Energy

A New Space Race

Jeannine Harvey — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:32:23 +0000

A New Space Race Jeannine Harvey Thu, 10/19/2023 - 13:32

Are we in a space race for cosmic resources? (Episode 6)

On the sixth episode of Our Future, Transformed, Hakeem Oluseyi, astrophysicist and research professor at ��AV, speaks with Mason President Gregory Washington about how the race to exploit cosmic resources has geopolitical implications and why we had to start from scratch in our attempt to return to the Moon.

^{For billions of years, the sun has been depositing helium-3 in the lunar regolith. Maybe we could go to the Moon and mine the helium-3. And now we also know there’s water on the moon, right? So the key thing is our technology and our aspirations have come to a level where just as the United States has outposts around the world that make it easier to get where you want to go, The Moon could be that for Earth.”}

Read the Transcript

Transcript EP 6: Our Future, Transformed: A New Space Race

Gregory Washington (00:10)

The recent Artemis mission that saw a NASA capsule orbit the moon was a huge step in preparation for an eventual visit to our nearest neighbor. How they do it?

Hakeem Oluseyi (00:24)

All my career, from a graduate student on, I've been hearing over and over again how we could not redo Apollo, right? The technology and the knowledge are lost, but yet here we are doing it again, and we soon will see Americans on the surface of the moon again and, hopefully a permanent presence.

Gregory Washington (00:47)

I'm the kind of person that says, okay, we did that; we already went to the moon. Why go back?

Hakeem Oluseyi (00:55)

Well, because, you know, why climb Mount Everest? I think it's a mixture of several things.

Number one, there's the scientific research component, okay? But there's also the economic opportunity that comes from having bases off Earth so that we could potentially take advantage of the resources that exist in outer space, like comets. Our economy now depends heavily on electronics, which require these very rare metals, rare on the surface of Earth but not rare in the core of Earth, which we don't have access to. But luckily, when other planets were forming early in our solar system, they differentiated just like the Earth did and all the heavy stuff saying to the center, but then later, they collided with something. And so now we have chunks of core stuff flying around out there; we're calling it asteroids. And so there's one asteroid out there that is, you know, at a value of more than something like a quintillion dollars, right, that we could potentially mine. So there's a third reason, and this is one that people don't like to talk about, but I think that there are geopolitical implications.

Gregory Washington (02:07)

And that was going to be my next question.

Hakeem Oluseyi (02:09)

Yeah.

Gregory Washington (02:10)

Are we on the dawn of a new race, a new space race?

Hakeem Oluseyi (02:15)

I think we are. I think we're already there, in fact, right? You know, sub, excuse me, low Earth orbit, orbital parameter space is being grabbed. And you look at the same thing for the moon.

So the question I have is, you know, the analogy I make, is it going to be more like the North Pole or the South Pole? And here's what I mean. All of us nations that are competitors, we exist in harmony at the South Pole because there is no military or commercial advantage to be gained there that anyone sees. But you go to the North Pole, not if it has melted, those continental shelves have oil. So everybody's fighting over it.

Gregory Washington (02:52)

Right.

Hakeem Oluseyi (02:53)

So what is going to be the case with the moon? What is it going to be the case with orbit?

What is going to be the case with Mars? We don't know the answer yet, but the thing is, is that we know the problem could potentially occur. So there's two things you want to do.

You want to get your treaties done, right, to keep the peace, but also just in case you

want to go and grab what you can grab while the gettings good, right? And, you know, that's the reality. You know, we have not reinvented human beings. We have not reinvented nations.

We're still in a competitive world, right? We're still in a dangerous world. So, you know, it's like hope for the best, but plan for the worst is kind of the approach.

Gregory Washington (03:32)

What do we know about the moon now that we didn't know before?

Hakeem Oluseyi (03:36)

Yeah. So the moon, we learned so much more and more and more about the moon. You know, the big surprise when the Apollo astronauts went up there, and they got some moon rocks and brought them back to Earth, it was, oh my goodness, the moon is made of Earth, right? But then we started studying the moon more, and we learned, you know, it's very different than far aside from the near side. And then people started thinking about fusion, and they thought, oh, maybe helium-3 is a better fuel to add to the deuterium than tritium because it's less radioactive initially. You know, for billions of years, the sun has been depositing helium-3 in the lunar regolith. Maybe we could go to the moon and mine the helium-3. It's not clear that that is a solution, but, you know, and now we also know there's water on the moon, right? So the key thing is our technology and our aspirations have come to a level where, just as the United States has outposts around the world in places like Guam, that makes it easier to get where you want to go. The moon can be that for Earth, right? The orbit is one thing, and then having a solid base where the gravitational cost of getting off that body is far less, and if that body has its own fuel right there, then that can be very valuable for taking advantage of.

Gregory Washington (04:55)

Going to Mars.

Hakeem Oluseyi (04:56)

The outer solar system. Exactly. And, you know, I really think that even though we may never colonize Mars, some people think we may. I think space tourism is a real thing that may happen.

Gregory Washington (05:10)

Outstanding.

Hakeem Oluseyi (05:11)

Yeah.

Gregory Washington (05:12)

So what new technologies, in your opinion, have to be developed in order to make this a reality?

Hakeem Oluseyi (05:18)

So they're already doing it, right? So it all depends. If you look, I think one of the key elements is fuel. So the big problem that Artemis had is that it still uses liquid hydrogen as the fuel. Liquid hydrogen, think about that, okay? It has to be like negative 450 degrees Fahrenheit. It's so low density. So keeping it inside of a hose is very difficult. Think about it like this. If you look at the difference in density between lead and water, the difference in density between water and liquid hydrogen is even greater.

Gregory Washington (05:49)

Then lead?

Hakeem Oluseyi (05:50)

Then lead, comparing lead and water.

Gregory Washington (05:52)

Wow.

Hakeem Oluseyi (05:53)

Yeah. So that stuff is very, very difficult to work with, right?

Gregory Washington (05:57)

What's next for the Artemis program? This is a phase deal, right?

Hakeem Oluseyi (06:00)

Yeah.

Gregory Washington (06:01)

So what happens next?

Hakeem Oluseyi (06:02)

What we did is we sent a craft without humans, and there were a lot of sensors on board. And the thing that we're doing now, which, you know, why didn't we think of this before. The space environment and radiation affect female bodies differently than it affects male bodies. So they put mannequins on there with sensors to figure out how the radiation environment is going to affect females. But then, now, we're going to do the same thing with real humans next. And so I love the way that NASA says when the next step is going to happen. They say, not before 2024, not, you know, on this date in 2024, but not before a particular date. But after we do that, then we're going to put, just like we have an international space station orbiting Earth, we're going to have an orbiting space station orbiting the Moon. And then we're going to actually send humans to land on the surface of the Moon and start taking care of business. We'll build a new Moon base on the surface, and then after that, it can now serve as a staging area to go beyond.

Gregory Washington (07:00)

We have a number of our students in the audience. I'd like to open it up for questions. So, any questions you have would be greatly appreciated.

Student1 (07:11)

So how do you just forget how to go to the Moon? That's what I'm kind of confused about.

Hakeem Oluseyi (07:17)

Yeah, that was a long time ago. And you know, when you are, when you have a factory that builds things, you know, it's outfitted to do that. And when you no longer have that purpose, you repurpose that factory. You tear everything down. And also, if you think about it, in my lifetime, how did we store digital data? It started off with those big, big floppies, and it went to a smaller floppy, then a smaller floppy, then I had Jazz Drive and all these other things. I can't use that now. I used to have an old box of VHS tapes. What am I going to play that in? I'm a member of the Screen Actors Guild, all right? So now it's time to vote for Oscar winners. They send me DVDs. How am I going to watch those movies? Right? So, you know, things just get out of date. So keep that in mind as you develop new knowledge. How do you keep it? How do you preserve it? And how do you pass it on to the next generation?

Gregory Washington (08:12)

Well, we know our future is intact, and we know we have another place that we will all visit someday soon.

Hakeem Oluseyi (07:21)

Yes.

Gregory Washington (07:22)

So I want to thank you.

Hakeem Oluseyi (07:24)

Thank you.

Gregory Washington (07:25)

Thank you for spending time with us. And I want to thank all of you for the next episode of Mason, our future transformed.

Learn more

About the Series

Mason President Gregory Washington hosts a YouTube series titled “Our Future, Transformed: Mason Spotlights the World’s Grand Challenges.” The series features faculty experts speaking about some of the most debated and significant topics of our day with an audience of Honors College students. Experts in the first season discuss the key solutions to key issues, including water policies in the West, police reform, problems at our Southern border, clean energy, and getting more women into STEM fields.

Guest Bio

Hakeem Oluseyi served as the visiting Robinson Professor at ��AV from 2021-2023, and he is the president of the National Society of Black Physicists. He’s also the author of A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars.

In This Episode

Hakeem Oluseyi

Gregory Washington

Topics

Energy

News

Our Future Transformed web series

Honors College

Space

Mason scientists to work with the U.S. Navy to avert ‘internet apocalypse’

Colleen Rich — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 16:12:46 +0000

Mason scientists to work with the U.S. Navy to avert ‘internet apocalypse’ Colleen Rich Tue, 08/08/2023 - 12:12

A team of ��AV scientists has received a federal grant of more than $13 million to work with the Department of the Navy to study and better understand increased solar activity that could potentially cause an “internet apocalypse” disrupting all electronic communications on Earth, including satellite communications.

Peter Becker
Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Research from the grant, which will total $13.6 million in expenditures over five years, will be done in collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and will include state-of-the-art data mining, analysis, and scientific modeling, among other endeavors, led by Mason faculty, students and staff. Under the terms of the contract, Mason provides scientific support for a broad range of astronomy-related activities that are of interest to the U.S. Navy and the nation at large.

“The main focus is on solar activity and the way it can impact systems on Earth,” said principal investigator Peter A. Becker, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy within the College of Science. “This is especially important to the Navy—and more broadly the Department of Defense—because high-energy outbursts from the sun can have a strong negative impact on earthly radio and internet communications. And they can also have a detrimental effect on navigation systems and energy grids on Earth.”

The focus on violent solar activity is the most significant research activity for U.S. citizens as eruptions from the sun’s surface can have devastating consequences 93 million miles away on Earth. This violent activity includes bursts of radiation, high-speed electrons, protons and other highly energetic particles that are launched into space and can disrupt technologies such as the internet that we have come to depend on. Much of this activity can reach Earth in less than a day.

Violent solar storms are expected to become more frequent and more severe over the next 10 years, and they possess the potential to severely interfere with radio transmitters, navigation and GPS, satellite operations and communications, and the electric power grid. Being able to more effectively warn of their occurrences will help better protect the public and our infrastructure.

“The internet was simply not designed to handle this level of communication interference, and, consequently, is considered a very ‘soft’ type of infrastructure,” Becker said. “Hence, the period from 2024 to 2028 is a time when the entire internet could conceivably be knocked out for a period of weeks to months in the event of a really extreme solar flare.”

Such a scenario could create “an unprecedented disaster for modern society, potentially triggering a worldwide recession,” Becker warned, because of the world’s heavy dependence on the internet for information, communications and global commerce.

Becker and his team, which also includes several Mason undergraduate students, will also study black holes and neutron stars. These studies will help scientists understand similar processes occurring in the solar atmosphere and how they can affect life on Earth.

Most of the Mason team’s work will be performed at the NRL in Washington, D.C., although space has also been allocated at ��AV’s Fairfax Campus to accommodate visiting NRL scientists working on joint space science research projects.

Others researchers working on Becker’s team include associate research professors Tyrel Johnson and Iulia Deneva; senior research administrator Jessica Hanna; research scientists Jacob Smith, Carlos Braga, Natsuha Kuroda, Eliana Nossa Gonzalez and Craig Johnston; senior research scientists Megan DeCesar and Keiji Hayashi, postdoctoral research fellows Sherry Chhabra, Micah Weberg, and Shaheda Shaik.

“Mason scientists are working to explore and understand the nature and level of these dangerous threats to our infrastructure posed by strong solar activity,” Becker said, “and how to predict extreme events and mitigate the damage.”

Listen now

Listen to Becker discuss the research with President Washington on an episode of the Access to Excellence podcast.

Delve into physics and astronomy at Mason

Jennifer Sklarew

Lynn Tierney — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 17:12:24 +0000

Jennifer Sklarew Lynn Tierney Fri, 08/04/2023 - 13:12

Assistant Professor, Environmental Science & Policy Department, College of Science

Contact Information

Phone Number: 703-993-6177

Email: jsklarew@gmu.edu

Headlines

Engineering with nature: Exploring Mason's contribution to water conservation
August 1, 2023

Biography

Dr. Jennifer Sklarew brings 30 years of energy and environmental policymaking and analysis to her research and teaching. Dr. Sklarew coordinates the department's MS Concentration in Energy and Sustainability Policy and Science, which she developed. She also teaches graduate and undergraduate energy policy and food-energy-water nexus courses she developed for ESP. Her published and funded work examines how institutional relationships and catastrophic events drive energy and environmental policymaking and change. Specific focal areas for her qualitative research include sustainability and resilience challenges in the energy-water nexus, solutions that leverage food-energy-water-climate interdependencies, and energy system transitions in Japan, India, and China. NPR has quoted Dr. Sklarew as an expert on Japanese energy policymaking change.

Dr. Sklarew currently leads two research projects. The first is to design, build and deploy hydropower micro-turbines on Mason’s Fairfax campus and analyze technological, ecological, geographical, socio-economic and institutional challenges. Her faculty-student team will use this data to develop potential solutions and lessons learned, to which they will add as they conduct additional pilots in overseas communities facing severe energy and water insecurity. The second project, a collaboration with faculty and students in food/nutrition and engineering, involves research on food, energy, water and climate challenges facing low income, rural communities. Through needs assessments, the project enables collaboration with communities to determine their food, energy and water needs and develop potential solutions.

Read full profile on the College of Science website

Fusion Energy

Jeannine Harvey — Mon, 08 May 2023 15:57:20 +0000

Fusion Energy Jeannine Harvey Mon, 05/08/2023 - 11:57

Can fusion energy change our lives? (Episode 1)

In this first episode of "Our Future, Transformed," Astrophysicist Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, Visiting Robinson Professor, explains how fusion energy might transform the way we live, and how the Artemis moon project is a stepping stone to technological advances that will help us on Earth.

^{We do what appears to be impossible [in the sciences], but don’t be intimidated by it. It’s just like everything else. It’s a step at a time. Know that you can do it and that hard work actually pays off.”}

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi

Read the Transcript

Transcript EP. 2: Our Future, Transformed: Fusion Energy

Astrophysicist Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, Visiting Robinson Professor, explains how fusion energy might transform the way we live, and how the Artemis moon project is a stepping stone to technological advances that will help us on Earth.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

Just weeks ago, scientists reported creating a fusion reaction where it produced more energy than it took to start the reaction. How’d they do it?

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

Great question. They spent a lot of money. They spent a lot of years. They got really smart people working on the problem.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

Maybe we can flip this a little bit and talk a little bit about, what is the potential? Obviously, we know the challenges we’re having currently with fossil fuels. But what is the potential of this type of energy? Why should all of these students here be excited about it?

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

Right, so if this gets to the point of being, you know, going from experiments to actual working rectors, then it’s real. This is what stars do, right? Energy is the currency of the universe. But you look at a star. They pump out copious amounts of energy for billions of years. How are they doing it? Fusion. So if we could do the same thing here on Earth, we have the same potential. Now, there is still some competition from fission reactors; they’re getting better, too, they’re getting less waste with new technologies, but this one promises to not have the problems of nuclear waste. And, also, it’s important to recognize that there’s different approaches to fusion. So one can lead to a better method, you know, that becomes even cleaner and even more energy efficient. And there’s even a possibility of one type of reactor that can give you, like, energy out with virtually no energy in.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

Wow.

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

Yeah.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

And the byproducts?

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

So the byproducts, it really depends, right? So if you look at the two main types. You have inertial confinement, where you hit a fuel pellet with lasers. And there’s also magnetic confinement, okay? So the problem with both of these reactors is either the fuel waste is radioactive or they’re shooting out neutrons, right? So you don’t want neutrons slamming into your DNA; let’s just put it that way, right? Neutrons are sneaky because they don’t have an electric charge, so they can just go wherever they want and not get repelled by the electric charges of nuclei or the electron clouds that surround them, and that can lead to, you know, in your DNA, for example, it hits one type of atom, changes it, because what happens is once that neutron is in a nucleus it’ll decay and become a proton. So now you’ve changed from one type of atom to a new type of atom that’s radioactive. So it’s not like perfect yet, but, you know, you can screen these things. If you have, say, a meter of concrete, then you can stop those neutrons from escaping and now you have a much better, cleaner energy source.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

That does bring up the safety concerns, right?

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

It does.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

If something were to happen and those neutrons were to escape, then you have.

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

Yeah, and so with internal confinement fusion you have a cleaner system. The other problem is that the magnetic confinement when sometimes the magnetic field just completely breaks down and dumps all of its energy in a process called quenching. And these things weigh tens of thousands of tons, right? So, you know, all kind of badness is going to happen if that thing blows up, right? So, you know, there’s various approaches, like, the standard magnetic confinement machine is called a tokamak, but there’s another type called a stellarator, which is going to come a generation later. The tokamak is simpler but bigger, heavier, and not quite as efficient. But the tokamak is sort of like a stepping stone to working stellarators, which weigh, like, much less and are much more efficient.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

So the potential of clean energy is indeed real.

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

It is 100 percent real. So what they’ve done is a major leap forward. Now, you can go and have a dedicated facility that goes from, you know, inefficient lasers, inefficient experimental process to an efficient process, and then you get to that point where you get that clean, abundant energy.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

So, in essence, the power of the sun can be harnessed.

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

Absolutely, the power ... you know what I call it, because nuclear has become a bad word? Natural mass energy. Because, you know, if you look at the nuclear constituents, protons and neutrons, okay? Now, you’ve heard, ‘Oh, a proton is made of two up quarks and a down quark.’ If you add up the masses of the two up quarks and a down quark, it’s only one percent the mass of the proton. What’s the other 99 percent? That’s energy in the gluons, the field that binds them together. So what we’re really doing is tapping into that concentrated energy inside the nucleus. So suppose the good doctor and I, President Washington and I, are protons. If you weigh both of us, right, together we may weigh 400 pounds. But suppose now you fuse us, make us Siamese twins. We won’t weigh 400 pounds once we’re combined, we’ll weigh only, say, 360. Where’d that other 10 percent go? That’s that energy that was freed, right? Yeah, yeah. So that’s, you know, that’s the power of the sun. That’s the power of a fusion weapon that we use. But instead of having uncontrolled reaction, we now have controlled reactions that we can control ourselves and use it to our own advantage.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

Does this mean the end of fossil fuels?

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi:

A lot of people will say yes, I say no, and here’s why. If you think about it, I give you a gallon of liquid and that thing can move two tons, you know, 20, 30 miles really fast, okay? So fossil fuels are, they have an energy density and they are incredibly portable, all right? So the question is, can batteries get to the point when they can replace fossil fuels and have a similar energy density. It may not be realized in the lifetimes of you and me, who are in our early 20s, but for our grandchildren, right? That very well could be the world they live in.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

This has been outstanding, and thank you. And thank you all for attending the first episode of Mason: Our Future Transformed.

Learn more

About the Series

Mason President Gregory Washington hosts a new YouTube series titled “Our Future, Transformed: Mason Spotlights the World’s Grand Challenges.” The series features faculty experts speaking about some of the most debated and significant topics of our day with an audience of Honors College students. Experts in the first season discuss the key solutions to key issues, including water policies in the West, police reform, problems at our Southern border, clean energy, and getting more women into STEM fields.

Guest Bio

In This Episode

Hakeem Oluseyi

Gregory Washington

Study: How to Reduce PVC-Related Greenhouse Emissions by 2050

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 13:07:12 +0000

Study: How to Reduce PVC-Related Greenhouse Emissions by 2050 Andrew J Schappert Wed, 09/28/2022 - 09:07

In This Story

David M. Hart

David Hart: ‘[O]ur study…may also be important for insights into decarbonization pathways for the broader chemical industry.’

A groundbreaking study from the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Center for Energy Science Policy (CESP) shows how the U.S.’s production of polyvinyl chloride—PVC—may reduce greenhouse gas emissions during manufacturing by up to 90 percent by 2050 using technologies that are nearing maturity now and add only a modest cost to production.

PVC is the third most widely produced plastic in the world and is found in construction materials, automobiles, medical products, and countless other everyday and specialized resources. The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter, creating some 10 million metric tons of PVC annually, with projected growth to 16 million metric tons by 2050.

The study, “Pathways to Decarbonize the PVC Chain in 2050,” looks in detail at the challenges of decarbonizing one key segment of the chemical industry along two major pathways and offers policy insights—while warning of the ramifications of “business as usual” without abatement policies.

“We estimate that the facilities that contribute to PVC production in the U.S. emitted about 18 million metric tons of CO2—a major greenhouse gas—in 2020,” said Schar School professor David M. Hart, who led the study. “The PVC value chain is important for its own sake, but our study of it may also be important for insights into decarbonization pathways for the broader chemical industry.”

The report is the first of its kind to model the cost and emissions impact of decarbonizing a major chemical industry value chain through a “bottom-up” analysis. The yearlong study was written by CESP nonresident fellows Ronald Whitfield and Francis Brown and Hart.

Contributors to the report include the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, the Information and Technology and Innovation Foundation, and the Center for Houston’s Future. The report is here: https://bit.ly/PVCstudy

The study is the first of two funded by a $500,000 grant from Breakthrough Energy, the Kirkland, Washington, organization founded in 2015 by Bill Gates to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Topics

Research

Energy

policy

Schar School News September 2022

New Academic Program Lets Students Design Their Own Energy and Climate Change Policy Area of Emphasis

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 14:54:02 +0000

New Academic Program Lets Students Design Their Own Energy and Climate Change Policy Area of Emphasis Andrew J Schappert Thu, 08/25/2022 - 10:54

In This Story

Richard Kauzlarich

Joel Hicks

Joel Hicks: ‘These courses will be taught by senior-level practitioners in relevant industries and agencies.’ Photo by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

A new interdisciplinary Schar School of Policy and Government curriculum offering will allow students to design their own course of study that addresses global and local challenges involving energy and climate change.

A timely and innovative program, Energy and Climate Policy, is open to graduate students and undergraduates and will launch in Spring 2023.

As part of Schar School’s Center for Energy Science and Policy (CESP), and funded by a recent Provost Curriculum Impact Grant, this new curriculum offers undergraduates and graduates an opportunity to focus on local or international energy and climate policy.

In the local track, students can learn and engage with low-income and marginalized Virginia communities to model greenhouse gases, develop climate mitigation plans, improve community resiliency and sustainability, and work to ensure energy equity and environmental justice.
In the international track, students can learn and engage on issues with senior-level policymakers on geopolitics of energy security, climate change and national security, and clean energy policies for developing countries.

Each track requires four courses, including two “core” courses—a total of 12 credit hours—to complete, with multiple electives available depending on the track the student chooses.

Paul Bubbosh: ‘The mainstay for both programs is the opportunity to work and engage with some of the leading organizations and policymakers in the energy and climate policy area.’

“The mainstay for both programs is the opportunity to work and engage with some of the leading organizations and policymakers in the energy and climate policy area,” said Paul Bubbosh, an instructor in the College of Science and co-director of the Local Climate Action Planning Initiative in the CESP. “Those include environmental advocacy groups, academic think tanks and consultancies, federal, state, and local governments, private sector, and multinational organizations.”

The program is entirely student developed, he added, meaning students have the flexibility to design a program that fits their needs as part of a graduate or undergraduate program.

“We surveyed employers in the field of energy and climate policy about what they most desired in new hires, and based on these findings, we crafted a program that identified two core courses—one on energy policy and the other on energy and climate law, as well as the local and international tracks,” said Joel Hicks, an instructor at the Schar School and a CESP research fellow who helped develop the program.

“These courses will be taught by senior-level practitioners in relevant industries and agencies,” he said. “They will bring real-world experience and expertise to the Mason classrooms.”

CESP co-director Richard Kauzlarich

The program is well-timed, to say the least.

“The new Inflation Reduction Act will jumpstart a massive wave of innovation and energy transition planning, requiring skills from across the academic spectrum,” Hicks said. He also pointed out that employment growth in these fields widely outpace other sectors of the U.S. workforce.

“Jobs related to net-zero emissions made up about 40 percent of total energy jobs in the U.S.,” he said. “Energy job growth outpaced other sectors of the workforce by 30 percent.”

This program appears poised to place Mason students in a more advantageous position with the influx of new spending and job hires, Bubbosh said. “As a former federal government hiring official, I can tell you with confidence that the courses we have developed in the Energy and Climate Policy program will prepare students for these competitive positions.”

Addressing climate change is one of the main reasons Master’s in Public Policy student Tony Striner chose the field of study.

“In my eyes,” he said, “the issue of climate change has two fundamental components: sustainable energy generation and environmental protection. CESP's curriculum addresses both of these areas in a meaningful way. This sort of in-depth analysis from expert practitioners is exactly what I was looking for."

CESP co-director Richard Kauzlarich said the Energy and Climate Change emphasis area will be attractive to students from several of Mason’s colleges, including the Volgenau School of Engineering, the College of Science, the School of Business, School of Integrative Studies, and Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, as well as government and policy majors at the Schar School.

Topics

Schar School News August 2022

Climate Change

Energy

policy

Center for Energy Science and Policy

Richard Todd Stafford

rstaffo2 — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 21:43:23 +0000

Richard Todd Stafford rstaffo2 Thu, 02/11/2021 - 16:43

Director of Communications, Honors College

Contact Information

Email: rstaffo2@gmu.edu

Phone: 703.993.1110

Mailstop: Honors College, MSN 1F4

Campus: Fairfax

Office: Buchanan Hall 205

Personal Websites

richardtoddstafford.com

Biography

Richard Todd Stafford is the director of communications in the Honors College, co-organizer of the Center for Humanities Research Environmental Justice reading group, and a scholar studying culture, energy, and the environment. He has been institutionally recognized for his work teaching classes concerning climate change; science, technology, and society; and multidisciplinary research.

Education

PhD, Cultural Studies, ��AV (2022)

MA, English, Virginia Tech (2011)

BA, English, College of William and Mary (2001)

Awards

David W. Rossell Quill Award, ��AV (2021)

Exceptional Support Award, ��AV (2015)

XCaliber Award with ePortfolio for English team, Virginia Tech (2011)

Carol Chermside Award for Best Master's Thesis, Virginia Tech (2011)

Publications

(2019) "Response to Caroline West’s 'From Company Town to Post-Industrial: Inquiry on the Redistribution of Space and Capital with a Universal Basic Income'," Lateral 8.1. https://doi.org/10.25158/L8.1.11

(2015) "The politics of space in Joe Sacco's representations of the Appalachian coalfields" in The Comics of Joe Sacco: Journalism in a Visual World ed. Daniel Worden (University of Mississippi Press).

(2011) "Towards an epistemological theory of comics journalism: Case studies in Joe Sacco's war reportage" Public Knowledge Journal (now-defunct online grad student journal out of Virginia Tech) 3.1.4

Cultural Studies Podcast

(13 September 2018) John Cook and Richard Todd Stafford. "Episode 01 – Climate Science Denial and Information Inoculation." (role: interviewer)

(27 September 2018) Imre Szeman and Amy Zhang. "Episode 02 – Petrocultures and the Energy Humanities." (role: transcription)

(11 October 2018) Merlin Chowkwanyun and Tauheeda Yasin Martin. "Episode 03 – Toxic Risk, Corporate Negligence, Public Reckoning." (role: audio editing and transcription)

(25 October 2018) Jason W. Moore and Richard Todd Stafford. "Episode 04 – Cheap Nature; or, the Cultural Logic of Historical Capitalism." (role: interviewer, audio editing, and transcription)

(8 November 2018) Toby Miller and Pavithra Suresh. "Episode 05 – Greenwashing Culture." (role: audio editing and transcription)

(31 January 2019) Leigh Phillips and Richard Todd Stafford. "Episode 06 – Planning the Good Anthropocene." (role: interviewer, audio engineering, audio editing, and transcription)

(14 February 2019) Christian Parenti and Richard Todd Stafford. "Episode 07 – The Storm State: The Political Economy of Government in the Age of Climate Crisis." (role: interviewer, audio engineering, audio editing, and transcription)

(28 February 2019) Ashley Dawson and Richard Todd Stafford. "Episode 08 – Just Urban Futures." (role: audio engineering, audio editing, and transcription)

(18 April 2019) Sheila Watt-Cloutier and Christine Rosenfeld. "Episode 09 – Everything is Connected: Environment, Economy, Foreign Policy, Sustainability, Human Rights, and Leadership in the 21st Century." (role: audio engineering, audio editing, and transcription)

(25 October 2022) Chris Nealon and Richard Todd Stafford. "Episode 12 - Colloquium series interview." (role: interviewer)

Cultural Studies Colloquium Positions and Interventions Blog

(26 January 2017) Chris Newfield and Richard Todd Stafford. "Interview: Christopher Newfield on Higher Education."

Courses Taught

Multidisciplinary Topics: Multidisciplinary Research and Creative Projects Seminar
Contemporary Social Issues: Responses to Climate Change
Multidisciplinary Topics: Climate Change and Culture
Community Connection Practicum: College Application Coaches
Research, Technology, and Online Community
Technology in the Contemporary World: Clean Coal and Culture
Technology in the Contemporary World: Science, Technology, and Power
Globalization and Culture
Inquiry to Action
Principles of Research and Inquiry

Energy

A New Space Race

Are we in a space race for cosmic resources? (Episode 6)

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Mason scientists to work with the U.S. Navy to avert ‘internet apocalypse’

Delve into physics and astronomy at Mason

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Jennifer Sklarew

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Biography

Read full profile on the College of Science website

Fusion Energy

Can fusion energy change our lives? (Episode 1)

Transcript EP. 2: Our Future, Transformed: Fusion Energy

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Learn More About "Our Future, Transformed"

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Study: How to Reduce PVC-Related Greenhouse Emissions by 2050

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New Academic Program Lets Students Design Their Own Energy and Climate Change Policy Area of Emphasis

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Richard Todd Stafford

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Education

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Publications

Cultural Studies Podcast

Cultural Studies Colloquium Positions and Interventions Blog

Courses Taught