Experts on Transportation, Energy and Air Quality
January 18, 2007
The following UC Davis faculty members are available to speak on topics related to
California's new initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, and
air pollution and human health.
Experts drafting the state Low Carbon Fuel Standard
Cleaner and alternative fuels
Biomass in California's energy future
Power systems for hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles
Hydrogen fuel production
Clean auto fuels and technologies
Using existing energy supplies better
Turning garbage into biogas
Air quality
Air pollution, climate and health
Air pollution and lung health
Infrastructure, planning and behavior
Transportation infrastructure and air quality
Transportation planning and policy
Travel behavior
Context: media, geology and economics
What the public is hearing
Oil geology and future finds
Economics of transportation
EXPERTS DRAFTING THE STATE LOW CARBON FUEL STANDARD -- The plan
to help California reduce oil imports, reduce greenhouse gases and boost investments in
alternative fuels will be written by four UC researchers, including three from UC Davis.
"This very innovative and very important new policy will be a model for the rest of the
world," says UC Davis' Dan Sperling, the project co-director and an international
authority on research and development in advanced transportation fuels and fuel
technology. Sperling directs the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. Joining
Sperling to design the state plan during the next three months are Bryan Jenkins, an
expert in converting biomass to energy and leader of the Bioenergy Research Group at
UC Davis, and Joan Ogden, a UC Davis professor of environmental science and policy
and the co-director of the ITS-Davis Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways
Program. Also: Alex Farrell, Joint Center for Transportation Sustainability Research, UC
Berkeley. Contacts: Dan Sperling, Institute of Transportation Studies, (530) 752-7434,
dsperling@ucdavis.edu; Bryan Jenkins, California Biomass Collaborative, (530) 7521422, bmjenkins@ucdavis.edu; and Joan Ogden, Institute for Transportation Studies,
(530) 752-2768, jmogden@ucdavis.edu.
CLEANER AND ALTERNATIVE FUELS
BIOMASS IN CALIFORNIA'S ENERGY FUTURE -- In November, the California
Biomass Collaborative, based at UC Davis, gave the California Energy Commission a
draft plan for greatly increasing biofuels production and the generation of electricity from
biomass. California Biomass Collaborative director Bryan Jenkins is a UC Davis
professor of biological and agricultural engineering, and the director of the UC Davis
Bioenergy Research Group. Jenkins can discuss what biomass is (such as forest
trimmings, rice straw, tree prunings, animal manures and urban waste), how it can be
used to produce renewable fuels (ethanol, methanol, hydrogen, biodiesel, syngas,
synfuels and biomethane) and basic materials for products (plastics, solvents, inks and
construction materials), and how it can be employed to help meet state goals (expand
renewable energy, reduce petroleum dependency, provide economic development and
improve environmental quality). Contact: Bryan Jenkins, California Biomass
Collaborative, (530) 752-1422, bmjenkins@ucdavis.edu.
POWER SYSTEMS FOR HYBRID AND FUEL-CELL VEHICLES -- Andrew Burke, a
research engineer with the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), has
30 years of experience studying electric- and hybrid-vehicle design and analysis in
industry (General Electric), government (Idaho National Engineering Laboratory) and
academia (Union College and UC Davis). At UC Davis, Burke directs the Advanced
Vehicle Power Systems Laboratory, and conducts research and teaches graduate courses
on advanced electric driveline technologies, specializing in batteries, ultracapacitors, fuel
cells and hybrid-vehicle design. Contact: Andrew Burke, ITS-Davis, (530) 752-9812,
afburke@ucdavis.edu.
HYDROGEN FUEL PRODUCTION -- Paul Erickson, UC Davis assistant professor of
mechanical and aeronautical engineering, studies the production and use of hydrogen for
fuel-cell systems, including fuel-cell vehicles. Fuels such as methanol, gasoline, diesel
and coal could be carried on a vehicle and processed to produce hydrogen using an onboard reformation process. He is also working on production of hydrogen from
renewable sources such as ethanol, and hybrid vehicles with internal combustion and
electric motors. Contact: Paul Erickson, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, (530)
752-5360, paerickson@ucdavis.edu.
CLEAN AUTO FUELS AND TECHNOLOGIES -- Gov. Schwarzenegger launched the
state's Hydrogen Highways program at UC Davis in 2004 because of its Institute of
Transportation Studies and the institute's international leadership in research, teaching
and public education that focus on clean vehicle fuels, technologies and policy. Experts
on hydrogen systems, including institute director Daniel Sperling, are listed online.
Experts on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVS) are Tom Turrentine, ITS-Davis,
(831) 685-3635, tturrentine@ucdavis.edu, and Andrew Frank, Mechanical and
Aeronautical Engineering, (530) 752-8120, aafrank@ucdavis.edu.
USING EXISTING ENERGY SUPPLIES BETTER -- Gov. Schwarzenegger presided at
the grand opening in April 2006 of the world's leading university-based Energy
Efficiency Center at UC Davis. The new center is dedicated to speeding the transfer of
new energy-saving products and services into the homes and lives of Californians. The
Energy Efficiency Center's founding director is Andrew Hargadon, an associate professor
at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management who is an expert on innovation in
business and technology transfer. He can discuss how the state can bring together the
people who devise new ways to save energy, those who finance their development, the
manufacturers who make the products, and the industries and consumers who buy and
benefit from them. Contact: Andrew Hargadon, Energy Efficiency Center and Graduate
School of Management, (530) 752-2277, abhargadon@ucdavis.edu.
TURNING GARBAGE INTO BIOGAS -- UC Davis engineering professor Ruihong
Zhang sees a vast untapped resource in yard clippings, household table scraps and other
biodegradable materials: enough methane and hydrogen to power the trucks that collect
the waste from our curbsides, or to keep the lights burning in thousands of California
homes. Zhang has built a commercial-scale anaerobic digester, a $4 million project
funded by the California Energy Commission and industry partner Onsite Power Systems
Inc. The concept is elegantly simple -- garbage in, good stuff out, including "biogas" to
burn in vehicle engines or electric generators. Contact: Ruihong Zhang, Biogas Energy
Project, (530) 754-9530, rhzhang@ucdavis.edu.
AIR QUALITY
AIR POLLUTION, CLIMATE AND HEALTH -- Anthony Wexler, director of the UC
Davis Air Quality Research Center, studies the chemical and physical nature of air
pollution. He is co-director of an $8 million U.S. EPA research grant to study air
pollution in California's huge San Joaquin Valley, where bad air causes the nation's
highest rates of asthma in children. He also studies how tiny airborne particles contribute
to global climate change. Contact: Anthony Wexler, Air Quality Research Center, (530)
754-6558, aswexler@ucdavis.edu.
AIR POLLUTION AND LUNG HEALTH -- Kent Pinkerton, director of the UC Davis
Center for Health and the Environment, studies the microscopic changes that occur in our
cells when they react to air pollutants. Pinkerton is co-director of an $8 million U.S. EPA
research grant to study air pollution in California's huge San Joaquin Valley, where bad
air causes the nation's highest rates of asthma in children. He recently showed for the first
time how secondhand cigarette smoke damages babies' lungs. Contact: Kent Pinkerton,
Center for Health and the Environment, (530) 752-8334, kepinkerton@ucdavis.edu.
INFRASTRUCTURE, PLANNING AND BEHAVIOR
TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND AIR QUALITY -- Deb Niemeier, a
UC Davis professor of civil and environmental engineering, can discuss transportation
project priorities and transportation air-quality issues. Niemeier's research is focused on
quantifying the effects of transportation on air quality and studying the processes used to
select projects and to manage major transportation infrastructure. She recently oversaw
the analysis of two transportation propositions on the Nov. 7 California ballot
http://www-news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7943; another such analysis
(on the air-quality effects of vehicle emissions standards) is expected in early 2007
http://johnmuir.ucdavis.edu/policy/policygrants.html. Niemeier, a UC Davis associate
vice chancellor for research, is director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment and
the UC Davis-Caltrans Air Quality Project. Contact: Deb Niemeier, Civil and
Environmental Engineering, (530) 752-8918, dniemeier@ucdavis.edu.
TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND POLICY -- Susan Handy, a UC Davis
associate professor of environmental science and policy, is an expert in transportation
planning, land-use planning, the connections between transportation and land use, and
travel behavior. She has studied the impact of neighborhood design on driving and
walking in eight Northern California neighborhoods, in addition to offering a critique of
assumptions associated with "smart growth" efforts and an assessment of the
transportation benefits of "the new urbanism." She has given many talks at professional
conferences in the U.S. and abroad on the role of transportation planning in efforts to
increase physical activity, a major public health concern. Contact: Susan Handy,
Environmental Science and Policy, (530), 752-5878, slhandy@ucdavis.edu.
TRAVEL BEHAVIOR -- Patricia Mokhtarian, a professor of civil and environmental
engineering, studies the impacts of information and communication technologies
(specifically including telecommuting and Internet shopping, but more broadly as well)
on transportation and related areas; attitudes toward travel in general and commuting in
particular; travelers' strategic responses to traffic congestion; and residential choice and
the impact of residential location on travel behavior. Contact: Patricia Mokhtarian, Civil
and Environmental Engineering, (530) 752-7062, plmokhtarian@ucdavis.edu.
CONTEXT: MEDIA, GEOLOGY AND ECONOMICS
WHAT THE PUBLIC IS HEARING -- John Theobald, a lecturer in communication, can
talk about energy issues in the news. He can also discuss the politics that print and
broadcast media encounter in attempting to communicate transportation fuel news to the
public. Theobald is founder of the UC Oil Forum, an annual conference created to
explore the issues of oil and gas production. In addition to classes about science in the
news, Theobald teaches "The Media Industry," "Media Analysis" and "News Policies and
Practices." Theobald is a former television news producer. Contact: John Theobald,
Communication, (707) 322-6340 cell, theobald@att.net.
OIL GEOLOGY AND FUTURE FINDS -- UC Davis geologist David Osleger, who
studies the types of rocks where oil and gas deposits are found, can talk about how those
deposits are formed and why some are easier to extract than others. He says it is very
unlikely that major oil fields remain to be explored. The last "supergiant" field was found
about 20 years ago. Earlier in his career, Osleger worked as a geologist for the Gulf Oil
Corp. and also at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. Contact:
David Osleger, Geology, (530) 754-7824, osleger@geology.ucdavis.edu.
ECONOMICS OF TRANSPORTATION -- UC Davis economist Christopher Knittel can
talk about transportation economics, especially how the various markets related to
transportation function. A specialist in the economics of industrial organization, Knittel
teaches about the various transportation industries: automobile, airline and oil. He also
can explain the dynamics between demand for various autos and government regulation
of the industry and how consumers make decisions on cars with better mileage when
gasoline prices skyrocket. Contact: Christopher Knittel, Economics, (530) 752-3344,
crknittel@ucdavis.edu.
Media contact(s):
Sylvia Wright, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-7704, swright@ucdavis.edu