IGERT: ConvEne--Conversion of Energy Through Molecular Platforms

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This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports a program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, entitled Conversion of Energy Through Molecular Platforms. In this program, an interdisciplinary approach to graduate education is 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 program is founded on the recognition that graduate students of Materials Chemistry and Engineering are conventionally trained to prepare and employ specific classes of functional materials to address particular technological needs. For a problem as broad and as urgent as global energy needs, these traditional modes of training do not suffice. In our new interdisciplinary model of education, the focus is on the better husbanding of fossil fuel resources, and on the inexpensive and large-scale conversion of solar energy to electricity. Graduate students with diverse backgrounds, drawn from a broad pool from across the country, are directed to address issues in energy conversion without being confined to any single material or technology, while learning to appreciate the economic and environmental issues that impact the implementation of technology. A mark of the program is a solid foundation in the entrepreneurial and communication skills needed to influence fundamental research directions, industrial advances, and national priorities in a significant and lasting manner. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.