Noshing With Jason Steffen – August 26, 2021

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.