Speakers:
Dr Claire Barlow
Dr Shaun Fitzgerald
Theme: Cambridge Zero, Science and technology
We have been polluting our planet with greenhouse gases for decades, and we need to a) stop continuing to put more gases into the atmosphere and b) undo the damage we have caused. It is like a bathtub filling with dirty water; we need to turn the taps off but we also need to drain it. Greenhouse gas removal hasn’t even started in earnest – we don’t even have a strategy for which options should be used.
We will have an ‘In Conversation’ session with Shaun Fitzgerald, who has recently joined the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge working with Sir David King, and Claire Barlow from the Engineering Department, bringing some manufacturing industry focus, to hear about the various options which have been devised thus far and the plans to compare their strengths and weaknesses. If we are to get serious with greenhouse gas removal, we need a strategy soon so that we can start scaling up the right options.
Dr Clair Barlow
Dr Claire Barlow is a materials engineer and is particularly interested in how we can reduce the environmental impact of the way we use materials. She works with manufacturing industry looking at the whole lifecycle of material production and product manufacture, with a particular interest in the end-of-life of products, their re-use and recycling. Claire has worked on a wide range of materials including paper, metals and natural materials, but the focus is now mainly on plastics. She is Senior Lecturer with the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) in the Engineering Department and is a Fellow of Newnham College.
Dr Shaun Fitzgerald
Dr Shaun Fitzgerald is a senior member of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge. He has spent nearly all of his career on climate change issues, working at the interface of research, industry, policy and public engagement. His research has covered geothermal power production, energy-efficient building design, and now includes greenhouse gas removal technologies. He has been on the faculty at Stanford and Cambridge and had several years in management consulting. He then founded and ran a successful low energy ventilation business, leading it through multiple rounds of venture capital before selling the business to an established plc. He then took up the position as Director of the Royal Institution, before returning to Cambridge to join CCRC.
Click here to register for the free event.
This event is a part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival.