Bren School Corporate Partners Summit May 7-8, 2009 “Environmental Applications and Implications of Nanomaterials” Speakers |
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805-964-6010 Tim Cohen is a Vice President of URS Corporation, a leading provider of environmental planning, engineering design, program management, construction, and operations services to the public sector and Fortune 500 corporations worldwide. Tim is also Regional Manager of California Central Coast operations for URS, with 150 professional staff providing services to local and national clients. In addition to his management responsibilities, Tim specializes in multidisciplinary program management, environmental and community planning, and regulatory analysis. His experience includes CEQA and NEPA program management, public involvement, energy facility siting and licensing, and land use planning. He received his BA in Biological Sciences from UCSB and his MA in Environmental Resource Management from San Diego State University. He is a member of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners.
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Professor, the Bren School 805-893-7548 Arturo Keller’s research and teaching are focused primarily in two areas: water-quality management and the fate, transport, and remediation of pollutants in the environment. He also conducts a research program on energy and water sustainability and is currently serving as Associate Director of a new five-year, $25 million research effort: the University of California Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (UN CEIN). The collaborative project includes faculty from Bren, UCSB, other UC campuses, the Berkeley Lawrence National Laboratory, and other domestic and international universities. A native of Mexico City who has published extensively on the fate and transport of organic liquid pollutants and pesticides, Professor Keller played a leading role in research that led to the phasing out of the gasoline additive MTBE in the United States. His work with regional water-quality control boards to determine total maximum daily loads (TMDL) for nitrogen and other threats to water quality has led to important advances in the modeling and management of water quality at the watershed scale.
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Professor, the Bren School 805-893-3195 Patricia Holden leads multidirectional research that is centered on a single overall problem: pollution. Her group examines the microbial ecology of the vadose zone to better understand bacteria and create more realistic paradigms for modeling bacterial processes that can naturally attenuate organic and inorganic pollution in what are relatively under-studied subsurface soils. Holden's group also researches water quality toward understanding the presence, origins, and consequences of human waste in coastal zones. Holden's research into nanotoxicology is aimed at generating knowledge to preempt negative effects of engineered nanomaterials in the environment. She is leading one of seven Integrated Research Units within the UC Center for the Implications of Nanotechnology, begun last summer with $25 million from NSF and the U.S. EPA. The philosophy behind all of Holden's efforts is that improved understanding leads to better predictions of processes that govern rates and extents of pollution migration and transformation in the environment.
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Vice President, AECOM Environment 805-388-3775 Topic: "Nanotechnology in Consumer Products: Challenges and Opportunities for Environmental Health and Safety" Paul Smokler is a vice president and a national leader for AECOM Environment's energy industry practice. AECOM — a global leader in professional, technical and management services in the transportation, facilities, environment and energy markets with 43,000 worldwide staff — serves private and public clients in over 100 countries. As a senior manager in the global environmental practice, Dr. Smokler has more than 30 years of consulting and management experience in the environmental and energy industry throughout California, the western U.S., and internationally. Since earning his doctorate from UCLA, Dr. Smokler, an IPEP Qualified Environmental Professional and California Registered Environmental Health Specialist, has worked to resolve key environmental issues on an array of large, controversial projects. His current focus on the energy and power market includes working with energy-development clients on numerous power-generation projects (solar, hydro, and hydrocarbon fuels), high-voltage transmission, natural-gas pipelines, greenhouse gas quantification and management, and related climate-change issues.
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Pennsylvania Bio Nano Systems 215-858-7555 Topic: “Nanomaterials: The Shape of Future Regulatory Frameworks and the Need for Interdisciplinary Approaches” Fred Klaessig is currently with Pennsylvania Bio Nano Systems, a small firm focusing on reference materials used in investigating chromatographic effects at the nanoscale. In recent years, he served as technical director for Aerosil & Silanes and later as business director for the Aerosil Business Line, both part of the Inorganic Materials Business Unit of Evonik Degussa GmbH. His assignments included commercial overview, technical responsibilities involving customer support, new-product introduction, regulatory matters, and liaisoning with the R&D Department in Germany. AEROSIL® is a trade name for fumed silica, which has been manufactured for 60 years and is often cited as an example of a nanoparticle. Fumed silica, fumed titania, and other fumed metal oxides are utilized in many fields for reinforcement, rheology control, abrasion, and UV absorption. The great interest in nanotechnology has raised safety and registration concerns about materials of this class. These issues, both everyday technology and environmental health and safety, led to Dr. Klaessig’s involvement in ASTM (E56), ISO (TC229) and industry organizations addressing these broader topics. |
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Facilitator: Timothy J. Cohen
Technical Moderator, Dr. Arturo Keller
Dr. Patrica Holden
Dr. Paul Smokler