Nearly every technology today relies on raw materials that began underground as ores and other deposits. The United States is rich in these natural resources, but the country does not produce large quantities of many important metals and other minerals.
Greeshma Gadikota, the Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change and professor of earth and environmental engineering, is seeking to change that. An expert in mining, processing, recycling, and energy technologies, Gadikota is developing a wide range of new approaches for sustainably acquiring and refining the raw inputs that become hardware and energy. Gadikota also directs the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia and is a faculty member at Columbia Climate School.
The deficit in U.S. mining and refining is particularly urgent for a specific subset of resources that are difficult to substitute, essential to modern technology, and dependent on vulnerable supply chains. These critical materials are vital to technologies ranging from phones and laptops to vehicles and defense systems. As key components in energy storage devices (e.g., batteries) and energy and emission conversion systems (e.g., catalytic converters, nuclear reactors), and advanced manufacturing (e.g., magnets and semiconductors) are particularly important to energy security and sustainability…
Read more about Gadikota and her work at Columbia Engineering.
