message from the director
Welcome to the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment - PSIEE. PSIEE works across the university, bringing together over 500 extraordinary faculty, staff and students to advance the energy and environmental missions of Penn State. We are passionate about this work, and have achieved international recognition for our leadership and innovation in interdisciplinary research. Here are just a few of the high points.
- Penn State continues to excel in research funding for environmental sciences. In 2000 Penn State was 25th nationally with $20.4 million. In 2007 (the last year reported by NSF) we were ranked 11th nationally, with over $55 million in annual research expenditures.
- The Dept. of Energy ranks Penn State 9th nationally in energy research funding, and our $63 million in energy research funding in FY06-07 blossomed to $87M in FY07-08.
- The impact of our scholarship has been recognized in a new study by Elsevier Press, the world’s largest scientific publisher. Penn State was ranked 5th among over 3000 research institutions, and 1st among universities worldwide, for leadership in multidisciplinary alternative energy research.
Mid-way through our strategic energy initiative, we have co-hired twelve new faculty with specialties ranging from bioenergy to batteries, ethics, and economics. This year we have eight additional faculty searches underway. - In FY08-09 the 44 current PSIEE co-funded faculty were principal or co-principal investigators on more than 400 successful grant proposals, with $109,105,329 in awards.
- We are deepening our engagement with stakeholders across the Commonwealth. Just a few examples: the Pennsylvania Sea Grant program, hosted by Penn State Erie, the Behrend College; the Clean Energy Application Center in the Philadelphia Navy Yard; the BioEnergy Bridge based in Pittsburgh; and an NSF-funded climate science educational partnership with the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg.
PSIEE is grateful for the core support provided by the University, as well as funding from state and federal agencies, companies, foundations and generous Penn State alums. In these difficult financial times we too are forced to tighten our belts and stretch our dollars. But we do so with the knowledge that a healthy economy cannot be realized without innovative and sustainable solutions to our energy and environmental challenges. We are committed to meeting those challenges, working together with our partners and stakeholders, across the Commonwealth and around the globe.
Tom Richard