This Event has been Cancelled: The Physics (and Chemistry and Materials Science) of Sustainability

This talk will take a physicist's perspective on some of the energy and sustainability challenges faced by the planet. I will stress the need for thinking using robust principles to guide the investigation. These include: to realize that global sum rules are much more reliable than addition of small scale phenomena; to understand thermodynamic and other equilibria in the large; to be aware as a scientist that economic, geographical, and social forces set boundaries; to understand that a 'kiloWatt hour' is actually a unit of reserve currency and that entropy is a bankable commodity.

Dr. Littlewood is the Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences & Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory and Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He is a former Professor and Head of the Cavendish Laboratory and the Physics Department of the University of Cambridge and a former head of the Theoretical Physics Department of Bell Laboratories. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.