Karen Goldberg, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, is the 39th Annual Timothy J. O'Leary, S.J., Distinguished Scientist.

Lecture Abstract: It is widely accepted that decarbonization of our energy systems will have the largest impact on mitigation of climate change. With a move away from oil as a primary energy source, we will need to develop other sustainable sources for our liquid fuels, and we will also need to reinvent our chemical industry and economy. While gasoline and other liquid fuels are the major products that are made from oil, oil is also the source of most of the chemicals that are used to make all the consumer goods that we have come to rely on. Our medicines, body-care products, detergents, paints, plastics, fibers, fabrics, and essentially everything we use every day, are currently derived from petroleum. The carbon-based building blocks used to make all these consumer goods have been available in sufficient supply and at low cost due to the economy of scale of our enormous oil refining industry. Fundamentally new pathways, from new sources, to the chemicals and liquid fuels that we depend on must be developed to successfully transition to a sustainable future. In this presentation, Dr. Goldberg will describe how we arrived at our current energy landscape, projections on where we are going, and present some of the exciting strategies that scientists are pursuing to allow us to use natural gas, carbon dioxide and even waste plastic, to prepare our chemicals and fuels in the future.