The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley last week celebrated the launch of a new energy institute dedicated to better understanding the important relationship between business and energy and climate change challenges.
The launch event featured a keynote address by Matt Rogers, senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, who directs the disbursement of energy-related stimulus money. Rogers, who discussed the Department of Energy’s strategies for addressing the country’s energy and climate change challenges, was also responsible for establishing the clean technology practice at McKinsey and Company, where he was a senior partner before joining the DOE.
The new Energy Institute at Haas, an outgrowth of growing student interest in sustainable energy, will advance related research and teaching while also hosting a variety of community events and programming. It combines the best of two highly successful programs: the UC Energy Institute’s Center for the Study of Energy Markets and the Haas School’s Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation.
Led by Haas Professors Severin Borenstein and Catherine Wolfram, the Energy Institute will offer several energy-related courses for graduate students, undergraduates and non-degree executive education students and will oversee the Cleantech to Market (C2M) program, in which graduate students partner with scientists to bring clean energy technologies to market. The institute also will host the POWER and Policy Conferences, as well as a Renewable Energy Speaker Series.
“Sustainable energy is an area of tremendous growth and opportunity,” Haas Dean Rich Lyons said in a statement announcing the new institute. “It is also an area in need of new technologies and business models,” he added.
Institute co-director Borenstein praised the Berkeley student community for its focus on sustainability. “We have a tremendously active and committed group of students interested in clean energy solutions,” he said. “The more we can put them in touch with the great scientific research being done on energy on the Berkeley campus and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the greater opportunity we have to bring real solutions to the marketplace.”
For more information on the new Energy Institute at Haas, including a full list of key faculty experts, click here.
