COLUMBIA ENGINEERING THE FU FOUNDATION SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY WATER IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY CLIMATE IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY ENERGY contents Fall 2010 | Volume 52, No. 1 IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY 3 Letter from the Dean 24 Fostering New Ways to “Green”: Ponisseril Somasundaran 4 Understanding Brown Carbon: V. Faye McNeill 26 Making Concrete “Green”: Christian Meyer 6 Reevaluating the Hole in the Ozone: Lorenzo Polvani 27 Raising the Roof: Huiming Yin 7 Studying Earth’s Mantle and Crust: Marc Spiegelman 28 Greening Infrastructure: Patricia Culligan 8 Creating Artificial Trees: Klaus Lackner 30 Characterizing Nanoparticles for Fuel Cells: 10 Repairing the Microbial Nitrogen Cycle: Kartik Chandran Simon Billinge 11 Recycling Carbon Dioxide for Energy: Marco Castaldi 31 Peer Networking to Save Energy: John Taylor 12 Keeping Wind Turbines Turning: Elon J. Terrell 32 Solving the Global Water Crisis: Upmanu Lall 14 Producing Organic Photovoltaics: John Kymissis 34 Using Nanomaterials for Solar Cells: Tony Heinz 15 Storing Energy More Efficiently: Sanat Kumar 35 Making a Smarter Power Grid: Roger Anderson 16 Engineering in the Developing World: Vijay Modi 36 Sustaining the Environment: Peter Schlosser 18 Predicting El Niño: Mark Cane 38 Looking at Light: Richard Osgood 19 Modeling Monsoons: Adam Sobel 39 Harvesting Energy via Nanomechanics: Xi Chen 20 Capturing Carbon: Ah-Hyung (Alissa) Park 22 Predicting Failure in Ice Shelves: Haim Waisman 23 Understanding Extremes of Global Warming: Tuncel Yegulalp 40 New Global Reach for Sustainable Community Projects 42 SEAS by the Numbers 45 A New Goal: 150 by 150 46 Columbia Engineering Around the World Comments, suggestions, or address changes may be mailed to: Dean of the School 48 Commencement and Class Day Columbia University Feniosky Peña-Mora The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 50 Welcoming New Students and Faculty Room 510, MC 4714 Editor: Margaret R. Kelly 51 Alumni Notes 500 West 120th Street 67 Program Notes: Graduate Alumni New York, NY 10027 Contributing Writers: Jeff Ballinger, Timothy Cross, Holly Evarts, Ken 71 In Memoriam Kostel, Peggy Maher, Elaine Ragland Phone: 212-854-2993 76 Ivy Engineering Deans Meet Fax: 212-864-0104 Design and Art Direction: University Publications IBC Giving Back: Armen Avanessians ’83; E-mail: [email protected] Samuel Y. Sheng ’51 Photography: Eileen Barroso, Columbia University Photography Read more about Columbia Engineering http://www.engineering.columbia.edu Columbia Engineering is published twice a year by: Columbia Engineering online at: engineering.columbia.edu Columbia University in the City of New York The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science 500 West 120th Street, MC 4714 New York, NY 10027 IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY ustainability is sometimes defined as the capacity to endure. In our last issue that featured faculty research, we concentrated on the many ways that our professors are working in the field of health to Shelp the human body endure. This issue features many of our faculty who are working to help the planet endure. Their efforts span the areas that are of concern to all—water, climate, and energy. One of our alumni, Mike Massimino ’84, has had the opportunity to view Earth from a unique perspective. As a NASA astronaut, and the first person to Twitter from outer space, he has shared his observations with the world: “viewing the Earth is a study of contrasts, beautiful colors of the planet, thin blue line of atmosphere, pure blackness of space.” Earth is truly beautiful when viewed from space, and we know that its health and its future are in our hands. Our School’s history is inextricably linked to our planet. Indeed, we were founded in 1864 as the Columbia School of Mines. In the early years of our School, we, like others at that time, were more concerned about what the planet could yield for us—precious gems, minerals, and fossil fuels. But even before the current emphasis on the importance of sustainability in all its forms, the School’s first dean realized that, for humans to endure, the resources upon which their lives depended also needed to be of a quality that would support life. Charles Frederick Chandler worked to bring clean water into New York City and instituted measures to keep the water supply potable. In 1866, Chandler was approached by the Metropolitan Board of Health to investigate sanitary concerns that impacted the health of New York City. He continued his work for the Board of Health, becoming its first chemist, and, in 1873, he was appointed its president. In this capacity, he provided laws that protected both the health of New Yorkers and the health of the environment in which they lived, promoting laws and regulations that would curb the discharge of toxic gases and acids into sludge. During the entire time he was monitoring the health and environment of New Yorkers, Chandler was mak- ing his mark as dean of the Columbia School of Mines, creating and leading a distinguished faculty from the School’s inception to 1897. Over the years, the School has been a leader in mining and metallurgy research and education, including pioneering work in mineral beneficiation, chemical thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport phenomena in mineral extraction and processing. “From orbit: Viewing Today we recognize our obligation to help our planet endure, and that obligation has become part of the the Earth is a study of mission of the School as we seek to educate socially responsible engineering and applied science leaders contrasts, beautiful whose work results in the betterment of the human condition, locally, nationally, and globally. colors of the planet, In the late 1990s, the School’s traditional programs in mining and mineral engineering were transformed to include environmental concerns for land and water resources. The Department of Earth and Environ- thin blue line of mental Engineering resulted and, as such, its faculty became an integral part of the new University-wide atmosphere, pure major initiative in Earth studies, the Columbia Earth Institute. blackness of space” Today, faculty in many different departments are tackling sustainability as a research focus, each working in his or her specialized area to help solve some of the most intractable problems that face our world —NASA Astronaut Michael J. Massimino ’84, today. I hope you will enjoy reading about them and their research, and are proud of the great impact that in a Tweet May 19, 2009 Columbia Engineering is making on the lives of many people around the world today. Feniosky Peña-Mora Dean 2 | COLUMBIA ENGINEERING­­ COLUMBIA ENGINEERING | 3 Photo courtesy of NASA IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY Understanding Brown Carbon V. FAYE MCNeILL CHEMICAL ENGINEERING As an undergraduate at the California Institute of Tech- nology, Faye McNeill gravitated to studying the chemistry of the atmosphere for a very personal reason. “The air pol- lution there was bad,” said McNeill, assistant professor of chemical engineering, of the air in Southern California. “I have asthma, so I’m always a little more aware of atmo- spheric composition just because of the way I feel.” McNeill is particularly interested in how aerosols, Brown carbon also interacts very differently with small particles or droplets of liquid suspended in the atmosphere and environment than its inorganic the atmosphere, affect global climate. Because cousin black carbon, and its roles in atmospheric they are so small (typically 2 to 10,000 nm), gravity chemistry and climate are just beginning to be has little effect on aerosol particles and they can understood. For one thing, black carbon tends to remain airborne for several days in the lower atmo- absorb radiation across the visible spectrum, but sphere, longer in the stratosphere. Aerosols such as brown carbon preferentially absorbs shorter wave- the sulfur compounds and ash emitted by Mt. Pina- lengths of light and thus can influence the forma- tubo pushed down global average temperatures for tion of ground-level ozone—the “bad” kind that two to three years after it erupted in 1991. Other leads to McNeill’s asthma attacks. aerosols can absorb incoming solar radiation or long-wave radiation reflected from Earth’s surface, To fill in our understanding of these important at- resulting in a warming effect on climate. The range mospheric compounds, McNeill is examining the of direct and indirect, compounding and conflict- basic chemistry and physics behind the cloud- ing effects makes aerosols one of the biggest un- forming and light-absorbing characteristics of solved problems facing climate scientists. organic aerosols in the lab. She also works with other groups to integrate their piece of the cli- Aerosols also can have a wide range of chemical mate puzzle into the big picture, including climate compositions, which reflects their diverse origins. modelers who write the massive, computer-based McNeill and her team have recently focused on simulations that attempt to predict how individual understanding the sources and properties of light- parts of the environment interact to govern Earth’s absorbing organic material, or “brown carbon,” in climate. atmospheric aerosols. Brown carbon is often a by- product of the burning of biomass, but its exact “A big part of what we do is communicate the re- formation mechanism is poorly understood. It turns sults of our work to modelers,” said McNeill. “The out that, rather than just being emitted directly fundamental information we get in the lab will from a source such as a brush fire, brown carbon eventually find its way into better climate models.” can form through complex reactions in airborne at- And that is something that can help us all breathe mospheric particles. a little easier. 4 | COLUMBIA ENGINEERING­­ COLUMBIA ENGINEERING | 5 IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY Studying Earth’s Mantle and Crust MARC SPIEGELMAN APPLIED PHYSICS AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS rowing up, Marc Spiegelman dreamed of do with all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.