Mr Jeff Cohen

Mr Jeff Cohen is a Senior Manager for US EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Programs, responsible for Agency initiatives addressing both ozone protection and climate change. He oversees domestic implementation of the Montreal Protocol, the global treaty to phase out ozone depleting chemicals, and manages several government/private partnerships in the automotive, retail, chemical, energy, buildings and military sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He recently created a new carbon offset program adopted by the Chicago Climate Exchange, focusing on non-CO2 gases.

In 2004, Jeff served on the White House Energy Task Force where he helped coordinate Federal and state permitting and deployment on new renewable and conventional energy projects including wind, LNG, coal gasification and refining capacity.

As a contributing author on the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) Special Working Group on Ozone Protection and Greenhouse Gases, Jeff was part of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize honorees.

Jeff is currently on assignment as a senior advisor to the California Air Resources Board on implementation of the State’s new climate legislation, AB 32.

His educational background includes a M.S. in Public Health from the University of North Carolina, and a B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York. He will receive his MBA in Sustainable Management at the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco in May 2008.

Prof Richard Darton

Prof Richard Darton worked for Shell in the Netherlands 1975-1991, after which he joined Oxford University’s Engineering Science department where he became Head in 2004. He was Vice President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers 2001-5, responsible for Qualifications and Professional Standards, and is President for 2008-9. His research interests are: distillation, surfactants, water purification, and sustainable development.

Professor Max Lu

Max Lu is a Federation Fellow and Professor of Nanotechnology in Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland. He is Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials. His research expertise is in nanoparticles and nanoporous materials for clean energy and water purification technologies. With over 260 journal publications to his credits, he is also co-inventor of 10 international patents. Prof Lu is a highly cited researcher in chemical engineering and materials science with over 3500 citations (with h-index of 31). He has received numerous prestigious awards nationally and internationally including the Orica Award, RK Murphy Medal, Le Fevre Prize, ExxonMobil Award, IUMRS Young Scientist Award, Top 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia. He is elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and of IChemE. He served on the ARC’s College of Experts (2002-2004), and Expert Advisory Groups of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (2004, 2005). He also served as Chairman for the Department of Education, Science and Training Research Quality Framework Panel on Engineering and Technology.

Garry Willgoose

Garry Willgoose has been an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow since 2006, examining the impact of climate change on water resources. He is a science advisor to the NSW Government on climate change. Prior to 2005 he was Deputy Director of the Earth Biosphere Institute at The University of Leeds, UK.

Professor Roe-Hoan Yoon

Professor Roe-Hoan Yoon is the N.T. Camicia Professor in Mining and Mineral Processing at Virginia Tech (VT), USA. He was recently elected a Member of the US Academy of Engineering, the highest honor provided to members of the engineering profession in the US. He has made seminal contributions to mineral processing and particle technology, and his work has been recognised by many awards, including the Gaudin Medal and the Robert H. Richards Award of the SME. Professor Yoon is also the inventor of the Microcel, a new type of flotation device that is in widespread use throughout the world, particularly for the recovery of fine coal.

He is the Director of the Center for Advanced Separation Technology (CAST) at Virginia Tech, founded in 2001 under the auspices of the U.S. DoE as a consortium of six universities as well as Virginia Tech. Its goal is to develop advanced separation technologies that can be used to produce clean solid, liquid and gaseous fuels from domestic energy resources in an efficient and environmentally acceptable manner.