IGERT: ConvEne--Conversion of Energy Through Molecular Platforms

这一综合性研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)奖支持加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的一个名为通过分子平台转换能量的项目。在这个项目中，跨学科的研究生教育方法旨在为新一代化学科学家和工程师提供以高效和环境可持续的方式解决能源产生和转换中的基本和应用问题所需的技术技能、环境意识、商业专业知识和团队合作方法。该计划的基础是认识到，材料化学和工程专业的研究生经过常规培训，以准备和使用特定类别的功能材料，以满足特定的技术需求。对于像全球能源需求这样广泛和紧迫的问题，这些传统的培训模式是不够的。在我们新的跨学科教育模式中，重点是更好地管理化石燃料资源，以及廉价和大规模的太阳能到电力的转换。具有不同背景的研究生来自全国各地，他们的目标是解决能源转换问题，而不局限于任何一种材料或技术，同时学习欣赏影响技术实施的经济和环境问题。该项目的一个标志是在创业和沟通技能方面奠定了坚实的基础，这些技能需要以显著和持久的方式影响基础研究方向、产业进步和国家优先事项。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。

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.