BUFFALO, NY – Anthony R. Ingraffea, PhD, the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering at Cornell University,will speak at Canisius University on Thursday, October 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Montante Cultural Center, located at the corner of Main Street and Eastwood Place. The title of Ingraffea’s lecture is “The Science of Shale Gas: The Latest Evidence on Leaky Wells, Emissions and Implications for Policy.” The event is free and open to the public.
Ingraffea’s address will cover the basics of how fracturing (fracking) works and why natural gas from these unconventional sources is part of the national energy policy. He will also discuss potential problems with fracking, the controversy surrounding its practices and policies, and how effective regulations might be implemented. Ingraffea will also include an explanation of how all these areas relate to global climate change and attempts to build a global framework to control it.
Ingraffea has taught structural mechanics, finite element methods and fracture mechanics at Cornell University since 1977. His research involves computer simulation and physical testing of complex fracturing processes, and he has performed pioneering research with his students in the use of interactive computer graphics in computational mechanics. Ingraffea is a member of the Cornell Fracture Group, which works to create, verify and validate computational simulation systems for fracture control in engineered systems. The group’s current and past research has focused on experimental testing and numerical simulation of fatigue and fracture in a variety of materials.
Ingraffea has been a principal investigator on more than $35 million in research and development projects with the U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Gas Research Institute, the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, General Dynamics, Boeing and Northrop Grumman Aerospace. His research achievements earned him the National Research Council/U.S. National Committee for Rock Mechanics Award and the George Irwin Medal from the American Society for Testing and Materials. He was also named a Fellow of the International Congress on Fracture.
Ingraffea is co-editor-in-chief of Engineering Fracture Mechanics, the premier journal in his field, and president of the Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy Board of Directors.
He earned a BS in aerospace and aeronautical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, an MS in civil engineering from Polytechnic University of New York City and a PhD in civil engineering from the University of Colorado.
For more information on Ingraffea’s lecture, contact the Office of Public Relations at 716-888-2790.
Canisius is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation and the premier private university in Western New York.
