FROM THE NEST | FALL 2023 | 9 A team of interdisciplinary researchers led by Arindam Banerjee, professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department, has been awarded nearly $3 million from the National Science Foundation to train a diverse group of future energy-sector leaders across academia, industry, government and policy organizations. The award will allow Lehigh to establish a SEED (Stakeholder Engaged, Equitable, Decarbonized) Energy Futures Training Program to provide Ph.D. and master’s students with the skills needed to explore, collaborate and pioneer solutions to society’s reliance on carbon-based energy sources and energy inequities. “We will be training graduate students to work at the intersection of energyrelated problems,” said Banerjee, principal investigator. “The training would be holistic because the students would also be trained on aspects around policy—to engage stakeholders and bring in stakeholders early in their research program so that the type of solutions that they are working on is actually stakeholder-informed or stakeholder-engaged.” A Need for Solutions “Climate change is upon us,” said Shalinee Kishore, director of Lehigh’s Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure and Energy and one of the coprincipal investigators. “There's a major transformation in our energy systems that’s needed to mitigate its effects on society and the environment. And that transformation requires us to think about new types of sustainable energy solutions and how they can be adopted across wide cross-sections of society. …. [They are not] just technology/ engineering solutions. [They have] to be very well married and coupled with policy solutions.”—Mary Ellen Alu Training Future Energy Leaders Research team awarded nearly $3 million from the National Science Foundation. INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH GRADUATE EDUCATION Jedlicka Named Deputy Provost Newly named Deputy Provost for Graduate Education Sabrina Jedlicka now oversees all aspects of graduate education and graduate student life at Lehigh. Previously associate dean for academic affairs in the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, she led efforts there to transform and expand academic programming. “Growth of graduate and professional education will be critical to Lehigh’s future,” Provost Nathan Urban said, “and I see Sabrina as well equipped to work with the colleges to expand the scope and scale of graduate education at Lehigh through the development of innovative programs that meet the needs of today’s students.” “It began with a dream and an idea … between Georgette (Chapman Phillips) and Nicola (Corzine, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center executive director), and I can imagine the fun they had that day. And we said, ‘All right, let’s figure out how to make it happen,’ which is one of the things I love most about partnering with Georgette.” Samantha DeWalt The managing director of Lehigh@NasdaqCenter talks about The Startup Academy, which places Lehigh students in start-up internships in Silicon Valley. PODCAST SCAN CODE TO HEAR THE FULL PODCAST FROM SAMANTHA DEWALT. DOUGLAS BENEDICT / ACADEMIC IMAGE / THEO ANDERSON
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