously positive step for advancing ASU,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “On the law and sustainability front, Dan will bring us global thinking at the highest level. This is a great day for ASU.”

Bodansky, the Associate Dean for faculty development and the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, will be a key player in the development and operation of a new Program in Law and Sustainability at the College of Law. The program, which will be housed in the College’s Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology, is expected to launch next fall. He will teach courses in international law and in law and sustainability.

“Dan Bodansky is the leading figure in international law and climate change,” Berman said. “He is a highly respected international law scholar, and his experience, both in government and policy circles with respect to climate change, is unsurpassed. When I became Dean and we decided to launch both the new Program on Law and Global Affairs and our ambitious transdisciplinary Law and Sustainability Program, Dan was the first person I thought of. I could not be more thrilled that he will be joining us.”

Bodansky said Berman’s enthusiasm about establishing the College of Law as an innovative force in solving global challenges and Crow’s visionary leadership in sustainability convinced him to make the move.

“The law school is a very dynamic place with a real focus on international law, and there’s a synergy in the strong group of people who are doing interesting work there. That was particularly appealing to me,” Bodansky said. “And what Michael Crow is doing in sustainability, building it throughout the entire university – operations, curriculum and research – is very innovative and makes ASU an exciting place. I’m not sure I know of any other school that has that kind of focus.”

Rob Melnick, Executive Dean of the Global Institute of Sustainability, said Bodansky’s experience as climate change coordinator and attorney-adviser at the U.S. Department of State during the Clinton and Bush administrations will bring a new perspective to the institute and to ASU.

“Dan is a world-class leader in environmental and sustainability law, especially in the international arena,” Melnick said. “He has an understanding of how the law on a global level affects, and is affected by, sustainability, and he has the added advantage of having operated in both federal and international policy spaces. His dual appointment is a tremendous asset for both the College of Law and the School of Sustainability.”

Bodansky began working in the global climate change arena nearly two decades ago, before it was trendy to do so. He has authored numerous papers for the Pew Center for Global Climate Change and is an influential voice in international conversations about the issue.

His forthcoming book, "The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law" (Harvard University Press, December 2009), explains the role international law plays in addressing global environmental challenges such as climate change, ozone depletion and the loss of biodiversity.

“Law is an important piece of the puzzle, but the problem with international environmental law has been that people either overwrite the importance of it, or they disregard it altogether,” Bodansky said. “One of the points of the book is to try to provide a more realistic picture of the contributions international law can make, but to convey that it’s not the only thing that’s involved.”

Bodansky attended the recent Climate Change Talks in Barcelona and will be in attendance at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The Copenhagen meeting has been billed as the world’s last chance to stop temperature change before it passes the point of no return. Some have speculated that a political agreement – and not a legal one – will result from the summit.

“Yes, we should be striving ultimately for the legal agreement, but the difference between a political and legal agreement is incremental, not totally game shifting,” he said.

Peter French, director of the ASU Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, said Bodansky is a welcome addition to a stellar group of Lincoln professors who work in a variety of disciplines at ASU.

“Dan’s appointment adds depth to our already outstanding line up of experts in various fields who are working in the ethics areas related to those fields,” French said. “We are looking forward to him bringing another dimension to the Lincoln Center and the Lincoln professors’ group, and we expect there will be a number of collaborative projects emerging from this relationship.”

Bodansky’s scholarship includes three books, 28 scholarly articles and book chapters, five book reviews and more than 40 papers and presentations. In addition to his work at the State Department, he has consulted for the United Nations in the areas of climate change and tobacco control. Bodansky is the recipient of a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs and a Jean Monnet Fellowship from the European University Institute in Florence.

He currently serves on the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law and is the U.S.-nominated arbitrator under the Antarctic Environment Protocol. In addition, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Society of International Law.

In 2002, Bodansky joined Georgia Law, where he teaches in the areas of public international law, international environmental law, and foreign affairs and the Constitution. He was named Associate Dean for faculty development in 2006. From 1989 to 2002, he was a faculty member of the University of Washington School of Law, and he also has taught as an adjunct professor at the George Washington School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center. Bodansky clerked for Judge Irving Goldberg of the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals. Bodansky earned a law degree from Yale University, where he was a member of the Yale Law Journal, a master’s in the history and philosophy of science from Cambridge University and a bachelor’s magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1979.

Renovated MU strikes gold with LEED certification

icsea — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:57:58 -0700

A disastrous fire has turned into gold, as the renovated Memorial Union at Arizona State University has just been awarded a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, for its environmentally sustainable construction.

A fire in a second floor storage area in November 2007 caused extensive fire and smoke damage, shutting down the lower levels of the building for 60 days and the second and third floors until the following August.

ASU decided after the unfortunate incident not to simply rebuild the damaged areas of the 54-year-old building but to meet or exceed the standards of quality and sustainability used in ASU’s newest buildings. The initial goal was to achieve a LEED Silver rating.

The project was of key importance, as the Memorial Union is the center of student life on the Tempe campus and the "front door" for many visitors. Nearly 30,000 guests pass through its doors each day. The university hired the architecture firm Studio Ma, Inc. and CORE Construction to design and carry out the 92,000 square-foot renovation, which was accomplished over a period of five months.

"The Memorial Union renovation project transforms an outdated but historic 1950’s era building into a state-of-the-art facility showcasing innovative green building technologies and local, regional and recycled green building materials," says Larry Sorenson, senior architect and project manager with ASU’s Capital Programs Management Group.

"It is a benchmark for adaptive and sustainable building design, becoming the first LEED certified renovation project at ASU. The attainment of LEED Gold certification is a testament to ASU’s ongoing commitment to sustainability."

LEED Gold certification highlights for the project include the following:

• The use of regional and recycled materials, including local sandstone and mesquite and reclaimed metal finishes, minimizes the project's embodied energy and supports local industry.

• Individual lighting control systems comprised of continuous dimming ballasts and environmental sensors combine to provide energy savings of 40-70% while reducing maintenance costs.

• A comprehensive network of real-time monitoring and trending sensors communicates the building's environmental variables (temperature, fresh air, humidity, alarm and fire) to the university's central facilities, to maximize occupant comfort, energy efficiency and safety.

• The use of special recessed lighting fixtures and efficient fixture layouts reduce the light power density by 25%, maximizing energy savings while resulting brighter, seemingly larger and more relaxing public spaces.

• 95% (1,128 tons) of construction waste was diverted from landfills and recycled.

• Interior materials (stone and aluminum wall finishes, paints, adhesives, sealants, carpets, casework and systems furniture) containing zero volatile organic compounds provide improved air quality and durability.

• Comprehensive recycling and green cleaning programs are used by the MU in day to day operations, to minimize ongoing environmental impacts.

• A portion of the ASU’s solar-generated power is dedicated to the MU.

• A viable and sustained public transportation network serves the facility.

"ASU would like to acknowledge Studio Ma and the other dedicated local professionals who together are responsible for the design and unique character of the completed facility," says Sorenson.

"We would especially like to thank CORE Construction, which brought together experts from their nationwide corporate offices to initially plan this undertaking. Using local construction subcontractors and tradesmen numbering in the thousands, they were able to complete the renovation in an astonishing 102 calendar days. Lastly, they returned significant funds to ASU upon completion."

About $40 million for the project came from insurance reimbursements and $13 million was paid from bond money for upgrades planned before the fire.

"The Memorial Union fire was devastating to the ASU community and to our operation, but an amazing group of dedicated individuals came together to rebuild and create this wonderful transformation." says Kellie Lowe, MU director. "We are all very happy with the new facility. It is a proud showcase for the students, faculty and staff of ASU."

According to Jim Jacobs, president of CORE, most of the company’s project leaders were LEED accredited. Their specialized knowledge in sustainable building allowed team members to carefully plan all materials and practices before any construction was begun.

"CORE Construction acknowledges the long term value of sustainable construction and admires ASU for being a leader in this movement," says Jacobs. "As a leading contractor for the state, CORE carries with it environmental responsibility, not only from a corporate stand point, but also from each individual employee."

Other local firms that worked on the design of the project include Rudow + Berry Structural Engineers, Woodward Electrical Engineering, Convergent Technologies Audio Visual Engineers, ICDS Mechanical Plumbing and Fire Protection Engineers, R.J. Gahn Mechanical Plumbing and Fire Protection Engineers, Rolf Jensen & Associates, Inc., GrEn Consultants, Green Ideas LEED Certification Specialists and Roger Smith Lighting Design.

Research shows impacts from airborne nitrogen

mcoulomb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:06:37 -0700

The impact of airborne nitrogen released from the burning of fossil fuels and widespread use of fertilizers in agriculture is much greater than previously recognized and even extends to remote alpine lakes, according to a study published Nov. 6 in the journal Science.

Examining nitrogen deposition in alpine and subalpine lakes in Colorado, Sweden and Norway, James Elser, a limnologist in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, and his colleagues found that, on average, nitrogen levels in lakes were elevated, even those isolated from urban and agricultural centers.

The article “Shifts in lake N:P stoichiometry and nutrient limitation driven by atmospheric nitrogen deposition” presents experimental data from more than 90 lakes. The researchers’ collaboration also revealed that nitrogen-rich air pollution has already altered the lakes’ fundamental ecology.

“This is because plant plankton or phytoplankton, like all plants, need nitrogen and phosphorus for growth,” Elser says. “Inputs from pollution in the atmosphere appear to shift the supplies of nitrogen relative to other elements, like phosphorus.”

The increase in the availability of nitrogen means that growing phytoplankton in lakes receiving elevated nitrogen deposition are now limited by how much phosphorus they can acquire. Elser says that this is important because “we know that phosphorus-limited phytoplankton are poor food – basically ‘junk food’ for animal plankton, which in turn are food for fish.”

“Such a shift could potentially affect biodiversity,” he adds. “However, we don’t really know because unlike in terrestrial systems, the impacts of nitrogen deposition on aquatic systems have not been widely studied.”

Elser’s collaborators include researchers Tom Andersen and Dag Hessen from the University of Oslo; Jill Baron of the United States Geological Survey and Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University; Ann-Kristin Bergström and Mats Jansson with Umeå University, Sweden; and Koren Nydick of the Mountain Studies Institute in Colorado, in addition to Marcia Kyle and Laura Steger, who are members of his own group in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Hessen, a well-known limnologist, and Elser have had a long-standing collaborative relationship, looking not only at nitrogen deposition but also zooplankton nutrition and a broad range of stoichiometric studies. Elser met Bergström at a conference at Umeå University and discovered that she had performed similar experiments in Sweden.

“By combining these studies we were able to achieve a more global picture of how nitrogen was impacting a broad range of lakes and come to firmer conclusions about effects of deposition,” Elser says.

Elser and Hessen hope to expand on these findings and have a pending grant proposal with the Norwegian government. In addition, Elser says he hopes to perform similar studies in China “where atmospheric nitrogen pollution is extremely high,” but, as yet, unstudied.

Elser has built a career around asking questions about energy and material flows in ecosystems, and traveling all over the world to find answers.Understanding the balance of phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen in systems forms the backbone of Elser’s worldview, known as “stoichiometric theory.” His pioneering studies have jumpstarted new research approaches, insights into nutrient limitation, trophic dynamics, biogeochemical cycling, and linkages between evolutionary and ecosystem processes. This study was supported by the National Science Foundation.

New book expands on concept of sustainability

jkullman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:49:55 -0700

Brad Allenby, a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, has recently co-authored a book that combines concepts of sustainable engineering with his pioneering work in industrial ecology.

"Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering," co-written with Tom Graedel, a professor in Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, is the first book to fully integrate the two fields.

Industrial ecology broadens the scope of the sustainability concept, Allenby says.

“It looks, for instance, at economic, technological and industrial systems and their interaction with environmental and social systems,” he says.

From that point of view, Allenby says, “You look at a factory not only from merely an economic perspective, but from the perspective of its overall impact on environmental and social systems. You look at things like its carbon emissions and how the factory uses resources, and how they are tied to design choices and manufacturing practices.”

Allenby is writing a second book, "The Theory and Practice of Sustainable Engineering," which is designed to provide students a comprehensive introduction to the subject.

The books “are going to further solidify ASU’s leadership in both sustainability and industrial ecology,” says Paul Westerhoff, interim director of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

UAE to model new innovation center on ASU’s SkySong

cderra — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:08:18 -0700

A visit to the United Arab Emirates by Arizona State University President Michael Crow and Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs R.F. “Rick” Shangraw Jr. could help the Arab state face its challenges by unleashing the talents of its entrepreneurs and innovators. During their visit, Crow and Shangraw came to an agreement with UAE officials on replicating ASU's SkySong in their country.

As it turns out, both sides had a lot in common, said Shangraw.

“Our physical environments are very much the same – we're both rapidly growing desert regions,” Shangraw said. “Because of that, we face a lot of the same challenges for managing resources and planning for growth. It turns out that innovation was a common goal, too.”

As a result, the first National Innovation Center in the UAE will be in place by the end of 2010, said Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, the UAE economic minister. The UAE center will identify key projects in alternative energy, environment, education and information technology.

ASU’s SkySong Innovation Center, located in Scottsdale, Ariz., supports firms entering or expanding within the United States. SkySong is designed to help companies grow by providing business services and programs – access to new technologies, capital networks, business education and a skilled workforce – offered or facilitated by ASU.

Shangraw explained that the goal of the ASU-UAE discussions was to find common ground in areas where both entities could benefit, but not act like other universities and simply replicate infrastructure.

“We’ve been talking with UAE for the past 18 months on moving the concept of SkySong over to UAE,” he said. “We aren’t talking about a building and a sail in UAE, but to help them build a SkySong equivalent activity over there to help encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, which will be tied back to ASU by offering versions of our entrepreneurship training and the way we think about connecting global companies with other companies, and how we bring venture capitalists into that environment.”

SkySong wasn’t the only focus of the discussions.

“We are also moving forward with the concept of a national decision center (based on the Decision Theater concept) in UAE and an advanced educational platform as well,” Shangraw said.

“Each of these three concepts exist at very nontraditional intersections and collaborations,” he added. “ We aren’t talking about picking up ASU and putting it over there and start offering degrees. We are talking about bringing the concept over.”

One of the more interesting initial challenges of the UAE innovation center will be to address alternative energy.

“There are certain parts of the economy that we would like to build and enhance, especially alternative energy,” al Mansouri said.

That gave Crow the opportunity to talk about one of ASU’s newest initiatives, LightWorks, which focuses on the university's strengths in renewable energy fields including artificial photosynthesis, biofuels and next-generation photovoltaics. LightWorks will expand to include other light-based projects, such as lasers for biomedical applications, energy-efficient lighting and smart-grid technologies.

Shangraw said that the two sides are exploring ways where ASU can bring some of its expertise in solar, biofuels and smart-grid technology to the UAE. Additional challenges the UAE innovation center will address include population stress, the urban heat island and sustainable development.

Grants to help change how we generate, consume energy

cderra — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:26:21 -0700

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Arizona State University two grants for alternative energy research that are part of a special DOE program to pursue high-risk, high-reward advances with the potential to change the way the nation generates and consumes energy.

ASU’s grants, totaling more than $10 million, are among 37 new DOE grants totaling $151 million to support the program.

ASU’s grants are for work on a new class of high-performance metal-air batteries and the use of photosynthetic bacteria to produce automotive fuel from a combination of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.

“ASU is the only university to be heading up two of these highly competitive projects,” said Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, ASU’s deputy vice president for research and economic affairs.

DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program has the goal of developing nimble, creative and inventive approaches to transform the global energy landscape while advancing America’s technology leadership.

In announcing the awards, U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said “ARPA-E is a crucial part of the new effort by the U.S. to spur the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, creating thousands of new jobs and helping cut carbon pollution.” The program is generally considered as an effort to “hit a home run” in advanced alternative energy research.

Inspired by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA-E was created to support high-risk, high-reward research that can provide transformative new solutions for climate change and energy security. This first ARPA-E solicitation was highly competitive, with more than 3,600 concept papers received. Of that, some 300 were chosen for full application submissions and 37 were finally selected for funding. ASU is the only institution to lead more than one ARPA-E grant, from a pool of awardees that includes MIT, Stanford University, Michigan State University, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Ohio State University, Penn State University and United Technologies Research Center.

Panchanathan added that these grants, along with the high profile $14 million grant recently awarded by the DOE for an Energy Frontier Research Center, devoted to creating solar-generated biofuels, testifies to the rapidly emerging leadership of ASU in renewable energy research. ASU has been building up its portfolio in alternative energy research for several years and currently includes, among its capabilities, several advanced programs on solar energy research; one of the leading testing and certification centers for solar energy; and research into solar-generated biofuels including advanced work on algae-based biofuels.

ASU also has launched a new initiative called LightWorks by bringing together the intellectual expertise across the university centered on the idea of harnessing all that the sun has to offer as the ultimate power source of nature and using it to generate electricity, alternative fuels, new forms of lighting, even new medical and health-care devices.

The ASU ARPA-E awards will go toward:

Fuel from sunlight

A $5.2 million grant for two years will fund work on a form of photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria that are modified to over-produce and secrete fatty acids for biofuel feedstocks using just sunlight, water and carbon dioxide as inputs. ASU researchers will work with scientists from North Carolina State University and Diversified Energy on the project.

The project essentially uses the cyanobacteria as biocatalysts for generating the fatty acids which, in turn, are secreted by the cyanobacteria. Fatty acids, a biofuel feedstock, then are used for producing “jet fuel, gasoline, even green diesel fuel,” said lead researcher Wim Vermaas, a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences and the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis.

The advantage of the new process is getting the cyanobacteria to secrete the fatty acids, Vermaas said.

“In the past, we had to ‘demolish the factory,’ basically break open the cyanobacteria, to get the product (lipids or fatty acids) out,” Vermaas said. “This process will avoid that because the bacteria secrete the product.”

As a result it would avoid much of the environmental drawbacks to current cyanobacteria or algae conversion processes by not generating leftover biomass – or waste product – when the organisms are cracked open, and avoiding the use of solvents and additional energy normally needed to extract the lipids or fatty acids from the photosynthetic microbes.

The project will lead to a higher efficiency in solar energy conversion to fuel and provide insight into ways to scale the process “so it has a significant impact on environmentally responsible, domestic production of fuels,” Vermaas said.

Co PIs on this project are: Roy Curtiss, Biodesign Institute; Bruce Rittmann, Biodesign Institute and Regents Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering & Built Environment; David Nielsen, School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering; Robert Roberson, School of Life Sciences; Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, School of Sustainable Engineering & Built Environment.

High-energy batteries

A grant of $5.1 million over two years will help support pursuit of advances in battery technology and energy storage led by Cody Friesen, an associate professor in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering. ASU will work with researchers from Fluidic Energy Inc., on the project.

Friesen is developing a new type of ultra-high-energy metal-air batteries that use advanced ionic liquids and promise to provide low-cost, long-range power for all-electric and hybrid vehicles. In the long run, this advance could significantly reduce the need for the United States to import oil since more of the energy to power transportation could be drawn from the nation’s electrical grid.

“This has the potential to dramatically decrease the cost of energy storage,” Friesen said. “An electric-vehicle powered by these types of batteries would have a distance range comparable to that of a gasoline-powered vehicle. A cell phone could remain powered for as long as a month without recharging.”

Friesen sees the combination of efforts at the university to advance solar power and energy-storage technologies “demonstrating a holistic approach to energy research that is making ASU a global leader in renewable energy advances.”

Co PIs on this project are Dan Buttry, chemistry and biochemistry; and Karl Sieradzki, School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering.

“We need to come up with new, imaginative and elegant ways of generating energy, and smarter ways of consuming that energy so we are not depleting resources and harming our environment,” said Panchanathan. “These projects strive to achieve all of that.”

Barrett Lecture Series presents former ASU President Lattie Coor

mgterril — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:44:43 -0600

Former ASU President Lattie Coor will be appearing at the Downtown Phoenix campus as part of Barrett Honors Lecture Series, to drum up support for a new state initiative.

Open to the public, Coor’s presentation “The Arizona We Want”, starts at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the Cronkite Theater at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix.

Initially implemented in 2004, the Barrett Honor Lecture Series brings a wide variety of intellectually stimulating scholarly work and issues to Barrett students and the ASU community. The series highlights both the faculty at ASU and scholars in all fields from across the nation.

Coor is heading up a new initiative “The Arizona We Want”, to help build a citizen’s agenda that reflects what Arizonans are thinking about and identifies a set of clear, measurable goals that describes what want the state to be and how they intend to get there.

“I welcome the opportunity to present this report as part of the Barrett Honors Lecture Series, and to share with those present the findings of the Gallup Arizona Poll from which the report has derived a citizen’s agenda for Arizona,” Coor said. “I will be asking all in attendance to personally take the poll at www.thearizonawewant.org, and to learn how their views match up with those found by Gallup.”

The survey, released Oct. 2, 2009 by Gallup Inc., asked 3,600 residents statewide for their perceptions of Arizona’s economy and quality of life. Respondents said the most important issues facing Arizona include the economy, jobs, housing market, transportation, immigration, crime, water, environment, schools, drugs, growth and prejudice.