What IF carbon capture is the next moonshot?

Jennifer Wilcox Download image

Jennifer Wilcox, climate change expert and James H. Manning Chaired Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, will deliver a keynote speech on Monday (March 25) to discuss carbon management and strategies that could prevent climate warming by the turn of the century.

The event, in the Purdue Memorial Union, North Ballroom, begins at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public. No registration is required to attend, though seating is limited.

The event is a part of Purdue’s Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of Purdue’s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign, which is a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation on the most critical problems facing the world. One of the Ideas Festival’s themes is sustainable economy and planet.

Wilcox's research takes aim at the nexus of energy and the environment, developing both mitigation and adaptation strategies to minimize negative climate effects associated with society's dependence on fossil fuels. Carbon management includes a mix of technologies that will mitigate the current climate change crisis. She has served on a number of committees including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society to assess carbon capture methods and impacts on climate. She gave a TED talk on the direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in 2018 and is also the author of the first textbook on carbon capture, published in March 2012.

Additional events March 26-27 that highlight sustainability for the 21st century are included in a recent release.