February 22, 2021: Aerospace in the Anthropocene
February 22, 2021
4:00 p.m.
For Zoom credentials, please email cloan@vt.edu
Dr. Doug Dwoyer, Hampton Roads Research Partnership
Faculty Host: Eric Paterson
Abstract: Beginning in the mid-Holocene, 7000 years before present, humans have had a major impact on the environment. These impacts began exponential acceleration at the beginning of the industrial revolution with major changes appearing everywhere during the “Great Acceleration” commencing in the mid 20th Century. This has led many scholars, both scientific and humanitarian, to recognize that the world has entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene. This recognition makes clear that the environmental conditions in which human civilization developed have fundamentally and irreversibly changed. For all of us alive today the new epoch presents new challenges and requires new ways of thinking about how we live and how our civilization relates to the rest of the remaining world around us. The aerospace industry will clearly be challenged by this new environment, some of these challenges are apparent today, and some must remain unknown. The path forward will require disruptive innovation beginning immediately, and today’s aerospace engineering students will contribute to these innovations. This talk will introduce the concept of the Anthropocene with focus on its’ geological character as well as some tentative conclusions about aerospace in the Anthropocene life gleaned from the literature as well as the speaker’s own thinking.
Bio: From his NASA retirement in 2007 to the present Doug Dwoyer has been providing the Hampton Roads, VA public factual information about Anthropogenic Climate Change (ACC) through talks, newspaper op-eds and participation on various panels and planning efforts. He has been a significant contributor to the increasing awareness of the deleterious impacts of ACC on the Hampton Roads region. He has recently changed his focus from ACC to the larger issue of global environmental change and the transition to the new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene.
From 1977-2007 he was an Aerospace Technologist at NASA Langley Research Center, starting as a research engineer studying computational aerodynamics and retiring as Associate Director for Operations. Upon retirement he was requested by the Langley climate science division to develop a talk that Langley climate scientists could use in public events. This project led to his own messaging to the Hampton Roads region. He has B.S., M.S. and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech and served in the U.S. Air Force 1968-1973. Doug is currently a Certified Virginia Master Naturalist.
His awards include NASA Leadership Medal, NASA Engineering Achievement Medal, a USAF Commendation Medal and he twice-achieved the U.S. Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics and is a member of the VT Academy of Engineering Excellence. Doug is an avid Hokie, serving on the College of Engineering and Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Industrial Advisory Boards, has season tickets to football and basketball, and both of his daughters are now residents of Blacksburg.