November Chemistry Forums address Air Pollution and Makeup of the Universe

Community Forum in Chemistry at WCC November 19 & 24

What is the universe made of?

Windward Community College’s Community Forum in Chemistry will offer two fascinating presentations and discussions with experts in their field on Thursday, November 19 and Tuesday, November 24. The forums are free and open to the public. No reservations are necessary. Both forums are located in the Hale ‘Imiloa Science Complex.

“Chemical Approaches to Air Pollution Mitigation”
by Godwin Severa, PhD, MBA
Thursday, November 19, 2015
1:00–2:00 p.m.
Hale ‘Imiloa 111, Windward Community College

Air pollutants (sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons) are detrimental to human health and hinder the direct use of air in sustainable renewable energy technology, hydrogen PEM fuel cell systems. This presentation will discuss the different chemical approaches used to filter gas pollutants from atmospheric air and from the tailpipes of industrial plants, as well as, ways to mitigate environmental impact of air filtration materials waste.

Godwin Severa, PhD, MBA, has over 10 years of experience in renewable energy. He received his PhD in Chemistry at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2010. His dissertation was focused on synthesis and characterization of novel alkali and transition metal solid state gaseous hydrogen storage materials for integration with hydrogen PEM fuel cells. His postdoctoral research at Hawaii Natural Energy Institute was on utilization of ionic liquids in multi component separation of biomass for renewable energy use. He obtained an MBA from Shidler College of business at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2014. Dr. Severa is an Assistant Researcher at Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

“The AMS-02: Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe”
by Veronica Bindi, PhD
Tuesday, November 24, 2015      
11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Hale ‘Imiloa 133, Windward Community College                                                                      

What is the universe made of? Which is the most abundant element in our universe? Could forms of matter different from the ones on earth exist in space? Those and many other questions can be answered by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) on the International Space Station studying cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are particles accelerated in space at almost the speed of light to collect information about regions of the universe that would be impossible to reach with the current technology. AMS-02 is measuring 50 million particles everyday. All information about each particle are sent in real time from the Space Station to the AMS control room located at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) where physicists from all around the world analyze the data. So far many interesting results have been collected and a lot is still expected to come.

Veronica Bindi received her PhD from the University of Bologna in Italy. Since 2002, she has been part of the team at CERN that led to the construction, integration and test of the AMS-02 detector installed on the International Space Station on May 2011.  An Assistant Professor at the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Hawaii at Manoa since 2012, she teaches General Physics 1 (calculus based) and heads a research group composed of postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students focused on AMS.  She is a Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) educator and is involved in many outreach activities to involve more students, particularly minorities and women, in STEM fields.

The Community Forum in Chemistry is co-sponsored by Windward Community College and the American Chemical Society-Hawaii Section. For more information, call Letty Colmenares, PhD, Professor of Chemistry at Windward Community College, 236-9120.    
 

For more information, visit: http://windward.hawaii.edu