December 2, 2022
Critical materials are those that provide essential functionality to engineered materials, components and systems and, in addition are subject to short-term supply chains risks or concerns about long-term availability. For emerging energy technologies, these include for example: rare earths for magnets in electric motors; lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt and others for energy storage; platinum-group elements for catalysts, electrolyzers and fuel cells; and gallium, indium and tellurium for photovoltaics and other electronics. This talk reviews critical materials for energy technologies, especially their economic and public policy context.
Roderick G. Eggert is Viola Vestal Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics at Colorado School of Mines, where he has taught since 1986. He also is Deputy Director of the Critical Materials Institute, an energy innovation hub (research consortium, led by the Ames Laboratory) established by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2013 to accelerate innovation in energy materials.
He chairs the Independent Advisory Board of the UKRI Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals (United Kingdom) and serves on the Advisory Board of the international Rare Earth Industry Association.
His research and teaching focus on mineral economics and public policy. He chaired the U.S. National Research Council committee that wrote the 2008 book Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the US Economy (National Academies Press). He has testified on mineral issues to committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Canadian House of Commons and European Parliament.
He has a B.A. in earth sciences from Dartmouth College, a M.S. in geochemistry and mineralogy from Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in mineral economics also from Penn State.