This week at the Energy Symposium, Dr. Saleem Ali, Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, will present a talk titled "Elements of Energy: Considering the role of Critical Metals."
Speaker bio: Saleem Ali is an environmental planner whose research and practice focuses on ways of resolving ecological conflicts through technical and social mechanisms, as well as exploring novel ways of peace-building between corporations, governments and communities. He holds the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professorship in Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, and is also a Senior Fellow at Columbia University's Center on Sustainable Investment and Georgetown University's Center for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Studies.
Professor Ali has held the Chair in Sustainable Resources Development at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute in Brisbane, Australia (where he retains professorial affiliation). Previously he was Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Natural Resources where he was founding director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security. His books include Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future, (Yale Univ. Press); Environmental Diplomacy (with Lawrence Susskind, Oxford Univ. Press), Mining, the Environment and Indigenous Development Conflicts (Univ. of Arizona Press) and Islam and Education: Conflict and Conformity in Pakistan’s Madrassas (Oxford Univ. Press).
He has also authored over a hundred other peer-reviewed publications and been the editor of acclaimed anthologies including “Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution” (MIT Press) and “Diplomacy on Ice: Energy and the Environment in the Arctic and Antarctic” (with R. Pincus, Yale Univ. Press). Corporate and government experience includes employment in General Electric’s Technical Leadership Program; a Baker Foundation Fellowship at Harvard Business School and a Research Internship at the UK House of Commons.
Professor Ali was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011 and received an Emerging Explorer award from the National Geographic Society in 2010. He is a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel, The IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and serves on the board of the Diamonds and Development Initiative. He is also a series co-editor for the University of Chicago Press on Environmental Science, Law and Policy. Professor Ali received his doctorate in Environmental Planning from MIT, a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from Yale University and Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Tufts University (summa cum laude). He is a citizen of Australia, Pakistan and the United States.
Talk abstract: In June 2019, the U.S. government published a strategy to assess critical minerals supply security. Much of the focus of this effort was on the minerals needed for U.S. defense and manufacturing prowess. However, the core mineral challenge for the U.S and indeed for most countries will be to source minerals for a range of energy delivery and storage infrastructure. The materials needed for clean and reliable energy deserve singular attention and international governance mechanisms will be essential for their supply security. Professor Ali will consider new frontiers of elemental extraction of energy infrastructure metals from new terrestrial sources to oceanic exploration. In his role as a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel as well as the Science Panel of the Global Environment Facility (the world's largest multilateral trust fund for the environment), he will share opportunities for international collaborative research in this arena.
The UT Energy Symposium will meet every Thursday during the fall semester.