Professors Knowles and Matson Selected as Scialog Fellow for Negative Emissions Science

Professors Kathryn Knowles and Ellen Matson have been named Fellows for a new Scialog initiative, Negative Emission Science (NES). Cosponsored by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) the series will begin virtually with its first conference November 5-6, 2020.

When asked what being chosen as a Scialog fellow means to her, Knowles said, "I am thrilled to be named a Scialog fellow for Negative Emissions Science. Fighting climate change by decreasing carbon emissions is a challenge that has motivated my research since I was an undergraduate. I am grateful and excited for the opportunity this program provides to brainstorm new approaches to tackling this problem with an interdisciplinary group of fantastic scientists, including my chemistry colleague Prof. Ellen Matson!"

Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” As part of each multi-year initiative, Fellows are selected from multiple disciplines and institutions across the U.S. and Canada to maximize creative thinking and innovative ideas. The cohort of Fellows is diverse and inclusive of researchers from underrepresented groups of scientists. Participants in Scialog: Negative Emissions Science will convene to take up the pressing challenge of greenhouse gases accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. The multidisciplinary group of scientists – from chemistry, engineering, materials science, physics, and related disciplines – will explore how to advance fundamental science in the design of novel approaches for removing and utilizing or sequestering greenhouse gases, and for making those technologies globally scalable.

At each conference, participants form multidisciplinary teams to design cutting-edge research projects, which they pitch to leading scientists who have facilitated discussions throughout the meeting. A committee of these facilitators then recommends seed funding to catalyze the most promising of those team projects, based primarily on the potential for high-impact results.