Plenary Sessions
[tabs slidertype="left tabs" autospeed=""] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]Plenary Session I:
Energy and Environment
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Plenary Session II:
Information Technology
[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]Plenary Session I: Energy and Environment
9:45 AM, MIT Media Lab, Multipurpose Room
The panel will explore the role technology can play in reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between energy generation at scale and environmental preservation.
A particular area of focus will be the policy framework needed to develop and prove new, environmentally sound, technologies at scale. In addition, the opportunities for private technology driven enterprises to participate in the energy sector in India will be discussed.
[learn_more state="open" caption="Ernie Moniz"] MIT Professor, Director of the Energy Initiative
Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the MIT Department of Physics, where he has served on the faculty since 1973. Professor Moniz served as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy from 1997 until January 2001 and, from 1995-97, as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He currently serves on President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST).[/learn_more]
[learn_more state="open" caption="E.A.S. Sarma"] Ex. IAS, former Secretary of Economic Affairs, India and Social Activist
E.A.S. Sarma is the Convener of the Forum for Better Visakha (FBV). FBV provides a civil society platform for concerned citizens and NGOs to interact on local, regional and national concerns on governance. It was founded in 2004 and is based at Vizag (Visakhapatnam) on the East Coast of India. Over the last seven years, FBV’s activities have converged with people’s movements across Andhra Pradesh and the rest of the country against polluting industries that cause environmental degradation and loss of livelihoods. In addition to articulating people’s concerns to the authorities, FBV has been instrumental in seeking judicial intervention whenever the executive has failed to respond. Prior to FBV, E.A.S. was the Principal of the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad (2001-2004) and a Member of the Indian Administrative Service (1965-2000). The assignments he held in Government include: Secretary to Government of India in Ministries of Power and Finance (1997-2000) and Advisor (Energy), Planning Commission. He holds an M.S. in Nuclear Physics (Andhra University), a Masters in Public Administration (Harvard University) and a Ph.D. in Energy Planning (Indian Institute of Technology). His publications are listed at http://eassarma.in.[/learn_more]
[learn_more state="open" caption="Michael Greenstone"] 3M Professor of Environmental Economics, Department of Economics, MIT
Michael Greenstone is the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. He is on the MIT Energy Initiative’s Energy Council and on MIT’s Environmental Research Council. He served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors in the first year of his Administration. He also served as an editor of The Review of Economics and Statistics and as a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board’s Environmental Economics Advisory Committee.
His research is focused on estimating the costs and benefits of environmental quality. He is currently engaged in a large scale project to estimate the economic costs of climate change. Other current projects include the economic and health impacts of indoor air pollution in Orissa, India; the efficacy of environmental regulations in India; and the costs and benefits of an emissions trading market in India.
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[learn_more state="open" caption="Venkatesh (Venky) Narayanamurti"] Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy and Professor of Physics, Harvard
Venkatesh Narayanamurti is the Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy and a Professor of Physics at Harvard. He is also the Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). He was formerly the John L. Armstrong Professor and Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Dean of Physical Sciences at Harvard. Previously he served as the Richard A. Auhll Professor and Dean of Engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Prior to that he was Vice President of Research at Sandia National Laboratories and Director of Solid State Electronics Research at Bell Labs. He obtained his PhD in Physics from Cornell University and has an Honorary Doctorate from Tohoku University. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the IEEE, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He has served on numerous advisory boards of the federal government, research universities and industry. In 2011 he was elected Foreign Secretary of the NAE for a 4-year term. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers in different areas of condensed matter and applied physics. He lectures widely on solid state, computer, and communication technologies, and on the management of science, technology and public policy.
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[learn_more state="open" caption="Robert Stoner"] Associate Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Robert Stoner is Associate Director of the MIT Energy Initiative. He also serves as the Executive Director of the MIT-Tsinghua-Cambridge Low Carbon Energy University Alliance. Dr. Stoner was previously a member of the Clinton Foundation’s leadership team, serving as Chief Executive of the Africa-based Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative, and establishing the Foundation’s developing world clean energy program.
After earning his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics at Brown University in 1992, Dr. Stoner joined the Microprocessor Development Group at Intel Corporation. In 1995, he formed Cooper Mountain Corporation, which developed the first commercial instruments to incorporate ultrafast pulsed lasers. These instruments, based on the picosecond ultrasonic method which he co-invented, are now extensively used to characterize computer chips during production. He subsequently founded Vinestone Corporation, a UK-based peer-to-peer database and workflow software developer. Dr. Stoner later held a number of senior executive positions and served as Chairman of the Technical Advisory Board at Zygo Corporation, a developer of precision optical systems and instruments for the global consumer electronics, aerospace and semiconductor industries.
Dr. Stoner received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, Canada. He was a National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Scholar, and holds US patents in the fields of semiconductor devices, optical measurement and imaging systems, optical devices, network computing, and acoustics. His current technical interests include high resolution imaging techniques, distributed computing, and energy distribution and storage technology and policy for developing countries.
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[tab]Plenary Session II: Information Technology
2:00 PM, MIT Media Lab, Multipurpose Room
The IT plenary sessions will be a fireside chat between Mr. Narayana Murthy and Mr. Desh Deshpande. The discussion will highlight Mr. Murthy’s thoughts on the role of technology in different sectors in India such as government, healthcare etc. It will also explore his views on what is next after outsourcing. Finally, the audience will be able to hear first hand Mr. Murthy’s experiences in starting a successful global company. The session will end with a Q&A from the audience.
[learn_more state="open" caption="Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande"] Chairman/Co-founder - Sycamore Networks, Inc.
Dr. Deshpande created the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation here at MIT and is a serial entrepreneur in the tech space. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, an M.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and a Ph.D. in Data Communications from Queens University in Canada. Dr. Deshpande has won numerous awards for his contributions to education and the greater community, and serves as a member of the MIT Corporation.[/learn_more]
[learn_more state="open" caption="Narayana Murthy"] Founder-Chairman of Infosys Limited
Mr. Murthy articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for IT services outsourcing from India. He has led key corporate governance initiatives in India and is an IT advisor to several Asian countries. He has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India, the Légion d’honneur by the Government of France, and the CBE by the British government. He is the first Indian winner of the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year award and the Max Schmidheiny Liberty prize, and has appeared in the rankings of businessmen and innovators published by India Today, Business Standard, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Time, CNN, Fortune, and Financial Times.[/learn_more][/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]