The next presentation in the Texas A&M Energy Institute Lecture Series, featuring Dr. George Philippidis, the Associate Dean of Research and Director of the Sustainable Energy concentration in the Patel College of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida, will be held on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST (GMT -6:00) in the Frederick E. Giesecke Engineering Research Building (GERB) Third Floor Conference Room and through a Zoom Meeting. The topic will be “Renewable Fuels and Products for a Sustainable Society.”
Abstract
Increasing concern about energy security and climate change requires that our society transition to a green economy that serves the triple bottom line of planetary health, societal well-being, and economic prosperity.
Biomass, algae, and oil-seed crops are renewable natural resources that can provide for our energy, materials, and food needs in a potentially sustainable way.
We will review the opportunities and challenges of the green technologies we are developing to produce renewable fuels, plastics, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics using sustainable practices that reduce carbon emissions and air/water pollution.
Biography
Dr. George Philippidis is the Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor at the Patel College of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida. He is a Fulbright Scholar and a sustainability expert with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and an MBA. He has authored publications, book chapters, and 11 patents in clean technologies and has developed courses in renewable energy.
Dr. Philippidis has many years of experience leading strategic business units in the private sector, serving as a partner in a venture capital firm, directing R&D in the public sector, and teaching sustainability and mentoring students in academia. He started his career at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Denver before moving to Thermo Fisher Scientific in Boston, a Fortune 500 company. He then joined the Applied Research Center in Miami to create and direct its energy business.
At USF, Dr. Philippidis directs technology development and commercialization for renewable energy and green products in partnership with industry and government. His applied research focuses on the production of biofuels and bioproducts from algae, biomass, and oil-seed crops. In parallel, he has formed biotech start-ups and has been advising companies and government agencies, including the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Organization of American States.