STANFORD – James L. Sweeney, a Hoover senior fellow, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute, and professor of management, science and engineering in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, will serve as the inaugural director of the newly established Precourt Institute.
“As someone who has been involved in energy work at Stanford for more than 30 years, I see the Precourt Institute as an enormous opportunity to move the university, the state and the nation forward on energy-demand issues,” Sweeney said. “Our work should also have international implications, from research and policy to educating and training the energy leaders of the future.”
Stanford alumnus Jay A. Precourt has committed $30 million to establish the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford. The gift will provide program funds, endow new energy-related faculty positions, and help support Stanford’s new Environment and Energy Building, currently under construction. The Precourt Institute’s mission is to improve the efficiency of energy use. It will emphasize research, decision making, and policy in the discovery and adoption of energy-efficient technologies, systems, and practices. Initial work will focus on improving energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, fuels, and power distribution.
“Stanford has a long and distinguished history of collaborating with industry to accelerate the penetration of new technologies into the marketplace through interdisciplinary programs such as the Energy Modeling Forum and the Global Climate and Energy Project,” said Stanford president John L. Hennessy. “This new institute will build on that history to promote economically efficient reductions in energy use.”
The Precourt Institute will play an integrating role within Stanford to bring researchers from the sciences and engineering together with those in the social sciences, decision sciences, and organizational theory, Sweeney added. In particular, the institute will draw heavily from numerous departments and organizations within the university, including management science and engineering, economics, civil and environmental engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, law, business, and public policy centers.
Sweeney also is a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. His work involves analyzing economic and policy issues, especially those involving energy systems and the environment. Sweeney also serves on the National Advisory Council of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is a member of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Council of Economic Advisers. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1971.
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