Nature & Nurture | Giving News
Energizing Environmental Education
Gendell Gift Sparks Expanded Energy and Environment Program—One of the Nation’s First to Approach Energy from a Multidisciplinary Perspective p.3
‘Attack energy from all sides’
“I think it’s very important that you look at energy
from the environmental angle,” he says. “A lot of other schools
approach energy from the perspective of environmental engineers
or petroleum engineers, which is very applicable and important.
Business schools and law schools approach energy from their angles.
But very few places attack energy from all sides, and I think
one thing that’s missing in this country is that people aren’t
looking at environmental issues from all sides. The Nicholas
School has the opportunity to create a forum where students can
get a well-rounded view of energy and the environment.
“Supporting an initiative such as the Nicholas School’s Energy and Environment Program will help foster future leadership and innovation to meet these challenges by training students to think broadly and strategically about energy policy, management and research,” he continues. “As someone who studies the energy industry for a living, I am acutely aware of the profound challenges society faces in finding safe, reliable sources of energy for the future.”
The Gendells’ gift will support two fulltime faculty positions: the Gendell Family Professorship, to recruit an established expert in the energy field to help quickly take the program to the next level, and the Gendell Family Associate Professorship, for an up-and-coming junior faculty member in the field. It also will lay the foundation for endowment funds to support energy research, the speakers’ series, a visiting executives program, and energy innovation projects by faculty and students.
“The speakers’ series is a great way for alumni and others in the energy field to get involved, to volunteer to come in and talk to students about current topics in the environment, about their career paths, and to share their perspective. The most important thing we need to do now is to get students involved in this program on both the graduate and undergraduate level, and the best way to do that is to show them what we can offer them.”
Gendell is particularly excited about the potential to bring this perspective to Duke undergraduates in the future. “Undergraduates will be able to come out of this program, then go out and get professional degrees in law, engineering, business and public policy so they can apply their environmental expertise to a specific area, he said.”
Lincoln Pratson, faculty director of the Energy and Environment program is grateful to the Gendells for their catalyzing gift. “Jeff understands the energy industry broadly, so he has a great feel for the challenges that we face and the need for improvement. This gift is enabling us to transform the idea of creating a program in Energy and Environment here in the Nicholas School into a reality. There are many resources across the university that can be brought to bear on the issue of energy, but until now, we have not had anyone at Duke who could focus on the issue of energy on a full-time basis. The Gendells’ generosity will allow the Nicholas School to bring people with those skill sets to the university and to take the lead at Duke in addressing our world’s most pressing energy issues.
“We are indebted to Jeff and Marty for their generosity and foresight,” Pratson says. “But this is just the beginning. We hope that other like-minded individuals and organizations will see this as an opportunity to partner with us in building a cutting-edge program that will benefit our students and allow us to address these issues in a serious way.”
For more information about the Nicholas School’s Energy and Environment Program, contact Pratson at energy@nicholas.duke.edu or 919-681-8077. Admissions information is available through the Nicholas School’s Office of Enrollment Services at admissions@nicholas.duke.edu or 919-613-8070. Or visit the energy certificate Web site at www.nicholas.duke.edu/programs/professional/ energycert.html.
Laura Ertel is a freelance writer based in Durham,N.C.