U-M partners with Alcoa for conservation, sustainability research

Updated 3:30 PM January 3, 2006

U-M partners with Alcoa for conservation, sustainability research

By Laura Bailey
News Service

The Alcoa Foundation has selected U-M as the sole North American academic partner in its six-year Conservation and Sustainability Fellowship Program.

The Alcoa Foundation award will provide $844,000 to support six, two-year postdoctoral fellows doing research on sustainable energy technology at U-M. The University is one of five academic partners in the Alcoa Foundation $8.6 million global research program, which supports the study of conservation and sustainability issues.

U-M will work with four other prominent institutions: Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia; University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil; and London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

Through 2009, the program will support the research activities of approximately 30 academics and 60 sustainability practitioners from non-governmental organizations around the world. The program was launched Dec. 7 at an event on campus, which included a keynote address by Vice President and General Manager of Alcoa Wheel Products Tim Myers titled, "Alcoa and Sustainability: Looking to the Future, Taking Action Today."

Alcoa CEO Alain Belda lauded the program goals.

"Sustainability has long been at the core of our business model and has tremendous influence on the way we operate, products we make, and our overall thinking," Belda said. "Our focus and success will continue to be on the triple bottom line of environmental impact, social responsibility and economic futures, and this Alcoa Foundation investment in the fellowship program further highlights our commitment to these ideals."

"Alcoa Foundation is making a unique, visionary program available not only to the University of Michigan, but to the world," President Mary Sue Coleman said. "The program provides us with an opportunity to expand knowledge in the critically important areas of conservation and sustainability. We are honored that Alcoa Foundation has recognized the University of Michigan as a leader in this endeavor."

The U-M-Alcoa Foundation fellowship underscores U-M's commitment to maintaining leadership in developing and using sustainable technologies. The grant involves a multi-disciplinary group of faculty co-led by Gregory Keoleian, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS), and Thomas Lyon, co-director of the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, and The Dow Chemical Company Chair of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce.

"Piecemeal approaches to the development of sustainable energy solutions, absent consideration of their timing, feasibility, societal acceptance, economic impact, market penetration and political salience, have not moved the world toward a secure energy future," said Rosina Bierbaum, dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), which houses CSS. "Alcoa's support enables an interdisciplinary research initiative that addresses all the components of this complex issue, and positions Michigan at the forefront of research into sustainable energy."

"The Alcoa grant will be a major boost as we build the Erb Institute's research program," Lyon said. "It allows us to build across-the-board research strength in sustainable energy systems, complementing our existing faculty research and our growing body of doctoral students. It will also complement the new U-M energy initiative."

U-M was selected to participate in the academic fellowship program because of its reputation in the area of environmental research and longstanding commitment to the study of conservation and sustainability.

U-M partners with Alcoa for conservation, sustainability research

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