Renowned scholar and Pulitzer prize winning author Jared Diamond will deliver the keynote address at the third "Energizing Kentucky Conference", scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, April 15 and 16, at the Lexington Hyatt Regency. The conference is to focus on the role of education in energy production, distribution and conservation.
Organized by Centre College President John A. Roush, University of Louisville President James R. Ramsey, Berea College President Larry D. Shinn and University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. - the agenda features remarks by Carol Browner, President Obama's assistant for energy and climate change and head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton.
Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail," is to address the Wednesday night session, which opens the conference. Diamond also is an evolutionary biologist, physiologist and lecturer. The winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" and the National Medal of Science, he is a professor of geography and physiology at UCLA.
Thursday morning will begin with an overview of Gov. Steve Beshear's energy plan, presented by Energy and Environmental Matters Secretary Leonard Peters. President Shinn will then lead a discussion of the plan with panelists Rep. Rocky Adkins, majority floor leader in the Kentucky House of Representatives; Tom Fitzgerald, director of the Kentucky Natural Resources Council; and Admiral John J. Grossenbacher, director of the Idaho National Laboratory.
The conference will include two sets of break-out sessions. The first set, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., includes discussions of energy and sustainability at American Colleges and Universities, a meeting of the state legislature's Special Subcommittee on Energy.
Also during this set, teams of students from elementary, middle and secondary schools and institutions of higher learning from around the commonwealth will host a poster session highlighting energy education that is now taking place in Kentucky.
The second set of break-out sessions includes discussions of ways to teach wise energy use to Kentucky's elementary, middle and high school students; sustainability efforts at Kentucky's colleges and universities; and civic partnerships that can help agencies and communities use energy wisely.
More information on the third Energizing Kentucky Conference is online at www.energizingkentucky.org.