nature as artifact

will start posting notes for forthcoming essay(s). along lines of nature as artifact...comments welcome

oil dispersion

Per this post, I've already received a couple of inquiries re: how to calculate plume dispersion as a function of the time of year.  I would actually calculate disp. characteristics in both GOM & Atl Ocean connecting with the relationship between the volume released and interaction with the loop current.

will post thoughts...suggestions welcome

Rutgers-NSF IGERT Symposium on Biofuels and Bioenergy

Thursday schedule:

9:00-9:15 Session Opening and Announcements: Session
Theme: Surveying the research landscape of
biomass feedstocks and bioprocessing Session Chair/Moderator (TBA)
9:15-9:45 Opportunities in bioenergy from agricultural
waste: from benchtop to pilot studies Donna Fennell, Environmental Sciences, Rutgers
University
9:45-10:15 Cassava and jatropha as biofuels feedstocks Ming Peng, Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences,
Hainan, China, and/or Peng Zhang, SIBS-ETH Shanghai
Center for Cassava Biotechnology, Shanghai, China
10:15-10:45 Novel biofuels and bioenergy research at
Oklahoma State University Raymond Huhnke, Oklahoma State University and South-
Central Sun Grant
10:45-11:00 break
11:00-11:45 (I) Sugarcane biotechnology and bioengineering
for bioethanol (ii) brief comments on
ESALQ/RU/Ohio State Tripartite exchanges
Helanie Carrer. University of Sao Paulo, ESALQ,
Piracicaba, Brazil
11:45-12:30 Fungal genomics for bioprocessing of cellulosic
plant biomass Gustavo Goldman, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto,
Brazil
1:30-1:45 Session Opening and Announcements: Session
Theme: "From Biomass to Biofuels/Bioenergy:
Processing and Conversion Technologies" Session Chair/Moderator (TBA)
1:45 - 2:30 Synfuels systems engineering and technology
transfer: lessons from coal to liquids; prospects
for waste to liquids
Xinying Liu and/or Diane Hildebrandt , University of the
Witwatersrand and COMPS, South Africa
2:30 - 3:00 Engineering process design for biorefining:
ethanol from corn stover Xin Xiao, Institute for Process Engineering, Peking U.,
Beijing, China
3:00 - 3:15 break
3:15 - 3:45 Industrial R&D perspectives on  key steps in
ethanol fermentation process improvement Henrique Amorim, Fermentec Ltd., Piracicaba, Brazil
3:45-4:30 Bioenergy Research Effort at São Paulo State:
Trying to Leverage Natural Advantages José Maria da Silveira, State University of Campinas
(UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
4:30-5:30 Field studies and agronomics for biomass to
biofuels/bioenergy
Margaret Brennan-Tonetta,  Zane Helsel,  and Stacy
Bonos , Sustainable Energy Work Group, Rutgers University
and New Jersey Agricultural Experimental Station
5:30-5:45 transition time
5:45 - 8:30
ish
Dinner and Program (beverages/mingling first, them
buffet/sit-down dinner and after-dinner
speaker/program)
TBA: some sort of general interest science talk/film (RU
Scarlet Night  glider from IMCS? Lutz on ocean vents?
etc?..)