Wei Shan Chen, also known as "Momo", Assistant Professor at Wageningen University shares his journey from Materials Engineering into the environment, from Taiwan to The Netherlands and from the Carbon Cycle to the Water Cycle. We discuss the issue of food waste and its broader implications among other approaches he has taken to recover carbon and close the loop. We also hear about Momo's foray into Blue-Green Infrastructure planning and how stakeholder engagement has changed his perspective on doing impactful research and implementing the knowledge in the form of usable tools.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and the mystery behind the name Momo
5:21 Tracing Momo's steps from materials in Taiwan to Wageningen
11:29 Closing the carbon cycle with microbial fuel cells
15:28 Momo's work in reducing fossil fuel use - it gets technical
17:21 Retrieving carbon from waste
21:20 Valuing and closing the loop on food waste
32:04 How to deal with the composition of food waste?
35:21 The Bin2Bean Project in Amsterdam
38:38 Going into the Water cycle for Carbon and Food
42:28 Momo's venture into BGI Tools
49:04 Modelling the planning for biodiversity
56:09 Carbon and Water, what next?
58:23 Q&A Start
58:37 What does innovation mean to you?
1:01:16 Key event, book, person
1:03:11 Time Management
1:05:27 Favourite childhood memory
1:08:58 Biggest challenge to date
1:10:57 Advice for young researchers
1:12:38 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:14:11 Where can people find you?
1:15:06 Final Message
1:15:46 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #7 attempts to create a connected story on the topic of headwater streams - Belinda Hatt (ep20) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion some of her ongoing work on headwater streams, using a whopping 22 sources, from Water Acts to Strategy Documents, journal papers, design documents and documentation of data sets. Will NotebookLM be able to focus on the key topic or will it go off on endless tangents? What about its infamous analogies?

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:27 Guest Intro - Reflections on the first podcast
3:00 Introducing the broad topic area
4:46 Guest's prior experience with AI
8:37 How this experiment works
14:09 The prompt and human's summary and expectation
18:20 Live Reaction
55:58 Post-discussion
1:02:59 Thoughts and wishes for the future of AI
1:06:11 Wrap up
1:07:40 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Mark Swinnerton, CEO of Green Gravity, shares his journey from metallurgy to mining operations and currently gravitational storage technology to support the energy transition. We get an in-depth look into how he is transforming the renewable energy storage industry and giving old mine shafts a new lease on life, an insight into the technology and logistics and how businesses are evolving in this new digital age. Tune in for some amazing advice from someone with decades of global experience in a major industry and influences so many aspects of our daily lives!

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Wollongong, Australia
3:52 Mark's infamous selfie-stick - communicating authenticity
9:10 Mark's journey from metallurgy to mining
15:17 Reflecting on Mark's 9 years in Singapore
18:16 Handling large responsibilities
20:19 The challenge of mining legacy issues
23:01 Mark's own perception of mining legacy issues
24:26 What is Green Gravity? - the concept of gravitational storage
32:30 VIsualizing the scale of mines
35:30 Increasing importance of energy storage
38:31 Building up Partnerships in preparation for technology readiness
42:00 Multiple benefits of Green Gravity’s technology
46:02 What is Mark most excited about?
47:42 Relationship between mines and urban areas - the Ballarat example
52:29 The changing world of business - from corporation to startup
1:00:48 Q&A Start
1:01:09 What does innovation mean to you?
1:03:42 Key moment, book, person
1:09:26 Time Management
1:11:39 Favourite childhood memory
1:14:15 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:16:39 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:17:57 Where can people find you?
1:18:38 Final Message
1:19:04 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/