UW to get $12 Million for new Energy School
EnCana, Shell, and Nielson & Associates donate millions towards new School of Energy Resources
January 9, 2007
The University of Wyoming (UW) has secured $12 Million in gifts and pledges in gifts from three companies towards their new School of Energy Resources.
EnCana Oil & Gas USA, Nielson & Associates, and Shell Exploration & Production Company each donated towards the new school.
EnCana Oil & Gas USA has pledged $5 million towards the construction of a new building. EnCana’s gift is in addition to an earlier donation of 2 million towards the petroleum engineering program at the university.
Jim Nielson, president of Cody-based Nielson & Associates energy company, gifted $5 million towards an endowment for the school’s operation.
Shell Exploration & Production Company has gifted $2 million.
Each gift is eligible for state matching funds.
The School for Energy Resources will focus UW research on energy through the university's land-grant mission of teaching, research, and service. It calls for the addition of 12 new nationally- or internationally-renowned faculty members with energy expertise, funded by legislative appropriations. That staff will come on-board in a three-year period. Each would teach undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to conducting research and service. Searches currently are underway for the first four faculty members and a permanent director for the school.
The school will include an Energy Outreach Center which will disseminate scientific, engineering, and economic information to support Wyoming's near-term and long-term energy-related activities. It will encourage best practices in energy production and conduct statewide workshops and symposia on energy-related science, technology, economics, and legal and permitting issues.
The SER will coordinate UW's existing energy resources:
The Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute (EORI)
The Institute for Energy Research (IER)
The Ruckelshaus Institute's recently-established Energy Working Group
Western Research Institute
The Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center
Plans for the school also call for the creation of additional research institutes, such as a Coalbed Natural Gas Center, a Center for Coal Conversion Technologies and a Center for Renewable Energy Resources. There may also be a research center dealing with improved design for windmill turbine blades growing out of the university's fluid mechanics expertise.
Source: University of Wyoming
Related Links:
University of Wyoming, www.uwyo.edu
EnCana Oil & Gas USA, www.encana.com
Shell Exploration & Production, www.shell.com
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