Colorado School of Mines hosted the American Chemical Society’s 2017 Summer School on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy from June 21 to 26, giving students opportunities to explore potential solutions to global challenges.
The weeklong residential program brought more than 50 graduate and postdoctoral scholars to Mines for lectures, collaborative projects, poster sessions, open discussions and networking sessions. Experts from the University of Notre Dame, Queen’s University, the University of Pittsburgh, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Colorado School of Mines, among others, led the talks covering topics such as greener solvents, building a green business and greening fossil fuels.
“Solvents are a real environmental concern associate with chemical industry,” said Ryan Richards, professor of chemistry and associate vice president of research at Mines. “One of the projects the students do in teams is choosing the greenest solvent. The exercise has students examine a chemical process and its life cycle before choosing the greenest solvent for that process.”
The summer school has been hosted by Mines almost every year for the past decade.
“Mines has several faculty who have contributed to the program over the years, and NREL has also provided a number of the key instructors,” Richards said. “This gives Mines students and faculty a great opportunity to showcase all of the great people, research and infrastructure we have here.”
CONTACT
Joe DelNero, Digital Media and Communications Manager, Communications and Marketing | 303-273-3326 | jdelnero@mines.edu
Mark Ramirez, Managing Editor, Communications and Marketing | 303-273-3088 | ramirez@mines.edu
