Science on Tap talk to feature the development of sustainable electronics

Carol Handwerker, the Reinhardt Schuhmann Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering, discusses materials sustainability issues in electronics with Purdue graduate students, from left, Gamini Mendis, Shane Peng and Milea Kammer. (Purdue University photo/Vincent Walter) Download image

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University materials engineering and environmental and ecological engineering professor Carol Handwerker will lead the next session of Purdue Science on Tap this week with a focus on the failure and opportunity of sustainability in global electronics.

Her Science on Tap talk, titled "Sustainable Electronics: From Nanoelectronics to the Cloud," is at 6 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 22) on the top floor of Lafayette Brewing Company, 622 Main St., Lafayette. The informal talk is free and open to those 21 and older. Event sponsors are the Purdue School of Materials Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering, a standalone academic unit in the College of Engineering.

"The model of 'design it, build it, use it, throw it away, never think about it again' has ceased being viable from scientific, economic, societal and environmental points of view," said Handwerker, the Reinhardt Schuhmann Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering. "For instance, cell phones' inherently short life, high consumer demand and materials complexity threaten their future sustainability."

The electronic industry has taken note and started to replace the linear consumption model with a "circular economy" in which products, components and materials are reused, she said. And the Purdue-Tuskegee IGERT team, with funding from the National Science Foundation, has worked closely with the electronics industry to make more sustainable electronics and systems.

"We are translating these ideas into practice to tackle this major global issue," said Handwerker, who is considered a global expert on lead-free solders and the environmental and reliability issues surrounding their use in electronics.

Handwerker is a former chief of the Metallurgy Division for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her research focuses on developing and applying thermodynamic and kinetic theory and experiments of phase transformations and interface motion to solve industrial problems.

She received her doctorate in materials science and engineering, with an emphasis on ceramics, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, and her bachelor's degrees in art history from Wellesley College and materials science and engineering from MIT.

Science on Tap, led by graduate students Andrew Hesselbrock, Paula Cooper and Carolina Vivas Valencia, provides Purdue faculty and collaborating researchers the opportunity to share research activities in an informal setting with presentations that are designed to appeal to a more general audience. Attendance at the monthly event has averaged 80 during the program's first four years.  

Writers: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Paige Pope, 219-363-2599, popep@purdue.edu 

Sources: Carol Handwerker, 765 49-40147, handwerker@purdue.edu

Carolina Vivas Valencia, cvivas@purdue.edu

Paula Cooper, porourk@purdue.edu