Energy and Sustainability 2017

7th International conference on Energy and Sustainability

20 - 22 September, 2017
Seville, Spain

Overview

The seventh International Conference on Energy and Sustainability was held in Seville, Spain, organised by Wessex Institute, UK, represented by Prof Carlos A Brebbia, and the University of Seville, Spain, represented by Prof Juan Jose Sendra.

This very successful conference series started in the New Forest, UK, home of the Wessex Institute, in 2007; followed by meetings in Bologna (2009); Alicante (2011); Budapest (2013); Kuala Lumpur (2014); and Medellin, Colombia (2016).

Seville was a very suitable location for this meeting as this city has been the place for policies related to sustainability for many years. Specifically in the year 1992, when a Universal Exhibition was held in Seville, many measures were taken to make the location of the exhibition as sustainable as possible.

The city is almost 2200 years old and has a distinct personality and a large and well-preserved historical centre. The old town contains three world heritage sites: the Minaret of La Giralda, the General Archives of the Indies and the Alcazar Palace. The city is also home to many convents, churches, palaces, museums and public gardens.

The world’s economy is fuelled by energy. Depletion of resources and severe environmental effects resulting from the continuous use of fossil fuels has motivated an increasing amount of interest in renewable energy resources and the search for sustainable energy policies.

The changes required to progress from an economy mainly focussed on hydrocarbons to one taking advantage of sustainable energy resources require considerable scientific research, as well as the development of new engineering systems. Energy policies and management are of primary importance to achieve the development of sustainability and need to be consistent with recent advances in energy production and distribution.

In many cases, the challenges lie as much is the conversion from renewable energies (wind, solar etc) to useful forms (electricity, heat, fuel) at an acceptable cost (including damage to the environment) as in the integration of these resources into an existing infrastructure.

Opening the Conference

The conference was opened by Santiago Hernandez, member of the Board of Directors of the Wessex Institute. On behalf of Professor Carlos A Brebbia he welcomed the delegates, explained the objectives of the meeting and mentioned that the quality of the papers accepted was a promise of a brilliant event. Then he gave a presentation of the Wessex Institute detailing the broad range of activities that include research projects on different topics, publication of journals on several scientific and social fields, and the large experience in the organisation of international conferences. These conferences contribute very efficiently in bringing together relevant specialists from academia and industry that present the most up to date achievements for the benefit of the delegates.
All papers are archived in the eLibrary of the Institute (www.witpress.com/elibrary) where they are easily accessible to the international community.

WIT originated from a research group from the University of Southampton and it is considered the creator of the boundary elements method, a numerical technique initially devoted to engineering analysis but due to the enhancements produced by the Institute can be used nowadays for a vast range of practical applications.

Santiago also explained that WIT welcomes postdoctoral researchers who can spend an academic year in the Institute working on their projects and benefiting from the excellent facilities and the peaceful and beautiful surroundings of the Institute.

Prigogine Medal

A special event took place during the conference, ie the award of the 2017 Prigogine Medal.
The ceremony was opened by the Chancellor of the University of Seville, Prof Miguel A Castro, and then the Director of the School of Architecture, Prof Francisco Montero, welcomed the delegates and expressed their satisfaction for having been chosen to hold such a prestigious event. Afterwards, Prof Santiago Hernandez, Chairman of the conference, on behalf of Prof Carlos Brebbia, Director of WIT, explained that the Prigogine Medal honours the memory of the late Professor Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize of Chemistry. It was established in the year 2004 by the University of Siena and the Wessex Institute of Technology and is given annually to a renowned scientist in the field of ecological systems.

The Prigogine Medal was established in 2004 by the University of Siena and the Wessex Institute to honour the memory of Prof Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize winner for chemistry.

Ilya Prigogine was born in Moscow in 1917, and obtained his undergraduate and graduate education in Chemistry at the Free University in Brussels.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures. The main theme of his scientific work was the role of time in the physical sciences and biology. He contributed significantly to the understanding of irreversible processes, particularly in systems far from equilibrium. The results of his work have had profound consequences for understanding biological and ecological systems.

Prigogine’s ideas established the basis of ecological systems research. The Prigogine medal to honour his memory is awarded annually to a leading scientist in the field of ecological systems. All recipients have been deeply influenced by Prigogine’s work.

The recipient of the 2017 Award was Prof João Carlos Marques from the University of Coimbra, Portugal who studied at the University of Lisbon, where he received a graduate degree in biology in 1980.

From early on, he was intrigued by scientific research, particularly in the field of marine biology and ecology, and thus pursued his academic studies, earning a PhD in ecology from the University of Coimbra in 1989, where subsequently he became Assistant Professor. Pursuing his academic career, he came to be Full Professor in 2004.