Priority
The Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology
The world’s need for readily available energy will continue to grow, and meeting this ever-increasing demand is a critical global priority. To answer this challenge, researchers must work toward enabling the efficient use of current energy sources and the practical use of more sustainable energy. The Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology, a collaboration between Penn Arts & Sciences and Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, fosters integrative basic research aimed at meeting the world’s present and future energy needs.
Under the leadership of Karen I. Goldberg, Vagelos Professor of Energy Research, the Institute is home to a powerful constellation of scientists who share a commitment to exploring new research directions in energy science and technology. Their efforts will enable a range of energy advances, balancing society’s short-term and long-term economic and environmental needs while promoting a transition from the current energy status to a more sustainable future.
Karen I. Goldberg, Vagelos Professor of Energy Research and Director of the Vagelos Institute of Energy Science and Technology, is renowned for her research on the development of new catalytic systems to efficiently produce chemicals and fuels from a range of available feedstocks, such as natural gas and carbon dioxide. By developing a detailed understanding of fundamental reactions, her lab seeks to develop new environmentally responsible and economically viable methods. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she also directed the National Science Foundation’s Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis, a collaborative effort among 20 principal investigators and their students at 15 institutions across North America.
Supporting Multidisciplinary Research
To encourage collaboration, the Institute supports multidisciplinary research projects through competitively awarded seed grants. This seed funding facilitates creative new directions in research by providing support until projects become competitive for the government or industrial funding necessary for large-scale discovery.
The Vagelos Institute is also a center for education that is dedicated to training the next generation of energy scientists. Graduate and postdoctoral fellowships attract top, early-career talent to the University. Faculty at the Institute serve as mentors for undergraduate students from the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER), which combines rigorous academic work with hands-on research experience beginning the summer after freshman year and spanning several semesters. VIPER participants’ early involvement in research means that they are well positioned to apply to advanced degree programs, as well as to pursue careers in the tech sector.
Daniel Mindiola, Presidential Professor of Chemistry, is pursuing new ways of transforming natural gas and volatile hydrocarbons into more useful chemicals. In recently published results, Mindiola and his colleagues have developed an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly process that, according to Mindiola, “grabs hydrocarbon, a molecule that is usually only looked at as a source of energy by burning it, and converts it to a more value-added material that is a building block to polymers and numerous reagents of immense value to the chemical industry.” While processes like this have been done with rare, expensive materials in the past, Mindiola’s method is able to remove hydrogens selectively using cheap, abundant elements.
Support
Giving Opportunties
The Vagelos Institute capitalizes on Penn’s strength in integrating knowledge across disciplines and reinforces the University’s position as one of the premier energy research and technology centers in the nation. The giving opportunities below will ensure our continued strength and commitment to energy, sustainability, and the environment.
Endow and name the graduate fellowship program with a gift of $10.5 million
The Vagelos Institute’s Graduate Fellowship Program supports the energy-focused research of up to 10doctoral students per year. These fellowships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence, the likelihood that the fellow will become a leader in the next generation of energy scientists and engineers, and alignment of the project with the Institute’s research priorities. Supporting and growing the graduate fellowship program is integral to the overall strength of the Institute. A gift of $700,000 endows one graduate fellowship.
Endow and name a postdoctoral fellowship with a gift of $1.5
Postdoctoral fellows are chosen for their academic talent and ability to work collaboratively across labs. Fellows pursue their own research, support graduate and undergraduate student work, collaborate with faculty, and help to organize events. The Institute seeks to host three postdoctoral research fellows annually. An endowed gift of $4.5 million supports a full cohort of three fellows per year in perpetuity. A term gift of $375,000 supports one fellow per year for five years.
Endow and name faculty seed grants with a gift of $1.5 million
Seed grants drive groundbreaking multidisciplinary research projects that are too early-stage to garner government funding. These resources allow faculty teams to investigate topics and parlay their findings into competitive grant proposals. This funding could be used to support cost sharing, which is often essential to securing financial support from external partners and grant-issuing institutions. Modeled after similar initiatives at the most successful energy centers at peer institutions, these grants are awarded through a competitive process that involves review by a faculty committee representing diverse energy-related disciplines at Penn. A gift of $9 million endows and names a full seed grant program.
Support undergraduate research fellowships
Undergraduates in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research and in natural science departments undertake research projects related to energy science and sustainability. An undergraduate fellowship program would support this important educational experience and help to train the next generation of energy researchers. A term gift of $125,000 supports an undergraduate fellowship for five years.
Endow an instrumentation renewal fund
Identifying and developing sustainable energy solutions requires sophisticated—and expensive—equipment. For example, Vagelos Institute teams rely on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, one of the most powerful tools available for studying the structure of molecules. Purchase and renewal of a diverse range of state-of-the-art instrumentation for synthesis, characterization, and computational modeling is critical to Vagelos Institute research and for training students and postdo
Sophie Rubashkin, a doctoral candidate in chemistry, is working toward efficient energy. Under Karen Goldberg, Vagelos Professor of Energy Research, she studies catalysts for the energy efficient transformation of natural gas products into chemical precursors for synthesis of fuels and commodities. Her graduate fellowship supported this work and allowed her to attend the Gordon Research Seminar and Conference in Organometallic Chemistry, where she shared her work and made valuable connections with scientists in the field.
Contact
To learn more about supporting Penn Arts & Sciences, please contact Deb Rhebergen, Vice Dean for Advancement, at drheberg@sas.upenn.edu.