About
Students, faculty, staff, and the public are invited to attend the first Nicholas Institute and UPEP Environmental Institutions Seminar Series presentation of the fall 2025 semester. Our speaker will be Saleem Ali, Chair of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and Environment at the University of Delaware. No registration required.
The International Energy Agency has tracked over 400 policies worldwide related to critical minerals in the past five years that have been promoted by resource nationalism and concerns over supply security. Yet these policies are often formulated with little input from geoscientists or other experts familiar with mineral supply chains. This presentation will consider how we can have more science-based approaches to governance of critical minerals based on Ali's experience in working on various initiatives with the United Nations which have led to his recently published article in Science on the concept of a "minerals trust" for the green transition.
SPEAKER BIO
Saleem H. Ali is Chair of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and Environment at the University of Delaware. He also serves as Lead for Critical Minerals at the United Nations University and is a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel. His books include Sustainability: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford Univ. Press, 2025); Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability (Columbia University Press, 2023); and Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (Oxford Univ. Press, 2022).
Part of the UPEP Environmental Institutions Seminar Series, organized by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and the University Program in Environmental Policy (UPEP), a doctoral degree program jointly offered by the Nicholas School of the Environment and Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. The September 16 seminar is co-sponsored by the Duke Critical Minerals Hub.
This is an in-person event.