William Mong Distinguished Lecture by Professor Arun Majumdar
Sep 1, 2017
Over the past 21 years, the William M.W. Mong Research Fund has provided invaluable resources for the Faculty to enhance its research capability through the Distinguished Lecture Series. Academics from all over the world have shared their insights on multi-disciplinary topics under the Lecture Series, from environmental engineering, medical science technologies to smart systems.
In celebration of the 100th William Mong Distinguished Lecture, the Faculty has invited Professor Arun Majumdar to give a lecture on September 1, 2017 tilted “Options to Create a Sustainable Energy Future”.
Professor Majumdar is the Jay Precourt Professor at Stanford University, co-director of the Precourt Institute for Energy and a member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He stated that for almost every action we take in our lives today, we receive the benefit of 250 years of industrial revolution which has been arguably the most remarkable period of human history. Our global economy and our prosperity grew exponentially, and our population grew ten fold. The industrial revolution has been largely about how we sourced, distributed and used energy. It was and continues to be predominantly based on fossil energy. Science has shown that our current course in unsustainable in the long run.
In the lecture, Professor Majumdar introduced a variety research opportunities and challenges in stationary power and transportation systems that could create technological options and enable the transition of the energy economy to a sustainable one. He further highlighted a few grand challenges in science and engineering that must be addressed within the next few decades. In the lecture, he focused on the approaches and options to modernize the electricity grid. Professor Majumdar concluded the lecture by discussing options for public policy to create conditions for such technological options to be utilized.
The lecture was well-received and inspiring with over 160 participants attended. A celebration dinner was held after the lecture.
Professor Norman Tien presented a souvenir to Mr. Nelson Lai, Deputy Managing Director and Group Human Resources Director of Shun Hing Group
Group photo.
Prof. Norman Tien, Dean of Faculty of Engineering, presented a souvenir to Professor Arun Majumdar.