Speakers

Sandra A. Brown, Ph.D. is Vice Chancellor for Research and a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UC San Diego. Dr. Brown is internationally recognized for her developmentally focused alcohol and drug research. Her research yielded pioneering information on adolescent addiction, relapse among youth, and long term outcomes of youth who have experienced alcohol and drug problems. She is the past President of Division 50 (Addictions) of the American Psychological Association, is on the executive board of numerous scientific organizations, and has over 35 grants and 350 publications.

Dr. Brown is involved in addiction prevention and intervention at the regional, state, and national levels and helped lead NIAAA’s effort to establish national screening and early intervention guidelines for youth. She currently directs the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) and investigates the effectiveness of novel approaches to intervention with youth.

George R. Tynan, Ph.D. is associate dean of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Tynan's current research is focused on the plasma physics of controlled nuclear fusion as an energy source. He studies the fundamental physics of turbulent transport in hot confined plasmas using both smaller scaled laboratory plasma devices as well as large scale fusion experiments located around the world. In addition, he is investigating how solid material surfaces interact with the boundary region of fusion plasmas, and how the materials are modified by that interaction.

He is also interested in the larger issue of transitioning to a sustainable energy economy based upon a mixture of efficient end use technologies, large scale deployment of renewable energy sources, and incorporation of a new generation of nuclear technologies such as advanced fission and fusion reactor systems. He is preparing a textbook on these topics to introduce science and engineering students to this critical issue. He is on the executive committee for the UC San Diego Center for Energy Research.

Mick Wasco is the Installation Energy Manager at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar. He is responsible for the installation’s energy and water efficiency, renewable, security, and behavior programs. Altogether, he ensures that MCAS Miramar achieves the energy and water requirements mandated by Congress and the President. At MCAS Miramar, the assets managed include over 1.5 MW of distributed PV systems, a 3.2 MW PPA for landfill power, central HVAC control system, advanced metering, a base wide reclaimed water utility network, and smart irrigation controllers. The program has amounted to over $50M in efficiency projects over the last 6 years, and operates at an annual utility budget of $13M per year.

Mick has a BS in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in California for Civil, and is a Certified Energy Manager by the Association of Energy Engineers. In 2016, he received the Federal Engineer of the Year Agency Award for the United States Marine Corps from the National Society of Professional Engineers. Also, recently received the award for Energy Manager of the Year in Region V from the Association of Energy Engineers.

Michael Purvis, Ph.D. serves as a Principal Engineer for the EUV Source Program at ASML San Diego. Dr. Purvis received his B.A, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Colorado State University. His thesis work was performed at the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Light. Michael has published numerous times in the field of laser created plasmas. His initial investigations at Colorado State University included developing discharge and laser produced EUV lasers for applications in plasma diagnostics; subsequent to this he worked on theoretical plasma modeling and high energy density plasma experiments at CSU, Lawrence Livermore National Labs and SLAC.

Michael is currently applying his experience with laser produced plasma towards the development of EUV light sources at ASML. His work at ASML is focused on scaling EUV power output to meet semiconductor industry requirements for high volume manufacturing.

Jennifer Burney, Ph.D. is an environmental scientist whose research focuses on simultaneously achieving global food security and mitigating climate change. She designs, implements and evaluates technologies for poverty alleviation and agricultural adaptation, and studies the links between “energy poverty” — the lack of access to modern energy services — and food or nutrition security, the mechanisms by which energy services can help alleviate poverty, the environmental impacts of food production and consumption, and climate impacts on agriculture.

Much of her current research focuses on the developing world, and she is particularly interested in the science, technology and policy of short-lived climate pollutants, or SLCPs, and the role that mitigation of these compounds can play in meeting both climate and food security objectives.

She is a research affiliate at UC San Diego’s Policy Design and Evaluation Laboratory, a fellow at the Center on Food Security & the Environment at Stanford University and member of the National Geographic Explorers family. She leads the Science Policy Fellows Program at the School.