Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, a physics professor at Stanford University, set the stage with an opening lecture on the challenges of getting to net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions, and the opportunities that new technologies may present for solving those challenges.

Chu touched on historical events, like the industrial and agricultural revolutions, to more recent events like the advent of AI technologies, including ChatGPT, and their unintended energy consequences. Massive data centers for AI, he explained, are rapidly becoming a major and unforeseen contributor to a worldwide increase in demand for electricity. Fertilizer production, he said, has been a double-edged sword — revolutionizing crop growth and feeding billions, but now serving as one of the major contributors of greenhouse gases.

“Every time we find a good source of energy or technology, we use it,” said Chu, a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics and the former U.S. Secretary of Energy. “We transitioned from wood to coal, coal to petroleum to natural gas and so on. What’s the time scale? Maybe 60 plus years each time? [Looking at renewables], is this what we are going to do? We need to make it faster.”

He encouraged the pursuit of different efforts toward technological solutions, like bio-fertilizers, to rapidly replace what have become necessary tools for society, comparing the world’s current state to being on a ship headed directly toward an iceberg.

“Technology will give us very good solutions, but we also should be working on turning that ship,” Chu said.

The symposium also included a keynote talk from Sarah Kurtz, a professor of electrical engineering professor at the University of California, Merced, on the whether solar energy will reshape the energy landscape. Panels on carbon, bridging the energy-storage scalability gap through systems like sustainable batteries, and how to best support research into sustainable energy entrepreneurship, offered opportunities for focused discussions.  

At a panel on closing the carbon cycle, academic and industry experts from Brown, Harvard University, the University of British Columbia, Air Company and Sublime Systems discussed technological approaches to recycling or reusing carbon dioxide, focusing on sustainable methods for converting carbon dioxide into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals or producing carbon-neutral material such as cement.

The symposium ended with a poster session from Brown researchers affiliated with the Institute for Sustainable Energy and an event in the Engineering Research Center’s Hazeltine Commons for attendees to network and engage with each other while setting the stage for future partnerships and breakthroughs that could have a long-term societal impact.

“There are many challenges ahead, and it is our responsibility in STEM to embrace circular and integrated design thinking, ensuring that the long-term impacts of our research and innovation promote resource efficiency, protect the environment, and improve the quality of life for all,” said Yue Qi, a Brown professor of engineering and materials science and the Initiative for Sustainable Energy’s deputy director.