6,600,000,000 people live on earth today. By 2050, the world population is expected to grow to 9,200,000,000, with most of the increase in the developed nations. This population growth, plus rising standards of living in countries such as China and India, is causing the global demand for energy to grow at an unprecedented rate.

Smart Energy, a video blog by Stanford professor, Margot Gerritsen, delves into the issues raised by our increasingly energy-hungry world through interviews with leading scientists, engineers and policy makers. Recent interviews have included a discussion with Burton Richter on nuclear energy and a conversation with Jim Sweeney on efficiency.

These interviews cover new ideas and technologies from wind, solar, tidal energy, and other renewables to fossil fuels to solutions for transport. The aim is to present information in an unbiased way, focusing on data and research that will help answer key questions such as:

o How do we meet this rising demand without inflicting permanent damage to the fragile environment that supports our life on earth?

o What energy resources are available, in which ones should we invest, and at what level?

Margot Gerritsen is a faculty member in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. Together with her colleagues and students, she works to develop new tools to enhance production of existing oil and gas reservoirs in an environmentally friendly way. Margot is an expert in energy resources, fluid dynamics and computational mathematics, and teaches courses in these areas.