The amount of energy-related work at MIT could double over the next five years as the institute mounts a research effort to address the world's growing energy problems. The program comes at a time when energy demand and consumption are surging globally as China, India, and other developing countries build industrial economies.
The amount of energy-related work at MIT could double over the next five years as the institute mounts a research effort to address the world's growing energy problems.
is the first big initiative by MIT's new president, Susan Hockfield, who formally took office last month. It comes at a time when energy demand and consumption are surging globally as China, India, and other developing countries build industrial economies.
Under the program, MIT initially would invest about $10 million to hire five faculty members, set up energy labs, and expand existing research in fields such as nuclear power, clean coal, and photovoltaics.
MIT would seek additional funds from industry, foundations, and the federal government for new areas of sustainable energy research. The areas will be identified by an energy research council, which will define the program and make recommendations by Feb. 1 to Hockfield and associate provost Alice Gast, the MIT vice president for research. The council will be co-chaired by Robert C. Armstrong, head of MIT's chemical engineering department, and Ernest J. Moniz, director of energy studies at its Lab for Energy and the Environment.
Moniz, a longtime MIT professor who was undersecretary for the Department of Energy during the Clinton administration, said MIT wants to see "50 faculty members actively engaged in energy and energy research within five years," up from 25 today. MIT economists, architects, urban planners, political scientists, and management experts will also be involved on the policy level, working with business and government officials to promote new energy technologies, he said.
"It's a daunting task," Moniz said, noting that global energy consumption is projected to double by mid-century. "The challenge is how are you going to add an energy infrastructure in the world that is larger than the one we have today but that is going to be carbon-free."
Hockfield alluded to the new energy initiative in her May 6 inaugural address. MIT yesterday said it had formed the energy research council to develop an outline for the program. The council's 16 members have been drawn from all five of MIT's schools: science, engineering, architecture and planning, and humanities, arts, and social sciences, reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of the program.
The new faculty members hired under the program will have a variety of backgrounds and some may be attached to more than one department, Hockfield said yesterday. She said energy was cited more than any other area as a top priority during a series of discussions she had with current faculty and other members of the MIT community earlier this year after she was named as the institute's new president.
"Energy is one of our main technology challenges," Hockfield said. "It's one where I feel insufficient progress has been made and where MIT can make a powerful contribution. ... The solutions for energy going forward are not just technology solutions. They're technology solutions that are going to play out in the field of public policy."
MIT is not the only American research university intensifying its focus on clean energy and reducing the use of fossil fuels. Two years ago, Stanford University formed a Global Climate & Energy Project to combat global warming, among other problems. That project is backed by ExxonMobil, General Electric, Schlumberger, and Toyota, which together anticipate investing up to $225 million over the coming decade to conduct research into alternative energy technologies.
"This has to be a research priority now," said Arthur Bienenstock, vice provost and dean of research at Stanford. "It affects the environment, it affects the economy, it affects the cost of products."
Officials at MIT likewise plan to tap businesses to support their new initiative. Citing cutbacks in federal research funding in the fiscal 2006 budget, Moniz said the backing of the private sector looms large. "Clearly to ramp up our research and have more faculty engaged, we're going to need some increase in our industry support," he said.
Jack Hirsch, manager of technology access at Shell International Exploration & Production in Houston, said his company already underwrites several research projects at MIT and has begun discussions with institute officials about their new energy program.
"We're talking with MIT about the initiative," Hirsch said. "It's our intention to offer whatever help we can to MIT on that initiative."
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
