The Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS) is hosting its 13th annual symposium on Sept. 17 via Zoom. This year’s event is titled “Creating a Model for Global Decarbonization through Washington State Science, Engineering, and Technology.”
The event will feature WSU faculty members, including Chad Kruger, director of the Center for Sustaining Agriculture & Natural Resources, Michael Wolcott, Regents Professor and director of the Office of Clean Technology, and Manuel Garcia-Perez, professor and director of the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory. The event is being organized by WSAS member, Dan Schwartz, Boeing-Sutter Professor of Chemical Engineering and director, Clean Energy Institute at UW. The 2020 symposium will explore leading work that contributes to decarbonizing Washington’s most influential economic sectors and securing citizens’ prosperity and employment prospects in a carbon constrained future.
Since 2007, WSAS has hosted an annual Symposium to explore scientific and technical topics in Washington State and offer an opportunity for its members and the public to learn about the policy dimensions and context behind some of Washington’s most challenging issues. Previous topics include wildfire, cannabis, climate change, and K-12 STEM education.
As the most trade dependent state economy in the U.S., Washington’s jobs and economic environment are tightly linked to evolving global greenhouse gas policies. For example, Washington is home to the top aerospace economic cluster in the nation, a sector that contributes about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. We have the nation’s second largest information and communications technology economic cluster, a sector that contributes about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
And the state’s high value agriculture and forestry are top 5 U.S. clusters in a global economic activity that contributes about 9% of direct greenhouse gas emissions and almost 25% of net emissions, when land-use change factors are included.
This virtual event will include keynote addresses from Chad Frischmann of Project Drawdown, Representative Gael Tarleton, and Mary Collins with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and panel sessions on decarbonizing land use, aerospace, and technology.
The Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS) is a not-for-profit organization of more than 300 elected members who are nationally recognized for their scientific and technical expertise. All members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine who reside in Washington State are invited to join; others are elected in recognition of their scientific and technical contributions to our nation and their desire to contribute their expertise to inform issues in Washington State.
Registration for the 13th Annual Symposium is open online. Registration is limited to 500 attendees and closes on Sept. 10.
