Professor
N306 Duff Roblin
474-8706
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I am a life-long interdisciplinarian, a natural approach when doing research on energy and its interactions with the environment, economy and food production and its impact on the quality of life and political and strategic matters. The key topics I have worked on since the 1960s include air pollution from large coal-fired plants, history of the global energy use and its environmental impacts (including the emissions of greenhouse gases), hydrocarbon resources and their extraction (including the peak oil controversy), renewable energy conversions (particularly biomass energies, hydroenergy and wind), history of prime movers (combustion engines, steam and gas turbines), interactions between energy and the economy (including energy intensities and developmental correlates), risk assessment of energy uses and conversions and criticism of long-range energy forecasting and energy cost of food production. I have also applied many of these approaches to my work on
As of 2008 I have published (or have in press) 27 books and about 350 papers in nearly 100 different periodicals; every year I also give many lectures on energy, environmental, economic and historical topics to workshops, conferences and audiences in North America, Europe and Asia. During my time at the
Smil, V. 2008.
Smil, V. 2008. Water news: bad, good and virtual. American Scientist, 96: 399-407.
Smil, V. 2008. Energy at the Crossroads Global Perspectives and Uncertainties. (Eunnyeong Heo, Tai-Yoo Kim, & Soogab Lee, Trans.).
Smil, V. 2008. Oil: A Beginner's Guide. Oneworld Publishers,
Smil, V. 2008. Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems. MIT Press,
Smil, V. 2007. Technical advances. In: Rider, C., ed., Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1920, Vol. 2, pp. 420-432.
Smil, V. 2007. Steam turbine. In: Rider, C., ed., Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1920, Vol. 2, pp.403-405.
Smil, V. 2007. Hertz, Heinrich (1847-1894). In: Rider, C., ed., Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1920, Vol. 1, pp. 197-198.
Smil, V. 2006. Energy: A Beginner's Guide. Oneworld Publishers,
Smil,V. 2006. Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences.
Smil, V. 2006. Peak oil: A catastrophist cult and complex realities. World Watch 19: 22-24.
Smil, V. 2005.
Smil, V. 2005. Bad bets. Tech Central Station,
Smil,V. 2005. Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact. Oxford University Press,
Smil, V. 2005. Feeding the world: How much more rice do we need? In: Toriyama K., Heong K.L., Hardy B., eds. Rice is life: scientific perspectives for the 21st century. Proceedings of the World Rice Research Conference held in
Smil, V. 2005. The next 50 Years:Fatal discontinuities. Population and Development Review. 31: 201-236.
Smil, V. 2005. Limits to Growth revisited: A review essay. Population and Development Review. 31: 157-164.
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