As we move into the summer of 2013, I have been surveying refereed publications, reflecting on the variety of research taking place throughout the Institute and the far-reaching impacts of our faculty and students’ work. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the EMS Energy Institute faculty members, research staff, and students whose ideas and hard work have resulted in many journal publications and awards in the last year. I also want to thank our Institute support staff members, whose hard work often goes above and beyond the normal call of duty in support of these research efforts.
One measure of the EMS Energy Institute’s impact on the greater scientific community is the increased number of high-quality refereed journal articles published by Institute faculty, staff, and students. In the last two years there have been over 65 journal publications per year affiliated with the Institute versus 25-30 journal publications five years ago. In addition, according to the Web of Science, Institute publications received over 2,000 science citations in 2012. These numbers demonstrate the visibility and importance of our research endeavors.
The EMS Energy Institute continues to enhance global collaboration. We are continuing our work with Dalian University of Technology in China as part of the PSU-DUT Joint Center for Energy Research (JCER). The next JCER Joint Energy Workshop will be held in China in Spring 2014. We are also hosting two major international conferences in 2013 with Institute faculty acting as conference chairs. In June, the Twelfth International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilization (ICCDU) will be held in the Washington D.C. area. In September, the International Conference on Coal Science and Technology (ICCS&T) will be held on the Penn State campus. Both conferences have had over 200 papers submitted and are expecting participants from over 20 countries. The Institute is very excited to be hosting two of the most important conferences in their respective fields.
This past year the Institute also established a seminar series. The series, which focuses on clean energy, especially in the area of fossil fuels, was extremely successful and we saw talks from external industrial professionals and government representatives as well as Penn State faculty. The talks were well attended and received excellent feedback. We are planning to continue the series on a biweekly basis throughout the academic year and are in the planning stages for the fall semester speakers.
On July 1, 2013, I will be starting a one-year sabbatical leave. Much of my time will be spent working at Dalian University of Technology in conjunction with the JCER. Dr. Zuleima Karpyn, associate professor in petroleum and natural gas, will be taking over the day-to-day director activities during that time. Dr. Karpyn has been associated with the Institute for many years. She leads our petroleum and natural gas program as well as co-directing our center for quantitative imaging lab. I am sure she will be an excellent and capable interim director.
In closing, I hope you will find the contents of this issue interesting. Please let us know if you have any suggestions or comments.
Dr. Chunshan Song
Director, EMS Energy Institute
Associate Director, PSIEE
Distinguished Professor of Fuel Science and Chemical Engineering