September 18, 2009

Michael Levi will speak on September 29

by Kelly Beggs

Michael Levi will speak at Davidson College on Tuesday, Sept. 29, about "The Energy Emergency: National Security, Climate Change, and Global Poverty." His lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Smith 900 Room of the Alvarez College Union and is open to the public at no charge. Levi is the Rubenstein Senior Fellow for energy and the environment and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has written two books and numerous articles that challenge conventional wisdom on national security, nuclear arms, technology and development, energy security, and climate change.

Levi is the first of four speakers in this year's Bank of America Lecture Series, "Responding to the Global Energy Challenge: Technology, Policy, and Security." The series is organized by Davidson's Dean Rusk International Studies Program.

The second speaker will be Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Sotero will speak on November 23 about "Balancing Growth and Sustainability: Brazil and the Challenges of Large Developing Economies." Sotero has worked for Brazil's leading newspapers, and is a member of both the Grupo de Conjuntura Internacional, a forum of discussion of Brazilian foreign trade policies, and the Fernando Braudel Institute of World Economics.

The third speaker will be Steven Koonin, Undersecretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. On February 1, Koonin will give a lecture titled "Addressing America's Energy Challenges: Science, Politics, and the Global Search for Alternative Energy." Koonin is a theoretical physicist who taught and served as provost at the California Institute of Technology. In his current position as the primary scientific adviser to the Secretary of Energy, Koonin plays a central role in the effort to identify alternative fuel sources.

The series will culminate with Jim Rogers, President and CEO of Duke Energy, who will speak on March 20 about "The Energy Industry's Search for Greener Power." In August 2009, under Rogers's leadership, Duke Energy became the first American energy company to sign a technology-exchange agreement with China's largest energy company. In addition to his responsibilities at Duke Energy, Rogers co-chairs the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency and the Alliance to Save Energy.

Chris Alexander, Director of the Dean Rusk International Studies program

Chris Alexander, director of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program, said, "We wanted for our final speaker someone who is an opinion shaper on global energy issues, somebody who is in the trenches, who had to grapple with global energy issues on a daily basis, not academically, not theoretically, but because it's their bread and butter, it's what they do."

Davidson students and faculty helped select both the series theme and the individual speakers, with the Dean Rusk Program's Student Advisory Committee (SAC) playing a deciding role. Alexander pointed out that this year's theme was particularly student-driven. He said, "There is a core of students who are more interested and excited in this topic than in any previous year. The series speakers this year are the people that the students want."

With Davidson's focus on campus sustainability, and the UN Climate Change Conference coming up in December in Copenhagen, Alexander noted that energy holds both local and international attention. He hopes that the speaker series will help people broaden their perspectives on the issue.

He said, "For so many people energy issues have been purely economic issues-it's about the price of gas at the pump or it's about the price of electricity in your home. We want people to connect the dots, to help people understand that when you're talking about the contemporary state of the global energy challenge, you're not just talking about pocketbook issues and not even primarily about pocketbook issues. You're talking about national security."

Christoph Pross '10 chairs Dean Rusk's Bank of America Lecture Series steering committee and is a member of the SAC. He acknowledged that energy issues will be a pressing concern for today's youth during their lifetimes. "It's something that can engage the entire campus," he said. "Energy issues have a scientific aspect, a political aspect, economic aspect and anthropological aspect. What I like most about the speaker series' theme is that you can show everyone how their interests apply to the bigger question."

Associate Professor of Chemistry Durwin Striplin offers an explanation to Claire Naisby '12 following a session of their class in "The Global Energy Challenge."

Students were so interested in the theme that they requested an interdisciplinary class to complement the lecture series. Doe Professor of Economics Peter Hess and Associate Professor of Chemistry Durwin Striplin are teaching a class this semester on "The Global Energy Challenge," examining the topic from an interdisciplinary point of view.

"This is just a great year for that class," Alexander said. The classroom connection fulfills Alexander's vision for the Dean Rusk Program, of "not just functioning as a speaker's bureau, but crafting programs that clearly support what's happening in the classroom."

Another student-born initiative will coincide with Jim Rogers's speech in March. Rogers will serve as the keynote speaker for a student conference designed to put students in the position of policy-makers. The opening of an environmental and energy-related art exhibit will accompany the event, expanding the scope of the interdisciplinary effort to include artistic interpretations of energy issues.

For the conference, the steering committee is currently developing and testing a policy-making simulation structured after the Model United Nations. Planners hope to include students from other colleges and universities, as well as energy experts who will mentor the students as they grapple with the complex process of creating energy policy.

Alexander explained, "It will give them roles to play, roles which will allow them to experience real conflict, roles that give them a chance to see and experience first-hand why these issues from a policy perspective are so hard to resolve."

While this year's Bank of America Lecture Series will certainly stress the difficult compromises and trade-offs of energy policy, the intent is not to discourage.

Christoph Pross '10

Pross said, "In a way, it's preparation for the future. We want students to understand the difficulty of these problems. But hopefully they will see that if everyone compromises and works together there are avenues to a solution. We want them to see that there are possibilities."

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,800 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
###