IU to work on energy research

One day after President Barack Obama gave a speech in Wakarusa, Ind., on Aug. 5, IU faculty met with government representatives and IU–Purdue University Indianapolis faculty to create a plan to research alternative energy systems.

At the conference, attendees worked to create a guideline of ways for IU to increasingly participate in energy-related research, said Paul Sokol, director of IU Cyclotron Facility.

The plan, Sokol said, should be presented this month.

“IU won’t be able to tackle every issue related to energy research, so it is vital that we identify our top strengths and build on them strategically and systematically,” Sarita Soni, IU’s vice provost for research, said in an e-mail interview.

By focusing on the school’s strong points, IU will be a competitive player in acquiring federal support in order to perform advanced, in-depth research, Soni said in an e-mail.

During Obama’s Aug. 5 speech, he announced that the state will receive $400 million in grants toward energy and battery research. The majority of the money will go toward industries that will collaborate with the state’s educational institutions, Sokol said.

During the next five years, however, Sokol said IU could receive about $50 million in financial support.

Sokol said he thinks IU will benefit from being a large liberal arts school because energy-related issues deal with much more than technology, such as departments including education, the Environmental Science and in Public Affairs, law and engineering.

John Rupp, a senior research scientist at the Indiana Geological Survey, is currently researching underground coal gasification and enhanced oil recovery using carbon dioxide injection.

Just this week, he was awarded $282,000 from the Department of Education to continue his research. He said large universities like IU have a unique opportunity to work with other organizations to find cross disciplinary approaches to many issues, including environmental and energy research.

Soni said IU will work with other state institutions to implement sustainable energy forms.

“Institutions of higher education are key players as they bring together unique resources and expertise from diverse fields to discover, develop, deploy and demonstrate possibilities for solving problems such as the ones we face in energy,” she said in the e-mail.

Still, Soni said the alternative energy push is about more than just universities and grants.

“While our scientists are working hard on identifying alternative energy resources, society – that is all of us – needs to work on using our resources efficiently,” Soni said in an e-mail. “Some have described the energy problem as a ‘national security problem.’ If so, we all need to engage in finding solutions.”