Workshop: Feeding the World in the 21st Century: Grand Challenges in the Nitrogen Cycle; Arlington, VA - November 9-10, 2015

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The Chemical Catalysis Program of the Division of Chemistry and the Environmental Engineering Program of the Chemical, Biological, Environmental and Transport Systems Division are sponsoring this workshop entitled "Feeding the World in the 21st Century: Grand Challenges in the Nitrogen Cycle " to be held on November 9-10, 2015 in Arlington, Virginia. The nitrogen cycle is one of the most significant biogeochemical cycles on Earth, as nitrogen is an essential nutrient for all forms of life. The largest reservoir of nitrogen is gaseous dinitrogen in the atmosphere; however, this form of nitrogen cannot be utilized by plants directly so access to fixed forms of nitrogen constitutes, in many cases, the most limiting factor for plant growth and food production. The second most important reservoir for nitrogen is nitrate, in the form of inorganic minerals and fertilizers, and this is the form of nitrogen that is easily assimilated by plants and microbes that live in soil and water. An important historical factor in improving agricultural crop production has been the invention of the Haber-Bosch process, which generates ammonia from dinitrogen and hydrogen, and therefore, provides abundant inexpensive access to nitrogen fertilizers for plant growth. The vast majority of total nitrogen fertilizer used to grow food is lost to the environment, and this inefficient nitrogen use by crop plants has resulted in the over fertilization of agricultural soils. This agricultural run-off results in the large-scale transformation of the nitrogen fertilizer into nitrous oxide, which is now the third most important greenhouse gas. Based on these considerations, the nitrogen cycle is of utmost importance for critical challenges that humanity is facing in the 21st century with respect to food supplies and agriculture, biofuels, pollution, water, and the environment and climate.Prof. Nicolai Lehnert (University of Michigan) is organizing a workshop to bring together scientists from many different areas to define the grand scientific challenges in the nitrogen cycle and to develop cross-cutting scientific approaches that could lead to solutions to the identified scientific challenges. A particular focus is the contributions that (bio)chemistry can make to address these important issues. The results of the workshop provide an intellectual roadmap of how to move the scientific knowledge edge related to the nitrogen cycle forward, focusing on scientific issues of global significance. The outcomes of the workshop will be disseminated to the scientific community via a short white paper and a full size workshop report.