Santa Clara Valley ACS Dinner Meeting Info

January Meeting

   We congratulate Dr. William Carroll on winning the Mosher Award, and we thank him for his entertaining and informative talk.

    At the left he is seen accepting the award from Santa Clara Valley Section Chair Natalie McClure.
    (Photo by Lois Durham)

February Meeting
Join us to hear
Malhotra photo

Ripudaman Malhotra     Ripudaman Malhotra got his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1971 at Delhi University, and his MSc in Chemistry, in 1973, also at Delhi University, and his Ph.D., in Chemistry in 1979, at the University of Southern California.
    He came to Stanford Research International (SRI) as a post-doctoral fellow in 1979, and he has been there ever since. He is now Associate Director of the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory at SRI. He is an organic chemist, and during his tenure at SRI he has worked extensively, though not exclusively, in the area of energy. Most of his studies have focused on the chemistry of processing fossil fuels. His detailed mechanistic studies of these systems have resulted in innovative processes that achieve desired product selectivity and increased efficiency.
    As someone deeply engaged in energy research, he was acutely aware of the looming energy crisis, which is being exacerbated by the potential of global climate change. He broadened his research interests to studying alternate resources such as biomass and application of biotechnology in the areas of energy, chemicals, and the environment.
    In 2005 he co-authored "A Cubic Mile of Oil: The Looming Energy Crisis and Options for Averting It," which was published by the Oxford University press in 2010. He has spoken extensively on the subject at various technical and business fora.

Cubic mile oil
picture     "A Cubic Mile of Oil" is a call for an informed public debate on energy, arguably the biggest challenge we face. The book is written for an interested layperson and makes all the technical discussion accessible and relatable by dispensing with mind numbing multipliers like billions and trillions, or unfamiliar units, like Watts, barrels and Btu. The book describes how much energy we use and from what sources, where we are headed, and what it would take to utilize alternate sources. It uses a cubic mile of oil (CMO) as the metric for comparing global energy flows from all sources.
    The current global consumption of oil amounts to 1 cubic mile per year. Additionally, each year the world uses 0.8 CMO of energy from coal, 0.6 from natural gas, roughly 0.2 each from hydro, nuclear, and wood for a grand total of 3 CMO. By the middle of this century, the global energy demand is expected to rise to somewhere between 6 and 9 CMO. From where are we going to get this energy? The book (and the lecture) goes on to describe the different energy sources, their potential, and the requirements for developing any of them to a level
Note the Statue of Liberty     approaching 1 CMO/yr. Unless our solutions scale to the level of a CMO/yr, we would be just nibbling at the edges.
(lower right, above)    The book attempts to reframe the debate about energy supply, which has often been portrayed as a tension between the moral imperative of
                                        protecting the environment on the one hand and preserving the economic interests of the energy industry. This simplistic view misses the more difficult challenge that we face: namely, balancing the tension between protecting the environment, which would require us to turn off the use of fossil-fuels, against the equally important call for social justice of providing people around the world with sufficient affordable energy so they can live healthy productive lives. There are choices to be made, and the public at large must get engaged in making them.

Where:

Biltmore Hotel and Suites (click here for a map of the Biltmore's location)
2151 Laurelwood Road
Santa Clara, CA 95054

When:      Thursday, February 16, 2012

6:00 p.m. Social hour

7:00 p.m. Dinner

8:00 p.m. Lecture

Price:    $26.00/person (cash or check only; we can't do credit cards).
    We give discounts to students, job-seekers, and 50-year (or more) members of the ACS. If you qualify, please let us know below, and then claim your discount at the meeting registration table when you pick up your name tag.

Menu:
Tereyaki Steak
Pasta Primavera

Reservations: Needed by Monday, February 13 if you will be there for dinner. Reservations are not needed if you are coming only for the lecture, but they are needed for everyone else (the hotel needs to know in advance how many dinners to prepare).

Name:
Employer or School:
Phone number:
Address (Home or Work):

Dinner entree:

	Steak
	Pasta

Please check all that apply:
Student
Job seeker
50-year member

If you are bringing guests, please indicate their names and affiliations (if any) below:
(You can also use this box to send in a cancellation or to ask for accommodation for special dietary needs.)

Once you make a dinner reservation, we are committed to paying for your meal, whether or not you pay us. Please don't be a no-show! You may be invoiced for the meal if you make a reservation and then don't show up without canceling by Wednesday, February 15th!
To cancel, just send in another reservation, and in the box labeled "If you are bringing guests...", write a brief note saying that you are canceling.

Future Meetings Please note that the further into the future we look, the more tentative the arrangements become. But once we know, you'll see it here first!

    Our Chair, Natalie McClure, has lined up speakers for the first half of 2012.
    In March we'll hear our own Peter Rusch (Councilor) discuss the problem of redefining the kilogram, which is the sole remaining fundamental unit of measure still defined in terms of an artifact.
    In April we'll have a "Local SciMix"--a reprise of the SciMix held at the March National meeting. Ours will feature the Santa Clara Valley Section members who presented posters at the San Diego event.
    Our May meeting is tentatively scheduled to have two speakers on the Clean Oceans Project, featuring a description of an ocean-going vessel designed to remove debris of varioius kinds from our oceans.
    As usual, no meeting in June, but we will have our usual picnic and awards meeting early in July, possibly on Saturday, July 7, and probably in our usual spot at the chemistry area of the Stanford campus.
   Remember that certain dinner meetings are routinely pre-set: Community College Teaching Award in November, Mosher Award presentation and talk in January, Student Affiliates meeting in April or May, Awards Picnic in late June or early July, no meetings at all in June, August or December.

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