My name is Sara Spears and I am a third year PhD student at the University of Southern California. I work in the Chemistry Department, in Prof. Sri Narayan’s research group. I have spent the last three years studying electrodeposition of iron as a more environmentally sustainable alternative for iron ore processing. I currently have the honor of participating in the Wrigley Institute Summer Graduate Fellowship.
Most people have heard by now that most of the world’s active greenhouse gas emissions come from a handful of large industrial operations, rather than by individuals’ everyday activities. One of the largest contributors to this problem is the iron and steel industry. As of late 2021, according to a publication by Koutsoupa, et al. at the National Technical University of Athens, the iron and steel industry was responsible for 10% of global CO2 emissions.