Science and Engineering Council of Santa Barbara
December Luncheon
at
The Elephant Bar Restaurant
Thursday, December 9, 2004 12:00-1:30 PM

Taking the Oil Out of Gasoline:
New Technology for Natural Gas

Hydrocarbon-based chemicals are ubiquitous and irreplaceable elements of our lives. A new process chemistry has been discovered at UCSB for the low-cost conversion of natural gas to chemicals that include gasoline. While domestic natural gas prices have soared in recent years, tremendous quantities of natural gas exist outside the U.S. at a fraction of the cost of domestic natural gas. Until this new process was discovered, technologies for converting natural gas to other products have not been cost effective. This month's talk will focus on the science behind this new conversion technology.

------PRESENTER------

Eric McFarland, PhD, MD
Department of Chemical Engineering, UCSB

Dr. Eric McFarland is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at UCSB. He is currently on leave from the university to serve as President and CEO of Gas Reaction Technologies Inc. to commercialize the natural gas conversion process. Dr. McFarland has a Ph.D. from MIT and an M.D. from Harvard. He was a founding Director of Symyx Technologies, a start-up for the development of combinatorial chemistry methods for materials science. He has published over 100 scientific papers and holds 26 U.S. patents.

------OTHER INFO------

$12 for SEC members; $15 for non-members.
Information: Barbara Keaney (E-mail: scieng@silcom.com or call 805-684-4927).
Reservations NOT required.
Elephant Bar Restaurant: 521 Firestone Road.
Website: http://www.scieng.org

From the President: This month's luncheon program deals with technology at the forefront of materials science and promises to be very interesting and relevant. It will be followed in January by a discussion assembling custom molecules by Nicholas Spaulding. Annual membership renewals will be mailed out shortly, and we are pleased to announce that we have once again "held the line" and kept our current dues unchanged for the coming year. When you send in your renewal, please also consider making a donation to our scholarship fund.

Tim Murphy