Senior US Energy Adviser to Help Launch New Institute at Haas

Recognizing the vital role business will play in responding to energy and climate change challenges, the Haas School is launching a new energy institute.

The new Energy Institute at Haas will address both the rising need for research and the growing student interest in the markets, policy, and technology for sustainable energy.

The Haas School will celebrate the creation of its Energy Institute with a launch event Friday, Oct. 30 featuring a keynote by Matt Rogers, senior adviser to US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, who directs the disbursement of energy-related stimulus money. Rogers will discuss the Department of Energy’s strategies for addressing the country’s energy and climate change challenges. Rogers previous worked as a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, leading its American petroleum practice and North American electric power and natural gas practice and helping to establish its clean technology practice.

The launch celebration will run from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Andersen Auditorium and will be followed by a networking reception. To register, send an email with your name and affiliation to the Energy Institute at Haas.

“Sustainable energy is an area of tremendous growth and opportunity; it is also an area in need of new technologies and business models,” says Haas School Dean Rich Lyons. “Our Haas School has long provided deep competency in this area — our depth and breadth are unsurpassed at any other business school. We’re proud to expand even further with our new Energy Institute at Haas.”

The Energy Institute at Haas is the result of a merger of two highly successful programs: the UC Energy Institute’s Center for the Study of Energy Markets and the Haas School’s Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation. Haas School Professors Severin Borenstein and Catherine Wolfram will serve as the Energy Institute’s faculty directors.

“We have a tremendously active and committed group of students interested in clean energy solutions,” says Professor Wolfram. “The more we can put them in touch with the great scientific research being done on energy on the Berkeley campus and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the greater opportunity we have to bring real solutions to the marketplace.”

Among the Institute’s activities are:

  • Several energy-related courses, including its flagship Energy and Environmental Markets course, which has been taught since 1999. For the first time, Haas also will offer an undergraduate course in energy markets.
  • Cleantech to Market (C2M), a partnership between graduate students and scientists to bring clean energy technologies to market. Initially created by Berkeley MBA students, this project has been expanded into a major program and a graduate course within the Institute.
  • Conferences and a Renewable Energy Speaker Series.
  • Three courses in non-degree, executive education: Economic Fundamentals of Electricity Regulation and Markets, Economics of Energy and the Environment, and Advanced Energy Economics.
  • A regular working paper series and newsletter that disseminate the latest research findings.

The institute’s expertise is strengthened by its close collaboration with UC Berkeley science and engineering departments and affiliated institutions, including the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; the Energy Biosciences Institute; CITRIS – the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society; and the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a San Francisco Bay Area scientific partnership.

Some of the Institute’s activities, including C2M, have grown out of The Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative, an interdisciplinary student organization that was started by Berkeley MBA students and that hosts the annual Energy Symposium on campus. BERC will work closely with the Energy Institute at Haas.

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