MANOS MAVRIKAKIS, University of Wisconsin – Madison Reaction Mechanisms and Structure Sensitivity for Heterogeneous Catalyst Discovery from First-Principles First-principles calculations have emerged as a key contributor towards the fundamental understanding of heterogeneous catalysis and the educated discovery of improved catalytic materials. By choosing the example of formic acid (HCOOH) decomposition on transition metals and alloys, we demonstrate how a deep mechanistic understanding of selective versus unselective routes can help with designing more selective catalysts. HCOOH is a simple molecule that is…

After decades of research and educational innovation, engineering continues to struggle to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion by most measures. Why is this change so slow, despite numerous investments from governments, industries, and non-governmental organizations? Applying tools from humanities and social science disciplines, we can identify and examine the root causes of inequality in engineering disciplines, and reframe the project of diversity in order to make greater progress. Re-imagining diversity in a social justice frame generates numerous avenues of inquiry…

JOHN LIENHARD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thermodynamics and transport in desalination systems engineering  The world’s renewable fresh water supply may be considered to be the difference between precipitation over land and evaporation; and this supply is essentially fixed while world population has risen sharply and the water demands of growing economies continue to rise. As a result, water scarcity is an increasing problem throughout the world, with water shortages impacting both rural and urban populations and with substantial environmental damage as…

IAN GILMORE, National Physical Laboratory, UK Metabolic Imaging at the Single-Cell Scale: Recent Advances and Future Challenges in Mass Spectrometry Imaging Super-resolution optical microscopy using fluorescent labels has been transformational in allowing the machinery of life, e.g. proteins, to be seen at the nanoscale. There is a great desire in the life-sciences to achieve this level of insight for metabolites. This will allow unprecedented ability to understand rewiring of metabolic networks involved in disease, understanding of the uptake of drugs in…

ALFRED SPORMANN, Stanford University Microbial Electrosynthesis for a Carbon-Neutral Energy and Chemicals Economy

JENNIFER CASE, Virginia Tech Going beyond the fads and jargon: What does research tell us about teaching for high quality learning in science and engineering?  There is much contemporary talk on how university teaching is outdated, and how radical change is needed to accommodate the needs of current students and the expectations of the workplace. Many of these calls, whether for active or problem-based learning fall into a longer and broader tradition of progressivism in education. To interrogate their applicability, a…