Noshing With Jason Steffen – August 26, 2021

Ira's Everything Bagel

Associate Professor of Physics at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

This week, Ira spoke with Dr. Jason Steffen, Associate Professor of Physics at UNLV, who also was a member of the science team for NASA’s Kepler mission. In this smorgasbordian episode of Ira’s Everything Bagel, Jason talks about nuclear energy, exoplanets and the Steffen Method of boarding planes: why nuclear energy will save the planet (fuel source is really dense-as opposed to renewables, which are diffuse); why it’s a reliable and safe source of energy; the challenges of storing renewables; and the issue of waste material; why it’s important to study exoplanets and the techniques currently available to measure them; and the Steffen method of boarding planes, easier and more efficient than current methods, but which commercial airlines have not adopted.

Dr. Jason Steffen gives a talk titled, “Gods of Power: How Nuclear Energy Will Save the Planet“:

Dr. Steffen has a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics from Weber State University in Utah, and a master’s and PhD in Physics from the University of Washington. He was a scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago, a research faculty member at Northwestern University, and is now an Associate Professor of Physics at UNLV. Dr. Steffen was a member of the science team for NASA’s Kepler mission where he contributed to the discovery and characterization of hundreds of distant planets. He has worked in a variety of disciplines including dark matter, dark energy, gravitation, exoplanets, and airline passenger boarding. Dr. Steffen has over 80 refereed publications with over 15000 citations in these various fields.

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