芭乐视频

GLOBAL CLIMATE SUMMIT: 芭乐视频 researchers present an afternoon of appetizers

Research appetizers
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Photos by Dave Jones and Karin Higgins/芭乐视频

(free)

Delegates who arrived early for Gov. Schwarzenegger's got a taste on Sunday (Nov. 14) of 芭乐视频' research prowess and forward thinking.

A bus full of summit participants came to the campus from Sacramento, where they are staying, to attend "Regional Solutions Research Appetizers" 鈥 a sampling of presentations and posters on the myriad projects that are driving UC Davis'

The afternoon appetizers started with an overview of the university's research in three broad areas: environment and agriculture, transportation and energy, and economic development and the green economy.

The summit itself runs today and Tuesday (Nov. 15 and 16) in and around the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The official opening is set for 10:30 a.m., with welcome remarks by Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. Click for the webcast.

Representatives of the governor said they expected summit attendance would top 1,500, with participants coming from more than 80 states, provinces and countries.

Formally, it is the Governors' Global Climate Summit 3, 鈥済overnors鈥 with an apostrophe after the 鈥渟鈥 because four other U.S. governors are co-hosts. The governors, Schwarzenegger included, and other subnational leaders are gathering here to talk climate solutions 鈥 and to encourage national governments to act, too. At summit鈥檚 end, the subnational leaders are expected to sign the charter for a new public-private alliance 鈥渢hat will implement concrete actions to solve climate change and build the global green economy.鈥

The alliance is called 鈥 with "R20" referring to the 20 regional leaders who founded the alliance at the conclusion of last year鈥檚 Governors鈥 Global Climate Summit 2, which, like the first summit, took place in Los Angeles.

Governor turns to UC Davis

For the third summit, Schwarzenegger turned to UC Davis, because of the kind of research described by eight speakers Sunday in Gallagher Hall:

  • Professor Mark Schwartz 鈥
  • Professor Michael Kleeman 鈥
  • Professor Tom Tomich 鈥
  • Director Tom Turrentine 鈥
  • Professor Case van Dam 鈥
  • Professor Bryan Jenkins 鈥
  • Professor Nicole Woolsey Biggart 鈥
  • Professor Andrew Hargadon 鈥

Hargadon, of the Graduate School of Management, told about his efforts to assist the green economy via the annual Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy.

He said innovation is not about invention, but about making the connections to get products to market 鈥 and his PowerPoint presentation included a slide filled with the names of new companies that have come out of the academy.

If those companies are hiring, Justin Johnson is interested 鈥 on behalf of the state of Vermont, where he heads the Department of Environmental Conservation. He attended last year鈥檚 climate summit and came back for this one 鈥 which is focused on 鈥淏uilding the Green Economy.鈥

鈥淚 want to get a better understanding of how we can take advantage of those opportunities,鈥 Johnson said. 鈥淗ow do we develop jobs that pay reasonably well and feed these new needs?鈥

Posters and pasta

Sunday鈥檚 presummit event continued in Gallagher Hall with a display of more than three dozen posters from faculty and students, showing their work in photos, graphics and words.

Johan Six, an associate professor of plant sciences, and one of his graduate students, Taryn Kennedy, prepared a poster titled 鈥淐alifornia Tomato Cropping.鈥

鈥淚f you like pasta with red sauce, then this will be of interest,鈥 Kennedy said during the poster exhibition.

The research offers a way to boost crop yield while at the same time helping the environment 鈥 by cutting the emission of nitrous oxide from tomato fields.

The solution lies in soil preparation, drip irrigation and fertilizer application. 鈥淲e can manage systems differently and have an effect on greenhouse gases,鈥 Kennedy said.

Another poster hit home with a photo of a household energy meter displaying the figure 鈥25 cents,鈥 telling the homeowner that at that moment in time, he or she was paying 25 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity.

A pair of assistant professors, Katrina Jessoe of agricultural and resource economics, and Dave Rapson of economics, presented this poster, titled 鈥淗ome Energy Conservation,鈥 to show their research into the economics of energy consumption.

More specifically, they are studying home area networks 鈥 which rely on the transfer of information back and forth between utilities and users, via 鈥渟mart鈥 meters.

Cost-conscious customers, Jessoe and Rapson explained, may look at that 25-cent display and decide to delay starting the dishwasher or the clothes drier, until the price comes down during off-peak hours.

The posters fell into three categories: energy, environmental sciences and stewardship, and sustainable food and agriculture.

Some of the other poster titles:

Energy 鈥 鈥淕round Source Heat Pumps,鈥 鈥淗arvesting Daylight,鈥 鈥淢anaging Wind Energy鈥 and 鈥淧ower from Plastics.鈥

Environmental sciences and stewardship 鈥 鈥淗igh Elevation Climate Change,鈥 鈥淲astewater + Algae = Energy,鈥 鈥淪haping Sustainability Careers鈥 and 鈥淪almon and Climate Change.鈥

Sustainable food and agriculture 鈥 鈥淐O2 Threatens Food Quality,鈥 鈥淩unoff and Climate Change,鈥 鈥淥zone and Soil Fertility鈥 and 鈥淐limate, Cash and Cows.鈥

Hope for the future

After the posters came a tour of 芭乐视频 research in action, starting with the biodigester, where Professor Ruihong Zhang is turning food waste into energy.

The presented an olive oil tasting session, showcasing a research program that grew out of a desire to put the campus鈥檚 plethora of olives to good use (olive oil) instead of seeing them become squishy, slippery stuff on the sidewalk.

The tour also took in the university鈥檚 new August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory, and the Teaching and Research Winery 鈥 built to meet the highest standards of sustainability, worthy of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Platinum certification (with LEED standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Instructor Beth Abels from Pierce College (Los Angeles County) snapped photos with her iPhone 鈥 and not just because she teaches architecture.

Yes, she said, she hopes to see LEED Platinum development on her own campus.

But Pierce is a community college, where work force development is a priority 鈥 and Abels said the summit offers an opportunity to learn what kind of training the college should be providing for the green economy.

Abels also offered a broader view of the summit鈥檚 possibilities, after having attended last year鈥檚 event in Los Angeles.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the only place you can go where you can feel some optimism,鈥 she said.

More tours were scheduled this morning, in advance of the summit鈥檚 opening.

More information

, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. today (Nov. 15)

Earlier coverage: (Nov. 5, 2010)

Earlier coverage: (Nov. 3, 2010)


 

Media Resources

Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu

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