ASU plans to establish one of the first energy Ph.D.s in the country by creating the Solar Utilization Network.
The university received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program to create the energy Ph.D.
IGERT helps educate scientists and engineers and supports new graduate curriculums across the country.
Chemical engineering professor Cesar Torres, a co-principal investigator for the program, said the NSF-backed Ph.D. will take an interdisciplinary approach to educate and train students in solar energy.
Torres said the interactive courses focus on four main themes: biological conversion, solar thermal, photovoltaics and sustainable policy. These areas teach students how to harness, convert and directly use the sun’s energy to generate electrical power.
“The main focus of this program is to educate a group of graduate students in solar energy so that they can be the next leaders in this field,” Torres said.
Willem Vermaas, IGERT SUN program lead principal investigator, said the courses include lectures followed by student research and class presentations.
Representatives from local companies and institutions that work with solar energy will visit and teach students.
“This is very much a hands-on course,” Vermaas said. “The IGERT students will be doing field trips to energy generation sites in Arizona and will also study policy and regulatory aspects.”
The grant will be dispersed over the course of five years, starting this semester with the first class consisting of six students.
Vermaas said 75 percent of funding will cover each student's tuition for the first two years of their coursework.
The University is one of the few to keep sustainability, particularly solar energy, a top priority, Vermaas said.
“ASU has been a leader in (sustainability) in many respects, especially in the solar energy conversion arena,” Vermaas said. “They started long before most others were really viewing solar energy as something that has a lot of potential.”
Anna Keilty, program manager of the IGERT SUN, said the program is dedicated to maintaining a diverse student base.
Recruiters will take measures to encourage applications from minority groups by spreading the word through diversity conferences, Keilty said.
“We realize that solar energy is going to require a global effort,” Keilty said.
She said diverse groups of students and leaders are needed to further sustainability.
“Arizona has a lot of sun, and we plan to capture it and use it,” Keilty said.
Reach the reporter at cldas@asu.edu
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled IGERT SUN program manager Anna Keilty's name.
