Academy’s annual symposium, Power to the people: the science behind the debate

Rising global temperatures and current and future energy use including nuclear energy, smart grids, geothermal and fusion technology and more will be put under the microscope at the Australian Academy of Science’s annual symposium, Power to the people: the science behind the debate.
Featuring Chancellor of Liverpool University and former UK Chief Scientific Advisor and Head of the UK Government Office of Science, Sir David King, the symposium boasts Australia’s top scientists in the field of energy research.

Some of the topics on show include:

• Sir David King: Improving human wellbeing on a resource-limited planet – can we do it?
• Professor Sue Golding from the University of Queensland: Unconventional gas – opportunities and limitations
• Dr Ziggy Switkowski from RMIT University: Nuclear energy for Australia - policy and politics behind the debate
• Dr Louis Wibberley Direct from CSIRO Energy Technology Newcastle: Injection coal engines – a coal paradigm revisited
• Professor David Hill from the University of Sydney: Smarter grids – why control, decision, communication, computing and network sciences are also needed
• Professor Ian Lowe from Griffith University: Can energy demand be limited while improving quality of life?
• Mr Wes Stein from the CSIRO National Solar Energy Centre: Solar thermal power - how long till impact?

The full list of speakers, along with biographies and abstracts, is available online at http://www.science.org.au/files/userfiles/events/documents/sats-2013-program.pdf

New Fellows of the Academy are presenting their work today; the Academy’s awardees will present their work tomorrow. Media are welcome to attend or interview presenters.