Gazette Online, IA
10-05-07
UI, Brookings Institution to co-host energy, security forum
The Gazette
IOWA CITY - The University of Iowa's Lecture Committee and the Brookings
Institution will co-host an energy and national security forum Oct. 17 on the UI
campus.
The Opportunity 08 forum, "Energy & National Security: Biofuels and Alternative
Energy in America's Policy Debate," will be held Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Iowa
Memorial Union's main lounge.
The forum, co-sponsored by the UI Office of the Vice President for Research, will
feature leading policy experts from Washington D.C. and Iowa on biofuels and
energy policy, the environment and national security. It will feature two panels -the first focusing on energy security and alternative energy sources, specifically
ethanol and other biofuels, and the second discussing the role that energy plays
in America's foreign policy.
The Lecture Committee is working with student and activist groups, as well as UI
departments and institutes that study energy and energy policy, to generate
some of the questions that will be asked during the forum. Questions can also be
submitted to lecture-committee@uiowa.edu
The forum is part of Opportunity 08, a project of the Brookings Institution in
partnership with ABC News, to help presidential candidates and the public focus
on critical issues facing the nation. Media sponsors for the Opportunity 08 forum
include KCRG-TV and the Gazette.
UITV will also be taping the forum for later broadcast on local cable channels
Panelists include:
* David B. Sandalow, an Energy and Environment Scholar at Brookings, an
expert on energy policy and global warming. During the Clinton administration,
Sandalow served as assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and
science and as a senior director on the staff of the National Security Council.
Sandalow will be releasing a book entitled, "Freedom from Oil: How the Next
President Can End the U.S. Oil Addiction."
* William Antholis, managing director of Brookings. Antholis has worked on
foreign security and economic policy at the National Security Council and the
State Department, and was director of studies at the German Marshall Fund of
the United States.
* Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings. O'Hanlon specializes in Iraq,
North Korea, homeland security, the use of military force and other defense
issues. He advised members of Congress on military spending as a defense
budget analyst. He is the director of Opportunity 08.
* John Miranowski, professor of economics and director of Institute of
Science and Society at Iowa State University (ISU). Miranowski has
previously served as director of the Resources and Technology Division of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service and was executive
coordinator of the Secretary of Agriculture's Policy Coordination Council.
* Steven Fales, associate director of the Office of Biorenewables
Programs and professor in the Department of Agronomy at ISU. Fales
coordinates the College of Agriculture's Bioeconomy Initiative, which focuses on
developing technologies for converting crops and plant materials into chemicals,
fuels, fibers and energy.
* Jerry Schnoor, co-director of the UI College of Engineering's Center for
Global and Regional Environmental Research. Schnoor, who also serves as
Allen S. Henry Chair in Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering and research engineer at IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, has
extensive environmental research experience. He recently chaired a U.S.
biofuels production colloquium for the National Research Council at the National
Academy of Sciences.
* Mani Subramanian, director of the UI Center for Biocatalysis and
Bioprocessing (CBB) and professor in the Department of Chemical and
Biochemical Engineering. Prior to coming to the CBB, Subramanian was the
global research and development director of biotechnology, bioprocessing and
bioinformatics at the Dow Chemical Company.
* Tonya Peeples, associate professor of chemical and biochemical
engineering at the UI. Peeples' work focuses on research in the field of
organisms that thrive in extreme environments. She is a member of the CBB and
is director of the Ethnic Inclusion Effort for Iowa Engineering.