The 2024 OU Sustainability Forum focused on identifying ways in which community, industry and academia can collaborate to overcome the current technological, socioeconomic and scientific hurdles at the intersection between energy and materials science.
The second annual research forum took place on Jan. 26-27, 2024, on the OU campus and featured one poster session, three panels, and one keynote presentation with leading industry and academia experts. The forum offered unique perspectives on economic challenges, pathways to an equitable future, and robust discussions of environmental constraints and contingencies. The event offered valuable connections and allowed participants to discover potential projects to engage collaboratively with students, faculty members, and industry leaders from around the world.
Forum participants highlighted interdisciplinary sustainability approaches and pointed out the value of the event that brought together over 80 participants, including tribal representatives, industry leaders, and researchers based in the USA, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Oman, and Singapore. Framed within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Forum's many discussions focused on synergy-centered opportunities to work across disciplines to transform not only the way sustainability is achieved but also the way the local and global communities perceive and understand the need for sustainability.
Panelist Dr. Jimmy Faria Albanese, professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Twente, The Netherlands, and OU alumnus, described the importance of addressing sustainability because it highlights real-life challenges. Though projects to harness energy are innovative and exceptional on paper, they need to be scalable, long-lasting, profitable, environmentally friendly, and socially inclusive.
"What I see as the critical component [for the next five years] is energy consumption," Faria said. "How can we de-carbonize production goods and how can we de-carbonize the energy that we need? For me, the de-carbonization of chemicals and energy is the most critical thing we need to pay attention to."
Dozens of students, from undergraduate to post-doctoral, attended the forum. They had the chance to interact with leading experts in a friendly and open setting. Several students from the OU online MS program in Sustainability: Energy & Materials Management visited the OU campus in person for the first time to take part in the forum. Many were inspired to hear from leaders about what and where the future research should be going within energy, economics, sustainability, and trans-global agency efforts. Laura Sarmiento, a Chemical Engineering doctoral student at the OU Gallogly College of Engineering, said she was excited to hear from executive leaders about their research and development and what the future holds for global companies looking to make a difference.
