UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Celebrating Women in Energy and Water Research lecture series will host two talks by Jennifer Dunn, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, on Thursday, Nov. 18. The free lectures are open to Penn State faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students. Registration is required.
The first, an experiential seminar and interactive session, “Fickle or Fine Tuning? An Unconventional Career Trajectory,” will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in 125 Reber Building and online via Zoom webinar. Dunn, who also is the associate director of the Northwestern-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering and the associate director of Northwestern’s Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience, will discuss her career path, which has included positions in government, consulting firms, national laboratories and academia, and explain the broader impacts of her research.
The second talk, “Guideposts and Guardrails: Analysis to Guide Energy and Material Transitions,” will follow at 4 p.m. in 401 Steidle Building and online via Zoom. Dunn will discuss the use of three analytical tools, life cycle analysis (LCA) coupled with scenario analysis, social LCA, and material flow analysis, to establish guideposts and guardrails toward reducing fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from energy and material systems. A networking event will be held at 3:30 p.m. in the Steidle Lobby.
Dunn studies emerging technologies, their energy and environmental impacts, and their potential to influence air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and energy consumption at the economy-wide level. Particular technologies of interest include biofuels and bioproducts, automotive lithium-ion batteries, fuels and chemicals made from carbon capture and utilization technologies and from natural gas liquids. She applies life cycle analysis as a key tool to evaluate emerging technologies. She also characterizes land use and land use change through collaborations with economic modelers and computer vision experts.
The seminar series is sponsored by the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and is designed to celebrate women conducting energy and water research, to highlight their successes, to engage women students, and to provide an opportunity for faculty to establish and expand their professional network and mentoring relationships.