BEE 3280

Systems and Synthetic Biology for Sustainable Energy

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2023-2024.

The world today is in a state of enormous transition. In the coming few decades, billions of people will leave poverty and enter the developed world. This unprecedented development will be one of the greatest opportunities ever presented to improve global public health and quality of life, but it will only be realized if it's done right. The challenge of sustainable energy is not just to provide energy without polluting the atmosphere with fossil carbon, but to do so at a global scale at a cost that everyone can afford. Thanks to capabilities ranging from room temperature and pressure catalysis to self-assembly, biology offers first draft solutions to problems in sustainable energy from the safe use of nuclear energy, the capture and storage of solar power, mining and purifying elements critical for sustainable energy technologies like rare earths and even in the construction of advanced materials. In each class we will discuss a set of scientific journal articles and use these discuss the advantages, disadvantages and potential of biology in applications in sustainable energy. In each of the past two years we have used these discussions to write a scientific article with students as co-authors.

When Offered Fall.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: intro bio (such as BIOG 1440), biochem (such as BIOMG 3300), MATH 2930, and MATH 2940. Recommended prerequisite: BEE 2600 and BEE 3600 or permission of instructor.

• Find, evaluate, and integrate biochemical data on enzymatic reactions from multiple online sources.
• Combine integrated biochemical data, numerical models, and back of the envelope calculations to assess the feasibility of a chosen sustainability technology.
• Graduate students will learn how to lead a group writing project that describes mathematical assessment of the mathematical assessment of a chosen sustainability technology.

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