Material Matters: The Past and Present of the Rare Earth Elements Essential to Our Future

Please register for the event.

 

Research fellow Roger Turner hosts the February gathering of the Joseph Priestley Society.

 

The lanthanides have been known as “rare earths” since the late 18th century. Hard to separate and hard to study, these elements troubled chemists for a century and a half. After a brilliant young chemist destined for tragedy used them to rationalize atomic numbers just before World War I, they languished for decades, as afterthoughts floating at the bottom of the periodic table. But the quirk of quantum chemistry that makes the rare earths so hard to separate has recently made them essential to electronics and the green technologies we’ll need to avert climate destabilization. Mining them is toxic, however, and production is currently dominated by China. This talk uses the history of “rare earth” to explore how we might rethink lanthanide production in ways that enhance democracy and don’t create environmental sacrifice zones.

 

Event Schedule

11:30 a.m.

Networking Reception

 

12:15 p.m.

Luncheon

 

1:00 p.m.

Program

 

This program is presented in celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table.