Join us on Thursday April 20 at SusTech 2023 for a special reception organized by the Oregon Section Young Professionals.

“Climate Change and Sustainability”

with Professor Saifur Rahman, 2023 IEEE President & CEO

Date: Thursday April 20, 2023
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Register: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/355821

Special remote guest presentation by Professor Saifur Rahman, 2023 IEEE President & CEO @ 6:30 pm

This lecture will address what is climate change, what is causing it and how it is impacting the daily lives of citizens around the world. In the context the author will the issue of greenhouse gas emissions and how it can be reduced to help mitigate the effect of climate change.

There has been a major focus placed on the carbon produced through electricity generation, as it is responsible for roughly 30% of emissions globally,  When focusing on the energy sector alone, it is apparent that nation states are coalescing into two groups when targeting carbon reductions:

• Industrialized nation states, which have been responsible for the vast majority of the total CO2 emissions thus far.
• Emerging economies, which are less responsible for past carbon emissions, but increasing their carbon emissions at a much faster rate.

A nuanced approach to reduce carbon emissions from the electric power sector will be presented which will require industrialized nation states to collaborate with emerging economies to deploy a portfolio of solutions with low-carbon generation including nuclear, hydrogen, storage and demand side management with advanced technology focusing on energy efficiency.

Professor Saifur Rahman is the founding director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech, USA where he is the Joseph R. Loring professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and an IEEE Millennium Medal winner.  He is the 2023 IEEE President & CEO and was the president of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) for 2018 and 2019.

He was the founding editor-in-chief of the IEEE Electrification Magazine and the IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. He has published over 160 journal papers and has made over five hundred conference and invited presentations. He has conducted several energy efficiency, blockchain and sensor integration projects for Duke Energy, Tokyo Electric Power Company, the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Energy and the State of Virginia. He has a PhD in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech.