Alumnus Rob Perrons has organised a Future Energy Forum in Australia on 30th March.
The people of the world will need ever more energy in the years ahead, but it’s not yet clear how this demand will be met.
The sheer size and scale of this dilemma clearly requires input and ideas from both the private sector and public institutions. That’s why a Gates alumnus has brought together a panel of speakers to debate the issue at a public “Future of Energy” forum in Australia on March 30.
Robert Perrons [2001] organised the event which includes speeches by Martin Ferguson, Australia’s Minister for Resources and Energy, and Andrew Faulkner, the CEO of Arrow Energy. Rob explained that “the Forum seemed like a great way to achieve three objectives at the same time: to make people aware of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship in a part of the world where a lot of students simply haven’t heard of it, to let thought leaders wrestle with one of the thornier issues affecting the human race, and to give a few Gates alumni a chance to re-connect and meet each other.”
Rob was a regional coordinator for the Gates Alumni Association while he was in the US, and then moved to Australia last May to start a new job as Associate Professor of Technology Management and Strategy at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. Three Gates alumni – Rob, Peter Manasantivongs, and Joan Ko – and a handful of prospective Gates applicants from the area have been invited to a small reception for the speakers after the event.
Rob did a PhD in Engineering at the University of Cambridge. His current position is a joint appointment between QUT’s Business School and the Science and Engineering Faculty, and his research focuses on innovation and new technologies in the energy industry.
Picture credit: Danilo Rizzuti and www.freedigitalphotos.com
