The Energy Transition

Edward L. Cussler, Distinguished Institute Professor at the University of Minnesota, was educated at Yale (BE, 1961) and Wisconsin (PhD, 1965). After thirteen years at Carnegie-Mellon University, Cussler joined the University of Minnesota in 1980.  He has written over 250 articles and five books, including Diffusion, Bioseparations, and more recently, Chemical Product Design.  Cussler, who served the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) as President, was awarded the Colburn (1975) and Lewis (2001) awards, and was the Institute Lecturer (2014).  He holds honorary doctorate degrees from the Universities of Lund (2002) and Nancy (2007).  Cussler is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.  His current research interest is the production of ammonia from stranded wind energy, that is, “putting wind energy in a bottle.” 

Abhoyjit S. Bhown is a Senior Program Manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, California. He holds degrees in chemical engineering (BS 1982, Auburn; MS 1983, California Davis; and PhD 1990, Minnesota) and in mathematics (MS 1989, Minnesota). At EPRI since 2007, he leads a team of scientists and engineers focused on carbon management, including novel power cycles, CO₂ capture, and CO₂ storage. The effort spans computational, laboratory, bench, field pilot studies, and engineering designs. Prior to EPRI, he founded and led start-up companies for separations technologies, and worked at research institutes and energy companies.  Most of his research has focused on separations technologies.