Webinars

Earth is quickly losing its biodiversity: One million plant and animal species are under threat of extinction, according to the United Nations. To better assess the problem of biodiversity loss and what to do about it, ecologists and field biologists need access to accurate observation data on more species in more parts of the globe. That's where artificial intelligence researchers like Caltech professor Pietro Perona and graduate student Suzanne Stathatos can help.

In this webinar, Perona and Stathatos discussed the AI methods they have developed to more effectively monitor species, from salmon to birds to mountain lions. Their data uncovers information about complex ecosystems, human impact on biodiversity, and the effects of climate change on nature.

Caltech researchers and engineers on campus and at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, pursue science-driven solutions to mitigate climate change. In Conversations on Sustainability, you will hear directly from Caltech experts about their progress and can ask your own questions.

Caltech scientists and MacArthur Fellows Dianne Newman and Victoria Orphan speak with science writer Lori Dajose (BS '15) about the role of microorganisms in sustaining life on a warming planet, from enabling precision agriculture to cycling carbon in the ocean to mitigating the greenhouse gases produced by livestock.

Caltech researchers and engineers on campus and at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, pursue science-driven solutions to mitigate climate change. In Conversations on Sustainability, you will hear directly from Caltech experts about their progress and can ask your own questions.

JT Reager, Earth scientist at JPL, and Indrani Graczyk, program manager of the NASA Western Water Applications Office (WWAO), located at JPL, discuss their research into water resource management and how JPL and NASA satellites help individuals and government entities make difficult decisions in the face of climate change. They explain how satellites have made possible a golden age of water monitoring, how modern droughts compare to those from centuries ago, and how a complex maze of rules and rights governs the H2O that comes out of your tap.

Caltech researchers and engineers on campus and at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, pursue science-driven solutions to mitigate climate change. In Conversations on Sustainability, you will hear directly from Caltech experts about their progress and can ask your own questions.

Adam Wierman, professor of computing and mathematical sciences and director of Information Science and Technology, and Steven Low, the Frank J. Gilloon Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and Electrical Engineering, discussed how a "smarter" electrical grid can help us more efficiently meet today's power demands while incorporating sustainable energy sources like wind and solar.

Caltech researchers and engineers on campus and at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, pursue science-driven solutions to mitigate climate change. In Conversations on Sustainability, you will hear directly from Caltech experts about their progress and can ask your own questions.

Harry Atwater, Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science and Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, envisions a future in which solar power not only supplies our electricity needs but also creates fuels for our vehicles and greener chemicals for manufacturing.

Caltech researchers and engineers on campus and at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, pursue science-driven solutions to mitigate climate change. In Conversations on Sustainability, you will hear directly from Caltech experts about their progress and can ask your own questions.

In the first conversation in this series, assistant professor of chemistry Kimberly See speaks with Caltech science writer Emily Velasco about the fundamental science advances needed to create more efficient, greener batteries to power Earth's electric future.

Jonas Peters, Bren Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute (RSI) at Caltech, describes how, using sunlight, RSI researchers are imagining how to generate and manage electricity more efficiently; convert it to chemical fuels, materials, and fertilizers; and use it to power water purification.

Panelists from academia, industry and government address questions surrounding the "hard to decarbonize" sectors of the economy, such as long-distance trucking, shipping, air travel and industrial manufacturing. The discussion probes the scientific discoveries, technological innovation and policy needed to approach net-zero and eventually negative carbon emissions.

Opening Remarks

• Jonas C. Peters, Bren Professor of Chemistry and Director, Resnick Sustainability Institute

Panelists

• Andre Argenton, Vice President, Core Research and Development, Dow
• Mary Nichols, Chair, California Air Resources Board
• Dave Danielson, Managing Director, Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Moderator

• Harry A. Atwater, Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science; Director, Liquid Sunlight Alliance, Editor in Chief, ACS Photonics

Click here to learn more about the panelists and moderator.

Hosted by the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), the 2020 Solar Fuels Science Meeting commemorated 10 years of work in the DOE Solar Fuels Innovation Hub and in the field of solar fuels and artificial photosynthesis. Keynote presentations, posters and webinars are viewable via the science meeting webpage.

Webinars:
(1) Renewable Hydrogen Generation - Basic Science and New Technologies (2) Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Renewable Fuels and Chemicals - Accomplishments and Challenges (3) Solar Fuels - Future Science and Technology

Experts from campus and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which Caltech manages for NASA, present on how changes in energy use, transportation, and manufacturing during the coronavirus pandemic can be connected to changes in air quality and emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane. Panelists discuss how this has created an experiment that can help us understand how human activity changes the environment and guide policies for a transition to a sustainable planet.

Opening Remarks

• Jonas Peters, Bren Professor of Chemistry and Director, RSI

Panelists

• Paul O. Wennberg, R. Stanton Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering; Director, Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science
• Christian Frankenberg, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Research Scientist
• Annmarie Eldering, Deputy Project Scientist for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) and Project Scientist for OCO-3, JPL

Moderator

• Jessica Neu, Deputy Principal Investigator for Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), JPL

This webinar was sponsored by Caltech's Resnick Sustainability Institute, the Keck Institute for Space Studies, and The Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science

Credit: Earth courtesy NASA/JPL, Image RSI/H.Rusina

In this special Earth Week webinar on "COVID–19 and Implications for Addressing Global Crises in Health and Sustainability", two panels of distinguished campus experts discussed topics ranging from the latest science of COVID-19, challenges with modeling our current pandemic and other global crises, and economic and political ramifications for sustainability.

Panelists

• David Baltimore, President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology; Nobel Laureate
• Pamela Bjorkman, David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Bioengineering
• Alice Huang, Senior Faculty Associate in Biology
• Robert Phillips, Fred and Nancy Morris Professor of Biophysics and Biology

Moderator

• Jonas Peters, Bren Professor of Chemistry and Director, RSI

Q&A Facilitator

• Xenia Amashukeli, Executive Director of Operations, RSI

Panelists

• Michael Alvarez, Professor of Political and Computational Social Science
• Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and holder of the Ronald and Maxine Linde Leadership Chair, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Moderator

• Neil Fromer, Executive Director of Programs, RSI

Q&A Facilitator

• Xenia Amashukeli, Executive Director of Operations, RSI

Watch more faculty webinars on various aspects of the pandemic on Caltech's Coronavirus Information website.