Home of the NSF-IGERT Program: ConvEne — Conversion of Energy Through Molecular Platforms

The National Science Foundation—supported IGERT program ConvEne — Conversion of Energy Through Molecular Platforms is an interdisciplinary approach to graduate education aimed at providing a new generation of Chemical Scientists and Engineers with the technical skills, environmental awareness, business expertise, and teamwork approaches that will be required to address fundamental and applied issues in the generation and conversion of energy in efficient and environmentally-sustainable ways.

The overarching theme of the program is the recognition that graduate students of materials chemistry and engineering are conventionally trained to prepare and employ one narrow class of materials to address a task at hand. However, for a problem as broad and as urgent as global energy needs, we are implementing a model of interdisciplinary materials training wherein graduate students can envisage solutions to problems in energy conversion without being confined to a particular class of materials or technologies.

We also perceive an urgent need to train graduate students working on energy-related technologies to better appreciate economic and environmental issues that impact their implementation, and to possess the entrepreneurial and communication skills needed to influence fundamental research directions, industrial advances, and national priorities in a significant and lasting manner. The historical strength in energy-related research at UCSB and an increased campuswide focus on energy provide a strong foundation and motivation for this expanded training effort.

The ConvEne IGERT Program is run out of the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Contact:

The program came into existence in August 2008. Please return to this website as we add announcements regarding student support, as well as events, etc.

Acknowledging the program: