Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering Hosts Annual Washington Speaker Series

Panel Will Discuss Making Energy Systems and Water and Sewer Infrastructures More Sustainable

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Sep 14, 2011, 04:09 ET

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Event: Carnegie Mellon University's Pradeep K. Khosla will moderate a distinguished panel of water and energy experts at the seventh annual Washington Speaker Series. Panel members will outline some of the key issues faced by engineers, energy experts and water consultants about making energy systems and water and sewer infrastructures more sustainable.

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The panel discussion, titled "The Water-Energy Nexus: Protecting Water Quality and Providing Energy," will feature David A. Dzombak, Carnegie Mellon's Walter J. Blenko Sr. University Professor of Environmental Engineering and faculty director of the Steinbrenner Institute of Environmental Education and Research; Ben Grumbles, president of Clean Water America Alliance, a non-profit educational organization in Washington, D.C.; Jeffrey Kupfer, senior adviser for government affairs at Chevron; Eladio Knipping, senior technical manager, environment sector at the Electric Power Research Institute; and Jeanne M. VanBriesen, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Center for Water Quality in Urban Environmental Systems at Carnegie Mellon.

Prior to the panel session, William D. Magwood IV, commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will speak about the challenges and opportunities facing nuclear energy development and use.

"We've been flooded with scary information lately about our energy grid and the water we drink, so we decided to convene a panel that will answer some of the critical questions about protecting water quality and providing economical and efficient energy," said Khosla, the Dowd University Professor and dean of Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering. "Our nation's continued security and economic health depends on a sustainable supply of both energy and water."

Carnegie Mellon's Washington Speaker Series is a nonpartisan forum to enhance meaningful exchange among business, government, policy and corporate sectors, and research leaders through an exploration of issues at the intersection of policy, technology and innovation. The series is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering.

For additional information, please see http://www.cit.cmu.edu/wss-water.

When: 7 – 8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 15.

Where: Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of a $1 billion fundraising campaign, titled "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.