Dr. Dave Dzombak Selected as 2010-2011 AEESP Distinguished Lecturer

Dear AEESP members:

The AEESP Lectures committee is delighted to announce that Dr. Dave Dzombak will be the 2010-2011 AEESP Distinguished Lecturer.  Dr. Dzombak is the Walter J. Blenko, Sr. Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and Director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research.  He received a BA in Mathematics from Saint Vincent College, BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in Civil Engineering from MIT.  He is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.  His research interests include water chemistry, fate and transport of chemicals in surface and subsurface waters, wastewater treatment and reuse, contaminated soil and sediment  remediation, abandoned mine drainage remediation, and geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide.  Dr. Dzombak will offer the following lectures during his tours:

·         Need and Challenge of Alternative Water Sources for Use in Electric Power Production:  Thermoelectric power generation accounts for about as much freshwater withdrawal as agricultural irrigation in the U.S., with both at about 40% of total.  Meeting the future cooling water demands for electric power production will be difficult in locations with limited freshwater resources, and is already prompting interest in the use of waters of impaired quality, such as treated wastewater, mine drainage and industrial process wastewater, as alternative sources.  This talk will provide an overview of the water-energy challenge facing the U.S. and will examine the need for and challenges of using alternatives to freshwater for power plant cooling.

·         Geologic Sequestration of CO₂: Evaluating and Monitoring Seal Rock Integrity:  The leading technology under development for management of CO₂ separated and captured from large emission sources, such as electric power plants, is carbon capture and geologic sequestration (CCS).  Worldwide, only a few large scale tests of CCS have been conducted.  In the US, the DoE has established seven regional partnership programs for large-scale testing of CCS, including evaluations of the rate of leakage from the storage reservoirs.   This talk will present an overview of CCS and the challenge of risk assessment in relation to deployment of the technology.  Potential mechanisms for leakage from CO₂ storage reservoirs and performance objectives under consideration will be discussed.  Results of research on seal rocks overlying saline reservoirs will be presented and the implications for assessment and monitoring of seal rock integrity in CCS will be discussed.

Lecture tour dates will be scheduled during the periods September 27 – November 17, 2010 and January 19 – March 25, 2011.  Institutions that would like to host Dr. Dzombak must send in an application by May 17, 2010.  Application forms and more lecture details are available at www.aeesp.org or from Dr. Sarina Ergas (sergas@eng.usf.edu).   

-Sarina Ergas, Associate Professor, Dept. Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida