Launching this fall, the university’s Energy Institute combines the strengths of the Cockrell School with those of other top-rated schools within the university to advance solutions to today’s energy-related challenges.
“This is such a broad issue, we knew the Energy Institute needed to be very comprehensive,” says Henry Groppe, Engineering Advisory Board member and champion of the project. “It needed to encompass all aspects of energy use and production.” Thus, the institute will integrate the most advanced expertise from the university’s Cockrell School of Engineering, Jackson School of Geosciences, College of Natural Sciences, McCombs School of Business, UT School of Law and LBJ School of Public Affairs, as well as external expertise from the private sector.
Dr. Dave Allen
Dr. Dave Allen, professor of chemical engineering and director of both the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources and the new Energy Institute, notes that with its wide-ranging interdisciplinary capabilities the university is uniquely positioned to house the leading national institute focusing on energy.
Allen says, “There are exciting things going on in all energy fields.”
With its launch this fall, the Energy Institute will begin work on six grand challenge areas:
- ensuring an adequate supply of hydrocarbon fuels,
- developing safe and reliable nuclear energy sources,
- augmenting U.S. energy supplies with cost-effective and sustainable sources,
- reducing energy demand and improving efficiency,
- minimizing the environmental impacts of energy systems and
- informing the energy policy-making process with the best scientific and engineering expertise.
Those are lofty goals, but Allen believes the Cockrell School and the university have the intellectual brawn to help take the world successfully into the age of energy sustainability.
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Launching this fall, the university’s Energy Institute combines the strengths of the Cockrell School with those of other top-rated schools within the university to advance solutions to today’s energy-related challenges →
10 Ways to Reduce Energy Consumption
Courtesy of Dr. Dave Allen, director, UT Energy Institute →