December 9, 2014 Cluster Hire (4 Positions) in Sustainable Mining

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

December 9, 2014 Cluster Hire (4 Positions) in Sustainable Mining December 9, 2014 Cluster Hire (4 Positions) in Sustainable Mining, Metallurgy and Energy Engineering The Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University in the City of New York is recruiting for 4 critical positions, including 3 prestigious endowed chairs, with the anticipation that additional positions will be filled in subsequent years. Henry Krumb Chair in Mining Engineering: Dedicated to hiring the leader in mining engineering and mineral processing for the 21st century. Applications are encouraged from candidates with backgrounds and interests in frontier research and education in mining including but not limited to, novel pathways for the extraction of elements including rare earth and precious metals from minerals and waste streams, robotics for mining of both land and deep sea, processing of minerals and/or fuels, hydraulic fracturing, storage of solids and gases in geologic reservoirs (e.g., nuclear wastes and CO2), systems analysis of novel mining technologies, and other related fields. All environmental aspects of these research areas including optimization of mine water processing considering the full cycle of mine water will also be of interest. Henry Krumb Chair in Mining and Mineral Systems Engineering: Dedicated to hiring the leading thinker on the systems analysis of global material cycles and mineral processing. The successful candidate will be a leader in research and education on the current and future directions in material cycle research from a systems engineering perspective. The candidate’s research will focus on a modern, systems level, understanding of the sustainable economic, environmental and technological directions in materials extraction, re-processing and applications across different industries, thus identifying and guiding future uses, sources, and life cycles of materials. Research on the nexus of energy, water, and mineral extraction and processing systems in a geographical and environmental context is also of interest. Stanley Thompson Professor of Chemical Metallurgy: Dedicated to hiring the leader in the chemical extraction of mineral for metal production, processing and refining of metals, and the associated environmental impacts. The incumbent will advance scholarship in chemical metallurgy and research and education on all aspects of the mineral-to metal and metal cycles (and possible metal substitutes) including extraction of mineral for metal production, processing, and refining of metals, as well as the chemical aspects and environmental behavior of metals such as corrosion, oxidation, and other chemical interactions of metals and alloys with various media. Applications from candidates working on novel chemical metallurgical approaches involving conversion of metal reserves into metal resources and recycling of electronic wastes are also encouraged. Candidates are expected to have strong backgrounds and interests in fields that address frontier research and education in novel technologies for the sustainable production of metals from mineral reserves with minimal damage to the environment, or by preventing corrosion to the metals, thereby decreasing the environmental costs of the dust-to-dust life cycle. Position in Renewable Energy Systems (tenure-track or tenured faculty position at the assistant/associate professor level): Dedicated to hiring an emerging leader in systems analysis and operation of large scale renewable energy systems. Applications are invited for a tenure-track or tenured faculty position at the assistant/associate professor level. The ideal candidate will combine strong technical knowledge in one or more area(s) of renewable energy production and system operation with a holistic, approach to the integration of renewable into conventional energy systems. The integration may include the use of novel energy storage mechanisms, smart grid management aspects, systems optimization and control, and technological innovation while addressing overall energy system resilience and risks of cascading failure. The candidate will lead research and educational collaborations with academic departments and units across Columbia University, especially the Earth Institute through the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy. About the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering The Department of Earth & Environmental Engineering takes an Earth Systems Engineering approach to Sustainable Development. It addresses the challenge of efficiently and economically providing the resources, infrastructure systems and consumptive goods for the well-being of a growing population of our planet, while preserving the environment and intergenerational equity. We focus on the development of primary resources, such as minerals, energy, water, clean air, and land, the management of material cycles (e.g., Metals, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Silicon), the management of water, and energy cycles through the transformation of raw materials to end uses, and the optimization of water, energy, transportation and food production sustainable infrastructures. We pay equal attention to the recovery of materials and resources from end of use products. Our work considers risks related to human-induced and natural hazards, pollution, infrastructure failure, and their mitigation through technical and financial instruments. Within the systems framework, our research spans many scales, from nanotechnology to planetary engineering. We seek solutions through innovations in extraction and processing technologies, bio- and geochemistry, novel Earth engineering strategies, and industrial ecology. More specific examples of research by members of the department include emerging sustainable energy technologies, carbon sequestration, mineral and energy recovery from solid and aqueous waste streams, hydroclimatic hazard prediction and impact mitigation, water quality and contaminant transport, the application of remote sensing tools to system identification, application of heterogeneous catalysts for energy production and air pollution control, and the resilience and robust optimization of infrastructure systems operation. Inter- sectoral linkages, multi-scale analyses, and the application of innovations in emerging soft and hard technologies to earth systems mark our transdisciplinary approach to a “better planet by design”. Applicants must have a demonstrated record of outstanding research accomplishments, excellent teaching credentials and established leadership in the field. The successful candidate should contribute to the advancement of the department in these areas by developing an externally funded research program and contributing to the undergraduate and graduate educational mission of the Department. He/she is expected to establish multidisciplinary research and educational collaborations with academic departments and units across Columbia University. .
Recommended publications
  • A Brief Discussion from the Epistemological, Religious and Societal Dimension
    International Journal of Astrobioethics: a brief discussion from Astrobiology the epistemological, religious and cambridge.org/ija societal dimension Octavio A. Chon-Torres1 Research Article Programa de Estudios Generales, Universidad de Lima, Lima, Peru Cite this article: Chon-Torres OA (2019). Astrobioethics: a brief discussion from Abstract the epistemological, religious and As astrobiology progresses in its quest to discover life on other planets or to put ourselves in societal dimension. International Journal of another one, so does its moral problematic. Astrobiology is not only part of natural sciences, Astrobiology 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S147355041900017X but also deals with direct aspects of humanities. For this reason, this paper aims to briefly examine astrobioethics from the epistemological, religious and societal dimension. It also Received: 31 January 2019 deals with different researches in this regard, in order to better understand the state of the Revised: 24 June 2019 art on this topic and that astrobioethics can help us not only on how we should relate with Accepted: 25 June 2019 extraterrestrial lifeforms, but even with terrestrials. Key words: Astrobiocentrism; astrobioethics; astrobiology; transdisciplinarity Astrobioethics is the discipline inside astrobiology that studies not only the morality of all activities related to the presence of life on other worlds, but also studies our attitude towards Author for correspondence: the expansion of terrestrial life in the Universe. The discipline that focuses on moral problems Octavio A. Chon-Torres, E-mail: ochon@ulima. edu.pe is ethics; however, as ethics is not an exact science but rather a branch of philosophy, its prob- lematic nature makes its content always updated according to the social context in which it operates.
    [Show full text]
  • Perceptions of Female High School Students on Engineering
    Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.7, No.25, 2016 Perceptions of Female High School Students on Engineering Diana Starovoytova Madara* Sitati Namango School of Engineering, Moi University P. O .Box 3900, Eldoret, Kenya Abstract There is overwhelming evidence that females are underrepresented in engineering worldwide, and Kenya is not an exception. Recent study at School of Engineering (SOE), Moi University (MU) established that engineering parity ration was found to be 1.68 %, meaning that for every 59 students admitted to MU there was only one student admitted to SOE. Engineering female parity index was found to be 0.0038, meaning that, on average, for 260 female students admitted to MU, only 1(one) female student was admitted to SOE. Humankind depends on engineers to create new technologies, to find solutions to practical problems and to shape the world that people live in and the future they rely on. Yet young people have little or no perception of engineering and the understanding they do have is all too often confused with other careers, such as science. The perception of engineering as “masculine” and “too hard” is a contributing factor for the female minority in engineering. On the other hand there are very few studies on what high school students think about engineering. In view of the above, this paper will try to fill this gap of information, by exploring teenage girls’ perceptions of engineering as a subject for study and as a potential career choice. Furthermore, it will attempt to raise awareness about and improve the image of engineering, by providing fused notion of engineering to the potential broad audience of this paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Long Futures and Type Iv Civilizations
    PERIODICA POLYTECHNICA SER. SOC. MAN. SCI. VOL. 12, NO. 1, PP. 83–89 (2004) LONG FUTURES AND TYPE IV CIVILIZATIONS Zoltán GALÁNTAI Department of Innovation Studies and History of Technology Budapest University of Technology and Economics H–1111 Hungary, Budapest, Stoczek u. 2., bg. St., gfloor 7. Tel: (+36) 1 463–2141, Fax: (+36) 1 463–1412 e-mail: [email protected] Received: September 7, 2003 Abstract The emergence of the physical eschatology in the last decades led to an opportunity to ask questions about the fate of our Universe from a cosmologist’s point of view and to study mankind’s possible future on a cosmological scale, while we can define some theoretical limits of a civilization’s possible developments. Keywords: physical eschatology, Kardashev civilizations, Type IV civilization, criticism of Anthropic Cosmological Principle, artificial and natural signs. “Whether the details of my calculations turn out to be correct or not, I think I have shown that there are good scientific reasons for taking seriously the possibility that life and intelligence can succeed in mold- ing this universe of ours to their own purposes.” (Freeman Dyson: Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe) 1. Introduction We could imagine a physicist floating in his laboratory in the outer space, far from any celestial body. That physicist would never discover the gravitational force without the closeness of big masses like our planet, wrote Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees, and similarly, the existence of some unknown forces is also imaginable, whose effects are not detectable on the scale of our Planetary System – but they would play an important role either in the centers of galaxies or in cosmology [1].
    [Show full text]
  • Moon-Miners-Manifesto-Mars.Pdf
    http://www.moonsociety.org/mars/ Let’s make the right choice - Mars and the Moon! Advantages of a low profile for shielding Mars looks like Arizona but feels like Antarctica Rover Opportunity at edge of Endeavor Crater Designing railroads and trains for Mars Designing planes that can fly in Mars’ thin air Breeding plants to be “Mars-hardy” Outposts between dunes, pulling sand over them These are just a few of the Mars-related topics covered in the past 25+ years. Read on for much more! Why Mars? The lunar and Martian frontiers will thrive much better as trading partners than either could on it own. Mars has little to trade to Earth, but a lot it can trade with the Moon. Both can/will thrive together! CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX MMM THEMES: MARS MMM #6 - "M" is for Missing Volatiles: Methane and 'Mmonia; Mars, PHOBOS, Deimos; Mars as I see it; MMM #16 Frontiers Have Rough Edges MMM #18 Importance of the M.U.S.-c.l.e.Plan for the Opening of Mars; Pavonis Mons MMM #19 Seizing the Reins of the Mars Bandwagon; Mars: Option to Stay; Mars Calendar MMM #30 NIMF: Nuclear rocket using Indigenous Martian Fuel; Wanted: Split personality types for Mars Expedition; Mars Calendar Postscript; Are there Meteor Showers on Mars? MMM #41 Imagineering Mars Rovers; Rethink Mars Sample Return; Lunar Development & Mars; Temptations to Eco-carelessness; The Romantic Touch of Old Barsoom MMM #42 Igloos: Atmosphere-derived shielding for lo-rem Martian Shelters MMM #54 Mars of Lore vs. Mars of Yore; vendors wanted for wheeled and walking Mars Rovers; Transforming Mars; Xities
    [Show full text]
  • V Isysphere Mars: Terraforming Meets Eng Ineered Life Adaptation MSS
    Visysphere mars: Terraforming meets engineered life adaptation MSS/MSM 2005 Visysphere Mars Terraforming Meets Engineered Life Adaptation International Space University Masters Program 2005 © International Space University. All Rights Reserved. Front Cover Artwork: “From Earth to Mars via technology and life”. Connecting the two planets through engineering of technology and life itself to reach the final goal of a terraformed Mars. The Executive Summary, ordering information and order forms may be found on the ISU web site at http://www.isunet.edu/Services/library/isu_publications.htm. Copies of the Executive Summary and the Final Report can also be ordered from: International Space University Strasbourg Central Campus Parc d’Innovation 1 rue Jean-Dominique Cassini 67400 Illkirch-Graffenstaden France Tel. +33 (0)3 88 65 54 32 Fax. +33 (0)3 88 65 54 47 e-mail. [email protected] ii International Space University, Masters 2005 Visysphere Mars Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The International Space University and the students of the Masters Program 2005 would like to thank the following people for their generous support and guidance: Achilleas, Philippe Hill, Hugh Part-Time Faculty Faculty, Space Science International Space University International Space University IDEST, Université Paris Sud, France Lapierre, Bernard Arnould, Jacques Coordinator “Ethics Applied to Special Advisor to the President Engineering” course. CNES Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal Averner, Mel Marinova, Margarita Program Manager, Fundamental Planetary
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Protection
    OPEN ACCESS Freelyavailableonline Journal of Astrobiology &Outreach Editorial Terraforming of Mars Environment * Pekka Janhunen Department of Astrobiology, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Space Research, Helsinki, Finland ABSTRACT Mars also features a history of being wet and plush. It has been theorized that when it had been first formed 4.2 billion years ago it had an environment and high amounts of water. Since Mars is far smaller than Earth, its internal core gradually hardened, which caused Mars to lose its magnetic flux? Without a protective magnetic flux, the solar radiation was ready to strip away most of the Martian atmosphere. The end result's that over subsequent 500 million years, Mars gradually transformed from a warm, wet planet to a chilly, dry planet. Around 3.7 billion years ago, Mars eventually became almost like the barren planet we all know of today. Despite this, there's evidence that water still exists on Mars. Water in the form of ice has been found at the poles and underground in the Utopia Plantain region of Mars. There is up to five million cubic kilometers of ice on Mars, and if this were to be spread evenly over everything of the surface of Mars it would submerge the planet under 35 meters of water. Keywords: Mars, Utopia plantain region, Martian atmosphere INTRODUCTION or her visual or olfactory qualities. This, unfortunately, pales in comparison to the 1.36 billion cubic If we are to urge an accurate picture of the potential wealth to be kilometers of water found on Earth, but it is a start. We are gained from the system, we must recognize the successive waves of currently on the hunt for life on Mars, but this has not been economic energy through which our civilization is passing.
    [Show full text]
  • Spa Ce Resources Round Tableii
    _4 73_b.-,J ,/.J/_ (1 + ._'/ SPA CE RESOURCES ROUND TABLEII November 8-10, 2000 Colorado School of Mines Golden, Colorado LPI Contribution No. 1070 LPI Contributtotl No 1070 ill / • .... :., j, / 7 / /....? ,;_ Preface This volume contains abstracts that have been accepted for presentation at the Space Resources Roundtable II, November 8-10, 2000. The Steering Committee consisted of Joe Burris (WorldTradeNetwork.net), David Criswell (University of Houston), Michael B. Duke (Lunar and Planetary Institute), Mike O'Neal (NASA Kennedy Space Center), Sanders Rosenberg (InSpace Propulsion, Inc.), Kevin Reed (Marconi, Inc.), Jerry Sanders (NASA Johnson Space Center), Frank Schowengerdt (Colorado School of Mines), and Bill Sharp (Colorado School of Mines). Logistical, administrative, and publications support were provided by the Publications and Program Services Department of the Lunar and Planetary Institute. SPACE RESOURCES ROUNDTABLE II November 8-10, 2000 Golden, Colorado Sponsored by Colorado School of Mines Lunar and Planetary Institute National Aeronautics and Space Administration Steering Committee Joe Bums, WorldTradeNetwork.net David Criswell, University of Houston Michael B. Duke, Lunar and Planetary Institute Mike O'Neal, NASA Kennedy Space Center Sanders Rosenberg, InSpace Propulsion, Inc. Kevin Reed, Marconi, Inc. Jerry Sanders, NASA Johnson Space Center Frank Schowengerdt, Colorado School of Mines Bill Sharp, Colorado School of Mines LPI Contribution No. 1070 Compiled in 2000 by LUNAR AND PLANETARY INSTITUTE The Institute is operated by the Universities Space Research Association under Contract No. NASW-4574 with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Material in this volume may be copied without restraint for library, abstract service, education, or personal research purposes; however, republication of any paper or portion thereof requires the written permission of the authors as well as the appropriate acknowledgment of this publication.
    [Show full text]
  • The Thermodynamics of Planetary Engineering on the Planet Mars
    University of Central Florida STARS HIM 1990-2015 2014 The Thermodynamics of Planetary Engineering on the Planet Mars Christopher Barsoum University of Central Florida Part of the Aerospace Engineering Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIM 1990-2015 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Barsoum, Christopher, "The Thermodynamics of Planetary Engineering on the Planet Mars" (2014). HIM 1990-2015. 1552. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1552 THE THERMODYNAMICS OF PLANETARY ENGINEERING ON THE PLANET MARS by CHRISTOPHER BARSOUM A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors in the Major Program in Aerospace Engineering in the College of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and in The Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2014 Thesis Chair: Dr. Kuo-Chi Lin © 2014 Christopher Barsoum ii ABSTRACT Mars is a potentially habitable planet given the appropriate planetary engineering efforts. In order to create a habitable environment, the planet must be terraformed, creating quasi-Earth conditions. Benchmarks for minimum acceptable survivable human conditions were set by observing atmospheric pressures and temperatures here on Earth that humans are known to exist in. By observing a positive feedback reaction, it is shown how the sublimation of the volatile southern polar ice cap on Mars can increase global temperatures and pressures to the benchmarks set for minimum acceptable survivable human conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ethics of Climate Engineering: Solar Radiation Management and Non-Ideal Justice (Routledge, 2017)
    This is a pre-print version of Toby Svoboda, The Ethics of Climate Engineering: Solar Radiation Management and Non-Ideal Justice (Routledge, 2017). If citing, please consult the published version, which contains minor changes. The Ethics of Climate Engineering: Solar Radiation Management and Non-Ideal Justice Toby Svoboda Table of Contents • Introduction • Chapter 1: Benefits • Chapter 2: Distributions • Chapter 3: Decisions • Chapter 4: Virtues • Chapter 5: Dilemmas • Chapter 6: Comparisons Acknowledgements Many individuals provided helpful feedback on draft chapters of this book. For that I thank Daniel Callies, Frank Jankunis, David Morrow, Christian Uhle, and two anonymous reviewers. I acknowledge permission from the White Horse Press and the Center for Environmental Philosophy to reuse some material from two articles previously published in Environmental Values and Environmental Ethics, respectively. Finally, I acknowledge a Summer Research Stipend from Fairfield University, which supported work on this project during the summer of 2016. Dedication To Kate and Arizona 1 Introduction This is a book about justice, anthropogenic climate change, and the prospect of climate engineering. More specifically, it is a book about the justice (or injustice) of using solar radiation management (SRM) in response to climate change. SRM is a category of climate engineering, which we may define as the large-scale, intentional, technological modification of the global environment in order to address climate change.1 A technique counts as SRM if it would seek to engineer the climate by increasing planetary albedo, such as by injecting sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, thereby reducing the quantity of solar radiation absorbed by the planet. If they worked, SRM techniques could offset (to some degree) the planetary warming driven by the increasing concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases due to anthropogenic emissions.
    [Show full text]
  • Evaluating Future Nanotechnology: the Net Societal Impacts of Atomically Precise Manufacturing
    Evaluating Future Nanotechnology: The Net Societal Impacts of Atomically Precise Manufacturing Steven Umbrelloa,∗, Seth D. Baumb a Global Catastrophic Risk Institute b Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Abstract Atomically precise manufacturing (APM) is the assembly of materials with atomic precision. APM does not currently exist, and may not be feasible, but if it is feasible, then the societal impacts could be dramatic. This paper assesses the net societal impacts of APM across the full range of important APM sectors: general material wealth, environmental issues, military affairs, surveillance, artificial intelligence, and space travel. Positive effects were found for material wealth, the environment, military affairs (specifically nuclear disarmament), and space travel. Negative effects were found for military affairs (specifically rogue actor violence and AI. The net effect for surveillance was ambiguous. The effects for the environment, military affairs, and AI appear to be the largest, with the environment perhaps being the largest of these, suggesting that APM would be net beneficial to society. However, these factors are not well quantified and no definitive conclusion can be made. One conclusion that can be reached is that if APM R&D is pursued, it should go hand-in-hand with effective governance strategies to increase the benefits and reduce the harms. Keywords: atomically precise manufacturing, nanotechnology, ethics, research policy 1. Introduction Atomically precise manufacturing (APM) is the assembly of materials with atomic pre- cision. APM is also known as molecular assembly or molecular manufacturing, and is a form of molecular nanotechnology. APM does not currently exist, and some nanotechnology researchers doubt that it is feasible (e.g., Smalley, 2001), but those who believe it is feasible anticipate a wide range of transformative societal impacts (e.g., Drexler, 2013a).
    [Show full text]
  • Earth Systems: Engineering and Management† Stephen H
    CHAPTER 20 Earth Systems: Engineering and Management† Stephen H. Schneider Imagine that we could let the world’s economy continue to grow, bring the dis- advantaged classes up from poverty, and not threaten the atmosphere or global ecosystems with unprecedented buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the climatic risks of such growth. Earth system engineering and management may just be such a panacea, some have suggested. But can we anticipate the costs or ever truly predict the consequences? Few people would ask us to accept that a growing world economy based on greatly expanded per capita energy consumption would be free of environmen- tal side effects. But many have claimed that the anticipated severalfold increase in GHGs—and associated sea level rises, intensified hurricanes, and drought and flood stresses—can be largely overcome by human ingenuity. Their opti- mistic vision depends greatly on what had been called geoengineering and has more recently been called earth system engineering, the deliberate manipulation of earth systems to manage the climatic consequences of human population and economic expansion.1 To others, the notion of geoengineering—injecting dust into the strato- sphere, for example, to reflect some sunlight back to space and counteract global warming—is an irresponsible palliative. It evades the need for a real cure, such as curbing consumption by the rich and population growth by the poor and charging polluters for their use of the atmosphere as a free sewer. In response, defenders of geoengineering retort that two-thirds of the world’s people use a small fraction of the energy per capita of the rich.
    [Show full text]
  • Afterword: Why Space Advocates and Environmentalists Should Work Together
    Afterword: Why Space Advocates and Environmentalists Should Work Together Aerospace is not usually considered verdant. Jet aircraft emit tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; some of the companies that make them are defense contrac- tors, and nobody considers weapons of war, necessary or not, to be green. These companies are in business to make money for their shareholders and will only be green if it somehow benefits their bottom line or if law or mandate requires them to be so. This reality, and there are exceptions, also taints those involved in space exploration and development. But painting the entire canvas with the same brush is not only grossly unfair, it is also incorrect. Many people who devote their lives and careers to the exploration of space are not in it for the money. Sure, they need to earn a living like everyone else. But that is not why the authors of this book chose their careers. Greg Matloff is an astronomer and astronomy professor. He lives, breathes, studies, and teaches about the heavens. He does this, in part, because studying the universe tells us something about ourselves. As we have explored the universe around us, we have learned how precious our planet Earth truly is. C Bangs explores archetypes of Earth and depicts cosmological elements from an ecological and feminist perspective. One premise of her work is that we are part of Earth and all the elements of our bodies at one time were within a star. We contain both systems within us. Her art in a wide variety of media is informed by mythology and the hope for human evolution.
    [Show full text]