This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the development of a new Ph.D. interdisciplinary training program at Cornell University focused on sustainable energy recovery from the earth. Students in engineering and in geosciences will be provided with a common language in interdisciplinary science and design that will accelerate technological progress in the sustainable exploitation of Earth's energy resources with acceptable environmental consequences.
There are complex intellectual challenges associated with the design of new subsurface technologies that extract energy from geothermal, conventional, and unconventional fossil resources, or safely sequester waste products like CO2. Trainees will participate in research that adds to fundamental understanding of transport processes for thermal energy, and of fluids and fractures in engineered rock systems. The initial interdisciplinary training will occur through a series of courses that introduce natural systems phenomena, energy conversion principles, economic, social and ethical considerations, and methods of industrial ecology (life cycle analysis), of systems design and simulation, and of risk analysis. Student teams will draw upon this coursework foundation for their analysis and design projects that deal with real world, field-based, cases. Trainees will develop skills to design energy options in consideration of environmental, economic, and social benefits and risks, and to communicate with those who must make informed decisions. In doing so, the nation gains a workforce able to utilize the Earth's energy resources in better balance with the natural environment.
IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
