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AIChE Climate Conference
April 2nd, 2022
Inspiration Hall or join via Zoom
Norm Asbjornson Hall, Montana State University
The Conference
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Climate Conference is a student-run and organized event at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman, Montana. The conference brings speakers from the MSU & Bozeman community, the State of Montana, and beyond to speak on climate change. Our goal is to provide personal experience and data-based information on climate change, its impacts in various sectors of life in Montana, and how we can help in the cause. Additionally, we aspire to facilitate an engaged and informed community dialogue surrounding climate change. The conference is free to attend and open to the public, and will be held in person at MSU on April 2nd, 2022.
We aim to provide science-backed data on climate change to ALL and to inspire a community-centered discussion on positive change.
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RSVP & Donate here
RSVPs are required for both in-person & virtual attendance to the Climate Conference of 2022, and donations are welcomed.
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Schedule
April 2nd
10:00 aM - 4:00 PM
10:00 AM — Welcome, Team Introduction, Land Acknowledgement
Click Here to View Opening Remarks
10:15 AM — Dr. Ben Poulter
“Countdown to 2030 - how Earth observations contribute to carbon budgets and avoiding 1.5 degrees warming”
Click Here to View Dr. Ben Poulter’s Presentation
11:15 AM — 15-minute break
11:30 AM — Kristin Blackler and Megan Sterl
“MSU’s Sustainability Framework”
Click Here to View Kristin Blackler’s Presentation
Click Here to View Megan Sterl’s Presentation
12:30 PM — Catered Lunch and Community Involvement Session
1:15 PM — Prof. Joe Seymour
“Research and Exploration in Antarctica: What DOES a chemical engineer know about the global climate?”
Click Here to View Dr. Joseph Seymour’s Presentation
2:00 PM — Dr. Richard Ready
“The Economics of Addressing Climate Change”
Click Here to View Dr. Richard Ready’s Presentation
2:45 PM — 15-Minute break
3:00 PM — Craig Mathews
“Saving the Planet”
Click Here to View Craig Mathew’s Presentation
3:45 PM - Closing Remarks
Click Here to View Closing Remarks
*All times are in MST and are subject to change
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selected speakers
Craig Mathews
Craig Mathews holds a BS with honors from Michigan State University. He went on to post grad studies there in education and criminal justice while working in law enforcement. He and his wife Jackie came to West Yellowstone in 1979 from Grand Rapids, Mi. Craig was the Town’s Police Chief. In 1979 they founded Blue Ribbon Flies of West Yellowstone, Mt which they sold in 2014. Craig and Jackie have won numerous conservation awards for their environmental work such as “The Protector of Yellowstone National Park Award” presented by Yellowstone National Park, both The Nature Conservancy and Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s coveted “Business Conservation of the Year” awards, and Federation of Fly Fishers International’s “Lee Wulff Award”, and many others. Craig has authored and co-authored 9 important books on fly-fishing. His latest, “Simple Fly-Fishing” was first released in April 2014 and co-authored with Patagonia Inc. founder, Yvon Chouinard and Mauro Mazzo. Craig’s proceeds from sale of this book are donated to the native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout restoration program in Yellowstone National Park. Craig co-founded 1% for the Planet with Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia Inc in 2001. 1%FTP is an alliance of businesses donating 1% of their gross sales to researched and approved environmental and conservation causes. To date 1% for the Planet has donated over $350 million to conservation and environmental programs. Craig and Jackie both enjoy fly-fishing for wild and native trout in Montana and Yellowstone country.
Megan Sterl
Megan Sterl is the Director of Engineering & Utilities at Montana State University overseeing building engineered systems and campus utility infrastructure. She has over 15 years of experience in building energy engineering and facilities management. Megan earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, an MBA from the University of Colorado and is a licensed engineer.
Dr. Joe Seymour
Joe Seymour is co-director of the Magnetic Resonance Lab and a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Montana State University. His primary area of research interest is in transport quantification and imaging using Magnetic Resonance (MR). Prior and future research includes laboratory and field studies of transport phenomena using MR's ability to measure both coherent motion, or velocity, and random motion, or diffusion. During a postdoctoral stay in New Zealand with Prof. Paul Callaghan research was conducted in Antarctica in 1995 and 1997 to study the structure of sea ice using NMR in the Earth's magnetic field. The opportunity to combine science, outdoor adventure and the history of Antarctic exploration, was a unique and rewarding experience. Another adventure in research was undertaken with Prof. Eiichi Fukushima in the Gorno Altay region of Siberia along the Mongolian border. Experiments to measure groundwater content up to 50 meters underground using Surface NMR were conducted with Prof. Oleg Shushakov's group. The Katun River valley is a beautiful region of rocky mountains and was an ancient trade route from Russia to Mongolia.
Dr. Richard Ready
Dr. Ready's research centers on how people benefit from, and impact, the environment and natural resources. His research topics have included environmental health, climate change, invasive species, landscape change and outdoor recreation. Prior to coming to Montana State University, he served on the faculty at University of Kentucky, The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and Penn State University. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals, and served on the EPA Science Advisory Board Environmental Economics Advisory Committee.
Dr. Ben Poulter
Concerned about how climate change will affect ecosystems and society, Dr. Ben Poulter's research uses satellite and aircraft observations of the Earth's surface and atmosphere to understand the global carbon cycle. As a Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Ben develops ecological models that use remote-sensing observations of fire, land-use change, soil moisture, carbon dioxide and methane fluxes to track where emissions or removals of greenhouse gases are taking place. He is involved in developing NASA's next generation of satellites that will form the new NASA Earth System Observatory and also leads NASA's Blueflux field campaign to measure greenhouse gases in coastal ecosystems. Before joining NASA, Ben worked overseas at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL), and Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement (LSCE), and joined Montana State University from 2014-2016 as a professor in the Department of Ecology. At Montana State University he helped set up the WAFER-X project to evaluate Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Sequestration technologies across the Upper Missouri River Basin. He contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports, the United States Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report, and is currently an author with the United States Global Change Research Program's Fifth National Climate Assessment. In addition to contributing to the scientific literature, Ben's edited book "Balancing Greenhouse Gas Budgets" will be published in early summer.
Kristin Blackler
Kristin Blackler (she,her, hers) has served as the Director of the Office of Sustainability at Montana State University since 2013. Kristin has over 15 years of experience advancing sustainability in higher education. She earned a BA in Environmental Studies with a special concentration in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA from the University of Montana. Kristin serves on the Streamline Advisory Board, the City of Bozeman Sustainability Board and is an elected member of the Montana State University All Staff Council. When not at work, Kristin can be found skiing, fly fishing or mountain biking throughout the beautiful state of Montana.
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Get involved
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Featured businesses and organizations
Gallatin Valley Earth Day
Gallatin Valley Earth Day is a grassroots organization, run by volunteers, whose mission is to celebrate Earth Day by supporting clean air, clean water, healthy soil, and sustainable practices. Our efforts include Clean Up, Education, Advocacy, Citizen Science, and the Arts. Our goal is to inform and inspire our community to create a healthier and more livable environment for all creatures on our planet.
Montana CITIZENS’ CLIMATE LOBBY
Citizens' Climate empowers everyday people to work together on climate policy. Our supporters are organized in 500+ local chapters across the United States, including 5 chapters in Montana. Together we’re building support in Congress for national bipartisan solutions to climate change.
In Montana we have 3000 supporters and 46 endorsements for Carbon Dividends legislation, including the City of Whitefish and Big Sky Resort. In the past year, we published 205 letters to the Editor and Opinion pieces, made 2,435 legislator contacts, lobbied our delegation 14 times, and held 40 outreach events.
Find out more at our national website citizensclimatelobby.org or our Montana website CitizensClimateMT.org
Happy Trash Can compost
Established by husband & wife duo Ryan Green & Adrienne Huckabone in 2016, Happy Trash Can Curbside Composting is Bozeman's first food scraps composting program offering residential pick-ups, commercial services, and compost sales. We collect and process (on average) 25,000 pounds of collected materials a week and also have been contracted by Bozeman Solid Waste to compost yard debris and food scraps from MSU's culinary services. Our focus is "fork to farm", connecting our community's organics waste stream back to local agriculture and gardening while "closing the loop" in our local food system.
Go Gallatin
GoGallatin is an online platform that works to promote all forms of active and sustainable transportation to help get single occupancy vehicles off the road. From employer/employee based programming to community incentive and challenge programs, GoGallatin.org is one stop for all things transportation in the Gallatin Valley. Check out the Cats Commuter Challenge to win prizes by changing your commute the week of April 4th-8th. For more details, check out gogallatin.org.
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Student organization & Program spotlight
Green Cats Program
The Green Cats Program evolved out of MSU’s Green Office Program, launched in fall 2020. A program of MSU’s Office of Sustainability, Green Cats seeks to create a sense of agency for MSU faculty, staff, and students as we work to reduce environmental impacts on campus. The program targets behavioral changes for individuals to reduce their environmental footprints. In launching the program, it was our hope to cultivate a culture of sustainability on campus, as individuals are exposed to the ideas from the program, and sustainability ideas become commonplace in day-to-day operations and decision-making. Additionally, we hoped to create a community of eco-conscious individuals across campus who could share ideas and learn about sustainability together. The Green Cats Program includes branches for Offices, Residence Hall Floors, Greek Life Houses, and Labs on campus. This structure allows for continual expansion and adaptation to meet the needs of future campus stakeholders.
Campus Climate Coalition
The Campus Climate Coalition (CCC) is a student-led, faculty-supported, and action-oriented group united through values of intersectional justice and aspirations for institutional change. The CCC fosters a welcoming environment where individuals from diverse backgrounds may come together in the shared pursuit of a more just, equitable, and livable future. Climate change is indelibly interconnected with many other pressing issues including racial injustice, social inequality, and environmental degradation. With the acknowledgment of these interconnections, we seek to utilize relationships to build momentum and further bold, concrete action at a systemic level within the Montana University System and beyond.
MSU Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Citizens’ Climate Lobby at Montana State University is part of a national effort to enable everyday people to work together on climate policy. We are a nonpartisan group aimed toward enacting carbon pricing legislation at the national level.
Sustainability Now
Sustainability Now is a MSU club systematically unifying the student voice behind climate change and local sustainability. We facilitate student service, promote education, and spark activism for environmental and social justice.
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meet our team
Lauren (she/her/hers): I am currently a senior majoring in chemical engineering at MSU. Alongside the Climate Conference, I am an active member of the Women in Engineering Student Advisory Board and also work in a lab on campus doing research. I grew up in Spokane, Washington where running and nordic ski racing were some of my favorite things to do. Here in Bozeman, I greatly enjoy the opportunity to interact with the youth of our community by coaching nordic skiing. I love to ski and mountain bike in my free time, and also thoroughly enjoy being involved with my communities both on campus and in Bozeman, and advocating for climate change education.
Raye (she/her/hers): I am currently a third-year Environmental Studies major with a minor in Hispanic Studies. I help coordinate the Sustained Dialogue Program on campus as part of the Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons (DISC) and am a student employee at the MSU Office of Sustainability. After growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I decided to attend MSU to be close to mountains, fellow nature-lovers, and try out the colder weather. It has been great to be a part of the AIChE Climate Conference team and further the communication of science and research in order to relay the urgency of climate action. Outside of school, I love spending time with friends, reading, practicing yoga, hiking, drinking tea, and filling up on ice cream!
Nicholas (he/him/his): I am a junior studying Industrial and Management Systems Engineering with a minor in Sustainability Studies. In addition to helping plan this Climate Conference, I work as a student employee at MSU's Office of Sustainability, serve as an ASMSU Senator for the College of Engineering, and am involved with a number of other extracurricular organizations. I grew up in a small mountain community called Mazama, Washington, and in my free time, you'll find me downhill skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing, or playing music with friends.
Teddy: I am a senior in chemical engineering. I grew up in Saint Leonard, Maryland, and came to MSU to get outside and explore. My weekends are frequently spent hiking in Yellowstone. When not in class, I enjoy backpacking and snowboarding, and during the summers I snorkel and fish in the Florida Keys. I plan to take my engineering degree into the Navy as a nuclear power officer aboard a submarine.
Nicole: I am a junior majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Political Science and Sustainability. I originally grew up in Denver, Colorado, but decided to complete my undergraduate in Bozeman to explore the northern portion of the Rocky Mountain range. In addition to planning this Climate Conference and studying, you can find me skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and mountain biking. I am excited to be a part of this team and look forward to how this conference can help further conversations regarding climate change on campus and throughout Bozeman.
Lisa: I am currently a junior in the Environmental Engineering program at MSU. Prior to my time in Montana, I attended the University of California Davis, where I received a degree in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems. I feel that there is much room for improvement in the ways humans interact with the world and hope to continue learning and doing what I can to help enact positive change. When not studying away, I enjoy climbing, hiking, skiing, playing piano, and hanging out with my cats.
Austin: I am a freshman studying chemical engineering. I am originally from Libby, Montana, where I grew up hiking the Cabinet Mountains. When I am not studying, I can usually be found playing soccer, rooting for the Portland Trailblazers, hiking through a new area, or reading a good book.
Contact us
Please feel free to reach out with any inquiries - we’d be happy to help!