Lectures plénières

Le lundi 30 août 2004

National Assembly Member for Chomedey since 1994, Deputy Government House Leader. Law Degree (LL.B., McGill, 1977), Quebec Bar since 1979. Lawyer at the Quebec’s Government (Justice, Council of the French Language) untill 1982. Professor at UQTR and Concordia (1983-1987). Partner, Lambert Cormier Avocates (since 1995).

8: 50 - Allocution d'ouverture, Richard Normandin: "Sustainable technologies developed at NRC and across Canadian Government.”

	R. Normandin is Vice-President Research, Physical Sciences and Engineering at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). Ph.D. in Physics, (Univ. Toronto) and author of over 280 papers and 25 patents in the field of nonlinear integrated optics in dielectrics and semiconductors. He has been Director General of the NRC - Institute for
Microstructural Sciences, and before, Leader of the Optoelectronics Devices Group. He was elected “Fellow” of the Optical Society of America and received Outstanding Achievement NRC-Award, Confederation 125th Anniversary Commemorative Medal, CAP-INO Medal, amongst others.

9:30 - Vaclav Smil: "Energy, economy and the environment: long-term trends and prospects."

	“High oil prices, tightening natural gas supplies, rapidly rising energy demand in Asia in general and in China in particular, debates about the imminent peak of the global crude oil production, worries about the unprecedented global warming, apparent lack of any obvious large-scale non-fossil energy alternatives and the refusal to reintroduce nuclear
electricity generation –- all of these new realities make it clear that the world’s energy supply is at critical crossroads.” V. Smil will address all of these concerns in a brief, but systematic, manner, provide long-term perspectives on the key global energy and environmental trends, assess the place of renewable energies in the current and future supply and outline some surprisingly effective opportunities to deal with these challenges.
Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada), is author of over 280 papers and 22 books on environmental, energy, food, population, economic and public policy studies, consultant to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Research and Development Center, the Japan Science Foundation, the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, and to several other US agencies or academies. His recent book “Energy at the crossroads: global perspectives and uncertainties.” published by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (Cambridge, 2003) recently received a laudatory critique by Michael Grubb in Nature (vol. 428, 1 April 2004, pp. 469-470): “… Energy and the environment are huge and complex topics, and this is Vaclav Smil’s synthesis of a lifetime’s study in these areas. It emerges as the most sober, thorough and thoughtful integrated text on energy available, and it embodies core facts and some fundamental truths that any analyst of energy issues should ponder. … This book should change the map by which we navigate the new energy century. In its intellectual content it is a great book, standing head and shoulders above most integrated writings on energy and environment. …”

11:00 - Gatze Lettinga: "With anaerobic treatment approach towards a more sustainable and robust environmental protection."

	Anaerobic biodegradation processes, when properly integrated with complementary biological and physical methods, constitute the ideal route to a Sustainable Life Environment Protection and Agriculture. There still remain important questions to be elucidated. Therefore challenging interdisciplinary research is waiting to attain
profitable process and technological innovations. Above all, conceptual innovations are needed, implying the substitution of the present highly centralized approach in the public sanitation sector by a holistic strategy based on decentralization, problem prevention, self-sufficiency, resource recovery and reuse, integrated with agriculture practices at or nearby the location, and participation of all people concerned.”
G. Lettinga is Professor emeritus at the Wageningen University, Netherlands, and Doctor Honoris Causa at both the University of Valladolid and of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He invented the worldwide-applied UASB reactor (up to 2000 anaerobic treatment systems are in operation worldwide of which about 75% consist of UASB-type reactors). He was awarded "Karl-Imhoff Award" from IWA in 1992, the Royal Shell prize for Sustainable Development and Energy in 2000, among others.

Conférenciers invités

Le mardi 31 août 2004 8:30 - 10:00

Le mercredi 1 septembre 2004 8:30 - 10:00

Le jeudi 2 septembre 2004 8:30 - 10:00

Discours de clôture

Le jeudi 2 septembre 2004 : 16:45

	“… Anaerobic digestion (AD) is not regarded as a top priority in science policy and in industrial development at present. (…) AD can provide low-cost treatment of sewage and solid domestic wastes, which represents a vast application potential that should be promoted in the developing world. Furthermore, in the last decade interesting niches for AD were developed, such as
anaerobic nitrogen removal and chlorinated organics treatment. AD has also generated some serendipities, such as the use of AD for sulphur and calcium removaland the coupling of AD with microbial fuel cells. The international developments in terms of bio-refineries and CO2-emission abatement are of crucial importance with respect to the impetus that AD will receive in the coming decade. There should be little doubt that by placing the focus of AD on the production of green energy and clean nutrients, the future of AD will be assured. …”
W. Verstraete, Professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium, is member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Belgium, chairman of the IWA Belgian branch, member of the Technical Commission for Soil Protection of the Netherlands, Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (2002-5), and has been president of the Royal Society of Flemish Engineers (1997-1999). He was awarded the Francqui chair at UCL in 1997 and the Altran price in 1999, among others.