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New Opportunity for Energy Research Awaits

  • New Opportunity for Energy Research Awaits
  • Donald L. Paul

By James Grant on April 10, 2009 2:22 PM

The $787 billion federal economic stimulus package provides more than $43 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, opening a major door for new university research initiatives, according to Donald L. Paul, executive director of the USC Energy Institute.

Research in energy has been dominated for decades by industry-led efforts, Paul said, because the size and scope of energy creation and delivery systems tend to concentrate innovations within the industry itself.

“Now, universities are going to have a more important role in energy than they have had before,” Paul said. “The key question is: How do universities find communities of common interest and bring to the table industrial partners of common interest?”

As former vice president and chief technology officer for Chevron, Paul helped oversee one of the world’s largest energy systems. The sheer complexity of the global energy system indicates the dramatic scope academic research could bring to bear in helping set new paths to conservation and innovation, he said.

But that scale - as well as the quick-start nature of the national economic stimulus effort - indicates that universities must be nimble and seek out partnerships both in academia and industry. Every new idea and every research project must have a practical application, he said. “In the end, you’re going to have to have commercialization pathway or the idea cannot be implemented.

“When it comes to energy, it is never about science alone, business alone, politics alone or the environment alone - it’s about all of these.”

Paul said the USC Energy Institute is actively working with researchers across the university to seek federal funding opportunities from the stimulus package.

Paul’s comments came last month at a meeting of the Association of American Universities Public Affairs officers in Washington, D.C. He was the third USC panelist this year to be highlighted at AAU conferences as coordinated by USC’s Federal Relations Office.

In previous meetings, L. Katharine Harrington, the dean of admission and financial aid, spoke to the AAU Council on Federal Relations, and Krisztina Holly, vice provost for innovation and executive director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, spoke to AAU senior research officers.

Paul holds the William M. Keck Chair in Energy Resources at USC and is a senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

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