Denne forelæsning er nr. 21 i rækken af Royal Academy Nobel Laureate Lectures som Videnskabernes Selskab afholder i samarbejde med Novo Nordisk Fonden.
Professor Steven Chu skriver om foredraget:
"The multiple industrial and agricultural revolutions have profoundly transformed the world for the better. However, the unintended consequence of these revolutions is that we are changing the climate of Earth. Recent data on climate change indicates that the Earth’s climate is more sensitive and is changing faster than previously predicted. In addition to the climate risks, we face many challenges how to provide enough clean energy, water, air and food of a world of 7.7 billion people and likely to grow to a more prosperous world of 11 billion by 2100. The talk will discuss the technical challenges and potential solutions that could provide better paths to a sustainable future. How we transition from where we are now to where we need to be within 50 years is arguably the most pressing set of issues that science and innovation has to address."
Professor Steven Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for laser cooling and trapping of atoms. Other contributions include the optical tweezers of biomolecules and precision atom interferometry. He is currently developing and applying new methods in molecular biology, medical imaging, materials science, and battery research. Previously he was U.S. Secretary of Energy, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford, and spent 9 years Bell Laboratories. He received degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Rochester, a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. He has 33 honorary degrees, is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy Sciences and 7 foreign academies.
