Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Join us for a conversation about science, diplomacy, and geopolitics with Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Fran Ulmer and Professor and Director of The Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire Larry Mayer. Professor Mayer led the science team onboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which just completed a cruise from Alaska to Greenland through the Northwest Passage. Please register to attend this event here. 

Each year the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative sends a delegation of students to attend the world’s largest Arctic gathering, the Arctic Circle Assembly. This year, after a competitive application process, four students were selected to represent Harvard at the Arctic Innovation Lab. Come and hear their presentations before they leave for Iceland to pitch their ideas for a changing Arctic. 

Lunch will be provided.

Please RSVP to brittany_janis@hks.harvard.edu by October 2 to secure your seat.

Al-Juaied will review the economics of CCS, based on recent cost studies and actual project data.

The goal of the talk is to share research insights into the optimal investment into technology R&D as a response to climate change.

Historical patterns of growth across a range of energy technologies are used to explore "scaling", and applications of findings from scaling dynamics will be discussed in this seminar.

Much of the effort and budget for energy technology innovation goes towards pushing new technology into the market, where it has to pass through private firms.  The Department of Energy supports and enables private sector innovation in a number of ways.  We look at these mechanisms, especially those that result in a partnership between public and private (and perhaps academic and non-profit) sectors, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of the government’s investment.

Johnston will discuss how corporate and governmental energy research and development policies often fail to accomplish their intended objectives. He will discuss technology and how a more a systematic approach to thinking about failure in complex systems could enable us to more effectively pursue technology as well as formulate and evolve policy.

Frosch shares lessons from his experience trying to perform, and lead, application oriented R&D. Some of these lessons have been encapsulated in aphorisms. Some aphorisms will be presented, with explication, and illustrated with anecdotes from experience with the Navy, ARPA, NASA and General Motors.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come-first served basis.

RU Peng will discuss the history of scientists' participation in Chinese Science and Technology policymaking after 1978.

In order to fully evaluate energy and emission benefits of advanced vehicle technologies and new transportation fuels, well-to-wheels (WTW) analysis becomes necessary, since energy losses and emissions occur during the fuel production stage as well the vehicle operation stage.