WILSON, N.C. — Interested in learning more about hydraulic fracturing for natural gas? Plan to join Barton College faculty and students as they welcome Dr. Vikram Rao, executive director of the Research Triangle Energy Consortium, as guest speaker for the General Education Capstone class in the Department of Science and Mathematics on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 10 a.m. Dr. Rao will be addressing the issue of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. The class lecture will be held in The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center on campus. The community is invited to attend this informative lecture.
Dr. Rao’s book “Shale Gas: the Promise and the Peril,” the text used in this class, will serve as a foundation for his lecture. Released in 2012 by RTI Press, the book can be found at www.rti.org/shalegasbook. It was written for general audiences and is intended to inform readers about the heated debate on fracturing for shale gas.
In 2008, Dr. Rao retired as senior vice president and chief technology officer of the Halliburton Company and followed his wife to Chapel Hill, where she serves on the UNC–CH faculty. Later that year, Dr. Rao became executive director of the Research Triangle Energy Consortium, a non-profit in energy founded by Duke University, North Carolina State University, RTI International and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its mission is to illuminate national energy priorities, and those of the world by extension, and to catalyze research to address these priorities.
Dr. Rao also serves on the board of Intelligent Well Controls Ltd. and also advises venture capitalist Energy Ventures AS, and firms BioLargo Inc., Global Energy Talent Ltd. and Integro Earth Fuels Inc. In addition, he serves on the North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission and chairs the Water and Waste Management Committee.
In addition to a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India, Dr. Rao earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University. He is the author of more than 50 publications and has been awarded 36 U.S. patents and foreign analogs.
For additional information about the Research Triangle Energy Consortium, visit www.rtec-rtp.org. For additional information about this lecture, contact Dr. James Carpenter at 252-399-6466 or jacarpenter@barton.edu.
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