The solution to global warming may lie under the sea.

Adam Jozwick, a West Virginia University physics student, was recently awarded a $10,000 National Consortium for Measure and Signatures Intelligence Research (NCMR) Program Scholarship for his work on predicting methods of relocating greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to subsurface layers of the Earth�€a process that could help alleviate global warming.

The scholarship, supported by the National Science Foundation, will assist Jozwick with tuition, textbooks, room and board.

The WVU student has been collaborating with Martin Ferer, a professor in the Department of Physics in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, and with scientists and engineers from the U.S. Department of Energys National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to develop realistic models of carbon dioxide storage below the Earths surface.

Ferer and Jozwick analyze the sub-surface fracture networks and determine if injected CO2 will bubble to the surface in the future.

Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing greenhouse gases. Jozwicks goal is to develop a method that will allow the injected CO2 to dissolve and mix with underground chemicals, and eventually mineralize into the Earths sub-layers. The result could permanently alleviate the strain of greenhouse gases on the environment.

The NETL Web site,http://www.netl.doe.gov/newsroom/features/08-2007.html, says that with the development of the right sub-surface fracture network,It is likely that we would run out of coal before we run out of places to store the CO2 its combustion creates.

In 2005, the United States emitted 6.1 billion tons of CO2 (see NETL article).

The solution to global warming will require a number of methods to reduce greenhouse gases in our atmosphere,Ferer explained.One promising approach is the stable underground storage of these gases, which Norway has successfully utilized for decades to store carbon dioxide under the floor of the North Sea.

Ferer earned a bachelors from the University of Detroit in 1966 and a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1972.

The WVU professor develops fine-scale models of complex phenomena relevant to applied problems. He has published various articles on topics including the injection of CO2 into porous media saturated with seawater.

Since I started working with Dr. Ferer last January, I have learned the importance of computers in modern physics and how to use physical laws to create realistic models,Jozwick said.

Jozwick, a native of Doddridge County, is expected to graduate in May 2008 with a bachelors in physics from WVU . He hopes to attend graduate school in the future.

Adams near-perfect academic record in our physics courses speaks well of his work ethic and dedication to his discipline, and I would expect him to do quite well in either graduate school or an industrial position after graduation,said Earl Scime, professor and chair of the Department of Physics.