NSF renews
Global Change Center
Fischhoff takes over from Dowlatabadi
The
NSF Center for Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions
of Global Change had been renewed by the NSF for an additional
three years at a level of $1.8-million per year. Reviewers
noted that under the leadership of Hadi Dowlatabadi (EPP),
the Center, which currently involves more than 4 dozen
investigators from 19 different institutions, has been
remarkably inventive and productive. During the next several
years the Center will focus much of its effort on problems
involving equity, institutional learning, and non-marginal
change.
Recent
months have seen important administrative changes. Dowlatabadi
has accepted a prestigious chaired professorship at the
University of British Columbia (UBC) split between the
Sustainable Research Development Institute and the Liu
Center for Global Issues. While his close collaborators
in EPP are sorry to see him leave, they recognize that
the move presents a wonderful opportunity for him and
for his wife Sue Rowley, an expert in Canadian arctic
archeology, a field which offers few employment opportunities
in Pittsburgh! Rowley will assume the post of Curator
of Public Archaeology at the Museum of Anthropology as
well as a faculty position at UBC. Dowlatabadi will remain
a co-PI on the Center grant and will become an Adjunct
Professor in EPP.
Baruch
Fischhoff (EPP/SDS) assumed the directorship of the Center
in January 2001. A leading behavioral social scientist,
Fischhoff is well positioned to lead the Center as it
attempts to more completely integrate the social sciences
into global change research. Barbara Bugosh has joined
the Center as its new Assistant Director responsible for
administration.
Multiple
Initiatives Begun in
Industrial Carbon Management
The
single largest contributor to global warming and associated
climate change is carbon dioxide released from the combustion
of coal and oil. Until recently, proposals to capture
that carbon before it is released to the atmosphere were
viewed as unrealistic. Now, along with improved energy
efficiency and conservation, technologies for carbon management
promise to become part of a cost-effective strategy for
drastically reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
For
the next few years, the most promising approaches involve
the absorption of dilute carbon dioxide from flue gas
using monoethanolamine (MEA) or other solvents. On the
time-scale of a decade or two, technologies to extract
hydrogen fuel from coal or oil, leaving behind concentrated
carbon dioxide, appear attractive. In either case, one
must dispose of the carbon dioxide _ most likely through
high pressure injection into deep geological formations.
Many parts of such a system already exist at commercial
scale in other applications. For example, hydrogen is
commercially produced from oil and carbon dioxide is routinely
injected into deep oil wells to increase production in
a process known as enhanced oil recovery.
Aspen
Workshop: At the invitation of the Aspen Global Change
Institute, David Keith (EPP) and Granger Morgan (EPP/ECE/Heinz)
organized a weeklong international workshop held at Aspen
in July 2000 that brought together about 30 experts on
capture technologies, geological and oceanic
Carbon Management - continued on
pg.12 |
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Ships
A Significant Source of Air Pollution
Recent
research by former graduate student Jim Corbett (EPP Ph.D.
1999) and Prof. Paul Fischbeck (SDS/EPP) suggests that ship
engines may be an important but largely unrecognized source
of air pollution, including oxides of nitrogen (NOx),
oxides of sulfur (SOx) and particulate matter
(PM). Corbett says, "Based on current emission factors,
we believe that ships contribute as much NOx
to the Pittsburgh region as a major superhighway. Unfortunately,
we do not have data from enough ships to estimate accurately
the contributions of ships on local air quality. This is
especially true for the inland waterways."
To
increase our knowledge of actual ship emissions, Allen Robinson
(MechE/EPP) and Corbett (now on the faculty at the University
of Delaware) have initiated an effort to measure NOx
emissions from towboats operating in the Pittsburgh region.
Pittsburgh ranks as the 11th largest port in
the United States, and the largest inland river port in
the world based on annual tons of cargo moved. To date,
they have examined emissions and operations of one vessel.
Robinson says "The logistics were challenging, but
the results very interesting; especially the comparisons
of idealized vessel operations used in the new EPA ship
emission standard and actual vessel operations." Initial
results suggest that air pollution from tows on Pittsburgh's
rivers may be as large a source of air pollution as the
"Parkway," the city's central artery. Results
from the investigation have been accepted for publication
in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Additional measurements are planned to examine emissions
from a wider variety of vessels.
Towboat pushing
coal barges on the Ohio River just below the Point (confluence
of the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny Rivers).
Mark Kieler
Arrival
Mark
Kieler (ECE/EPP BS 1982; EPP MS 1992) has been appointed
Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs in the
Department of Engineering and Public Policy. He takes over
many of the responsibilities previously exercised by Indira
Nair (EPP) who is now serving as Vice Provost for Education.
After
completing his BS, Mark worked for the Nuclear Power Division
of Duquesne Light and then at Westinghouse Electric. He
came back to earn an MS in EPP and then moved to the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center where for the last several
years he has run a program in medical instrumentation.
As
Assistant Department Head, he is responsible for overseeing
the undergraduate double major programs with the five traditional
engineering departments and with the School of Computer
Science.
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