Dixie State University’s weekly lecture series, “Dixie Forum: A Window on the World,” will host Dr. Cliff Ricketts, who will present “Running Engines Off the Sun, Hydrogen from Water, and Several Other Alternative Fuels.” Ricketts will discuss running vehicles on methane from cow manure or soybeans and other crops from noon to 12:50 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12, in the Dunford Auditorium in the Browning Resource Center on the DSU campus. The presentation is free and open to the public.
A professor of agricultural education at Middle Tennessee State University since 1976, Ricketts, with the help of his students, has developed and adapted vehicles to run on everything from ethanol to solar electricity and hydrogen. With more than 30 years of experience in the area, he is considered a pioneer in alternative fuel.
Ricketts has driven from coast to coast on only 2.15 gallons of gasoline and has taken another cross-country trip powered solely on hydrogen from water separated by a solar-operated electrolysis unit. Additionally, he has traveled from Bristol, Va., to West Memphis, Ark., purely on solar power.
Counted among the highlights of his career are presenting on ethanol at the 1982 World’s Fair, testifying before Congress on flex-fuel hybrid plug-in vehicles, exhibiting his work at the Smithsonian, and holding the World’s Land Speed Record for a Hydrogen-Fueled Vehicle at the Bonneville Salt Flats for more than 15 years. In addition to these accomplishments, Ricketts has written five textbooks and delivered nearly 1,000 presentations.
Dixie Forum is a weekly lecture series designed to introduce the St. George community and DSU students, faculty and staff to diverse ideas and personalities while widening their worldviews via a 50-minute presentation.
More information on Dixie State University’s Dixie Forum series is available by contacting DSU forum coordinator John Burns at (435) 879-4712 or burns@dixie.edu or at dixie.edu/humanities/dixie_forum.php, the Dixie Forum Facebook page, or the Dixie Forum Twitter page.
