We first talked to Dr. Gschneider back in 2013 for one of our “10 Questions with a Scientist” blogs. Today he looks back at over 60 years of studying rare earth metals. Dwight Eisenhower was serving his first term in the White House when Karl A. Gschneidner Jr. began work on his Ph.D. at Iowa… Keep reading →
Petroleum geologist, with a median salary of $183,000, ranked #6 on a CNN-Payscale list of the country’s top 100 jobs. Also on the list were reservoir engineer (10), petroleum engineer (25), geophysicist (55) and other energy-specific titles. Apparently the financial side of the business is less fun…energy analyst came in at #100. Energy blogger didn’t make… Keep reading →
A rare earth mining operation in China’s Jiangsu province
A rare earth metal called vanadium could provide an energy storage solution for some of the challenges renewable energy sources face. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power can make these distributed sources difficult for utilities to manage within the electrical grid. Vanadium flow batteries can accommodate renewable energy by storing massive amounts of electricity and releasing it into the grid as needed when demand increases. Keep reading →
