Noted Solar Energy Researcher to Speak Aug. 27 at USU

A challenge in implementing solar power as a wide-scale source of electricity is finding a cost-effective method of storing the sun’s energy. Daniel Nocera, chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has recently developed a technique that may advance efforts toward a solution. The researcher speaks at Utah State University Wednesday, Aug. 27. His lecture is free and open to all.

Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, presents “Powering the Planet by Artificial Photosynthesis” at 4 p.m. in Eccles Science Learning Center, Room 046. His lecture is hosted by USU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Sustainable Energy Research Center.

 

“Dr. Nocera has pioneered studies of the basic mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry,” said USU biochemistry professor Lance Seefeldt, seminar host. “He’s a frequent scientific contributor to network, cable and public television programs, including NOVA, ABC’s Nightline and Discovery Channel News. We’re very fortunate to have a scientist of his caliber on campus.”

 

In a paper published this summer in Science, Nocera, who serves as director of both the Solar Revolutions Project and the Eni Solar Frontiers Center at MIT, describes a simple and inexpensive way of duplicating photosynthesis outside of the leaf by splitting water molecules and producing oxygen gas. The technique mimics a plant’s energy storage system.

 

For more information about the seminar, contact USU’s Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at 435-797-1619.

 

 

Contact: Lance Seefeldt, 435-797-3964, lance.seefeldt@usu.edu
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu