Klaus Lackner


Klaus S. Lackner is the director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions and a professor in School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University. He is a pioneer in carbon management and is the first to suggest capturing carbon dioxide from air in the context of addressing climate change.
His works include demonstrating and improving passive methods to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, integrating air capture technology with applications for using carbon dioxide, exploring safe and permanent disposal options for carbon dioxide, and identifying opportunities for automation and scaling. his publications have been cited 12771 times and his h-index is 53.
Previously, he was the director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute and Faculty in the Earth and Environmental Engineering department at Columbia University from 2001-2014. Along with CNCE executive director Allen Wright, he co-founded one of the first privately held air capture companies—Global Research Technologies —in Tucson, Arizona where they demonstrated the moisture swing.
Prior to his academic work he held appointments at the theoretical division of Los Alamos National Laboratory for nearly 17 years.
His idea of the self-replicating machines along with his colleague, Christopher Wendt, was featured in 1995 by Discover Magazine as "One of the 7 Ideas that can Change the World."

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