Fuelling the Future

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• Dr John Pierce, BP Chief Bioscientist
• Thursday 03 November 2011, 17:30-18:30
• Palmerston Room, St. John’s College.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Helen Mawdsley.

Wine reception afterward

The world has abundant hydrocarbons – and uses them abundantly. Shifts in hydrocarbon use – both in type of hydrocarbons used as well as where they are used – are giving rise to major reorientations of focus in the energy industry. The next 20 years will be very unlike the last 20 years. As the energy landscape changes, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasingly seen, not only as an environmental issue to deal with directly, but also as a good proxy for a broader set of sustainability issues such as water use and energy efficiency.

Various opportunities exist both to satisfy the changing energy demands of our world as well as to mitigate some of the consequences of increasing energy use. In this talk, I will outline a view of our energy future, discuss the interaction of various natural resources in providing our energy, and provide some examples of progress in meeting future energy challenges, with a focus on the newly emerging, sustainable biofuels area.

DR. JOHN PIERCE

John Pierce joined BP as Chief Bioscientist in April 2010. He is responsible for developing strategies to help position the Company to gain maximum benefit from the application of biosciences to BP’s world-wide businesses.

Dr. Pierce received his PhD degree in 1980 from Michigan State University in the areas of carbohydrate chemistry and enzymology. After postdoctoral appointments at Cornell University and University of Wisconsin, he had a long career at DuPont commencing as a research scientist in Central Research and Development and culminating as Vice President for DuPont Applied BioSciences and Director of Biochemical Sciences & Engineering where he had responsibility for DuPont’s biotechnology research and development efforts in the production of fuels, chemicals, and materials.

Throughout his career, Dr. Pierce has focused on the integration of biology with chemistry, engineering, and material sciences to create biotechnological applications in agricultural chemistry, plant genetics, and industrial chemistry. In addition, he has long been involved in a variety of public policy activities associated with public acceptance and governmental support of biotechnology.

He was a founding member of the Society of Biological Engineering and currently serves on the Global Agenda Council for Emerging Technologies of the World Economic Forum and the World Council on Industrial Biotechnology.

This talk is part of the BPI Events series.

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• Palmerston Room, St. John’s College

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