About the Lecture

When: Saturday, 1 March from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m.

Where: 100 Thomas Building (located at the corner of Pollock and Shortlidge Roads on the University Park campus)

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is a series of Saturday-morning lectures begun in 1995 by a group of Penn State Eberly College of Science faculty in the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry. It was an innovative move for our college because these lectures were designed for the enjoyment and education of average citizens rather than for a specialized audience composed exclusively of scientists, as were our other annual lectures at that time. Abhay Ashtekar, director of the center and holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics, explained at that time, "One of the missions of the center is to improve scientific literacy both on and off campus by presenting such public lectures." (more history)

 

 

"Fuel Cells: Are We There Yet?" is Free Public Lecture on 1 March

18 February 2008--"Fuel Cells: Are We There Yet?" is a free public lecture that will be given by Matthew Mench, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, on 1 March 2008.  The event is the sixth of six lectures in the 2008 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, which has the theme this year of "Running on Empty?: Strategies for Our Energy Future."  This free minicourse for the general public consists of six lectures featuring current research on various energy options and the environmental consequences of their use.  No registration is required.  The lectures take place on consecutive Saturday mornings from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus.

Mench will talk about the promise of hydrogen fuel cells and will discuss the practical limitations of the technology.  He will explain why mass commercialization of fuel-cell technology has not yet arrived, even though increasing numbers of excellent working prototypes exist for automotive, stationary, and portable devices.  He also will describe the technical advances that must take place before fuel cells will become widely available in various applications, and will describe some of the ongoing work at Penn State that is designed to overcome these challenges.

In the Fuel Cell Dynamics and Diagnostics Laboratory (FCDDL) he directs at Penn State, Mench is using advanced diagnostics and modeling approaches to understand fundamental heat and mass-transport phenomena responsible for a variety of performance and durability limitations in operating systems.  His lab has helped to pioneer several diagnostic techniques, including the application of neutron imaging to fuel cells, and has helped to advance the understanding of key parameters that influence accelerated degradation in subzero environments.  The FCDDL is funded by an array of government and industrial organizations.

Mench, who earned his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering at Penn State, became an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2002 and was promoted to associate professor in 2007.   In 2007, he received the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award for research work related to online degradation sensing in operating fuel cells.  He is the author of the textbook Fuel Cell Engines, which is based on undergraduate and graduate courses he developed and teaches.  In 2006, Mench was recognized for his teaching efforts through a Penn State Engineering Society Outstanding Teaching Award.  He is an associate editor for the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, is an active member in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Electrochemical Society, and was elected by peers to be the chair of the 2008 Gordon Research Conference on Fuel Cells.

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are a program of the Penn State Eberly College of Science that the college has provided annually since 1995.  The 2008 series is sponsored jointly by the Eberly College of Science and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.  Financial support for the 2008 lectures is provided by a gift from the Chevron Corporation and by the Penn State Eberly College of Science.

For access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-0901 or by e-mail at science@psu.edu.  A recording of this lecture will be archived on the Web at a link on he homepage for the 2008 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/frontiers/

[ B K K / S L ]