1983 WSC Graduate Eric Loewen Featured in Esquire Magazine’s “Best and Brightest”
Dec. 8, 2009 -- Esquire magazine is hailing Eric Loewen as the man who could end global warming.
Eric Loewen, 1983 WSC alumnus, is featured in the December 2009 issue of Esquire magazine.
Loewen, a 1983 Western State College alumnus who double-majored in mathematics and chemistry, is featured among Esquire’s “Best and Brightest 2009” in its December issue. The magazine selected Loewen for his work at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) with technology that enables nuclear power plants to generate electricity from its own waste.
The process reduces radioactive waste, does not emit carbon dioxide (one of the major contributors to global warming) and automatically shuts itself down in case of an emergency.
A nuclear engineer with GEH, Loewen is leading efforts to raise awareness of the company’s PRISM reactor, a sodium-cooled reactor that uses liquid sodium instead of a light water reactor to use nuclear waste as a fuel source.
Research in national laboratories has already proven that the technology works, however policy support from the Department of Energy is needed to make the reactor a reality.
This is the second time Loewen has been chosen to appear in the “Best and Brightest” themed issue of Esquire. He originally appeared in the magazine in 2005.
Loewen is active with Western and was selected as the commencement speaker at the May of 2010 graduation ceremony. He has fond memories of his days at Western, where in addition to academics he found great joy in athletics as a member of the Nordic ski team. He also said that the small community at Western was essential in the building of his character as a young man.
“My liberal arts education from Western gave me the foundation for a creative future,” he remarked.
