UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The fall 2022 Celebrating Women in Energy and Water Research seminar series continues on Thursday, Oct. 13, with two seminars by Susan Altman, deputy to the Energy and Homeland Security Portfolio at Sandia National Laboratories, a Department of Energy national lab. The free seminars are open to Penn State faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students.
The first, an experiential seminar, “Splitters and Lumpers: My Different Roles Aimed at Improving the Environment,” will be held at 11 a.m. in 402 Steidle Building. Altman’s career has focused on protecting or improving our environment. She will discuss the intersection of her career and personal life, and will share stories and highlights from her research such as working with non-point-source pollution, managing nuclear waste, minimizing biofouling in water treatment, and understanding the impacts of subsurface carbon sequestration in world-class research and development laboratories.
The second, a technical seminar, “Energy R&D at Sandia National Laboratories,” will be held at 4 p.m. in 401 Steidle Building. Altman will provide an overview of Sandia National Laboratories’ energy programs, which span work in energy generation, storage and delivery, and use with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, securing energy supply chains, and increasing the resilience of energy infrastructure. She will also cover Sandia’s priorities in tackling the threat of climate change.
Altman has conducted basic and applied research in geohydrology, geochemistry, biofilms and water treatment. She has published more than 55 reports and peer-reviewed articles. Previously, she served as assistant director for the Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security, a DOE Basic Energy Sciences’ Energy Frontier Research Center focused on the science behind safe, effective and reliable subsurface carbon dioxide storage.
Altman has a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from Wesleyan University and a doctorate in hydrogeology from Penn State. She is also a 125th Anniversary Fellow at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.