The Energy Challenge: Need for Global Systems Engineering

Speaker: Shaffiq Jaffer, Vice President of Corporate Science and Technology Projects, TOTAL

Shaffiq Jaffer will talk about the future energy challenges we face and the need for more of a systems engineering approach to tackle them. 

Shaffiq Jaffer joined TOTAL SA nine years ago, as the Vice President of Corporate Science and Technology Projects in North America (NA) with a mission to find and fund novel ideas and technologies that will lead to breakthroughs to meet future energy demand. He is engaged across the research community: academia, startups, and private research companies, focused on building long lasting relationships at the institutional level that creates strong value for the partners and TOTAL. Research programs have been established across a broad range of research areas: development of energy resources (unconventional oil and gas, biofuels to photovoltaic), conservation and energy efficiency (digital and shared economy), materials engineering (PV, Catalysts, biomaterials, composites) and innovative production processes (electrification of industrial processes). Currently, his priority is to help build TOTAL’s largest future research program, focused on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) and lead an external scientific advisory board to help guide research priorities. Prior to TOTAL, he has worked for P&G and Koch-Glitsch in research and engineering roles.  He was educated in Canada at University of Alberta (BSc) and McMaster University (PhD).