Sustainable energy takes a 50-year view

May 7, 2014 | By

The Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech will help scientists and engineers advance research aimed at meeting the nation's need for a sustainable energy future, thanks to a $15 million donation by the Institute's namesake (Lynda and Stewart Resnick), bringing total funding to nearly $60 million.

Robert A. Millikan Memorial Library at Caltech. Credit: Canon.vs.nikon/Wikimedia Commons

Since the institute's founding, researchers have pursued wide-ranging investigations in energy science and technology, enabling advances in distributed wind energy systems, batteries and fuel cells, smart grid systems, record-breaking solar photovoltaics, pioneering technologies for deriving fuels from sunlight, and chemical catalysts that convert waste materials to biofuels.

"The Resnick Sustainability Institute has helped to transform the landscape for energy research and education at Caltech," said Edward Stolper, interim president. "Creating a central hub to connect all our faculty who work on energy has accelerated the pace of discovery."

The pace is continually ratcheting up. Part of the donation ($3 million) will go toward establishing the Resnick Institute Innovation Fund, which will support new ideas in clean energy and sustainability science that have the potential for rapid impact and honor creative breakthroughs in energy and sustainability science. A postdoctoral scholar program will bring outstanding young leaders in energy and sustainability research to Caltech to create a corps of top innovators who will be able to focus exclusively on research through distinguished fellowships.

"The toughest issues in sustainability are not short-term, two- or three-year problems," said Harry A. Atwater, Howard Hughes professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science and director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute. "They require a 50-year view and need to be approached with creativity and a transformative perspective."

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