Two American professors will give a seminar at IT Sligo on May 26th about Pennsylvania’s development of its huge Marcellus Shale natural gas resources. The event will be simultaneously webcast online.
The Marcellus Shale formation lies beneath about 60% of the state’s total land mass, where it is buried to depths of up to 9,000 feet. Areas with the greatest potential for natural gas production exist where the shale is present at least 5,000 feet below ground surface.
Professor Rose M Barker and Professor David L Passmore, from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), will review the nature, size and distribution of the resources and speak about extraction technologies, in particular, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”.
They will also discuss with seminar participants the benefits and costs of natural gas development, many of which are highly controversial.
Professor Baker is Associate Director of the Penn State Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis. Professor Passmore is Distinguished Professor of Education and Operations Research at Penn State.
They are Faculty Associates of the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Duquesne University and members of the advisory group for the Multi–State Shale Collaborative, composed of policy groups in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
Cait Coyle, Lecturer in Earth Science at IT Sligo said: “The seminar will provide an insight into the environmental and economic impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing for shale gas extraction in the U.S. The subject is of particular relevance to the northwest of Ireland considering that this controversial technique may be used in the future during the exploration (and possible subsequent extraction) for shale gas in the Lough Allen basin.”
IT Sligo will webcast the seminar on Monday, May 26th, at 8.30pm. For viewing details and free registration, visit http://Shalegasitsligo.eventbrite.ie.
David L. Passmore, Distinguished Professor of Education and Operations Research at Penn State – and Professor Rose M.Baker, Associate Director of the Penn State Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis.
Notes:
Professor Rose M. Baker is Associate Director of the Penn State Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis and Assistant Professor of Education in Penn State’s graduate program in Workforce Education & Development. She holds a PhD in Instructional Systems and an MEd in Adult Education from Penn State. Her BA is in mathematics and chemistry from Washington and Jefferson College. Baker is a certified Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute.
David L. Passmore is Distinguished Professor of Education and Operations Research at Penn State. He directs Penn State’s Institute for Research in Training & Development and is Director of Graduate Studies for Penn State’s Department of Learning and Performance Systems. Passmore earned a PhD from the University of Minnesota and has served as Visiting Scholar in Maternal and Child Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and as a professor and researcher at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Northern Iowa.
IT Sligo offers a range of accredited courses in Environmental Science.
These include:
BSc in Environmental Protection
BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science
BSc in Energy, Sustainability, and the Environment.