Seeing a Need, UCLA Professor Establishes Program to Train Future Clean-Tech Leaders

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As the country presses forward in developing green energy and Los Angeles strives to become a hub of clean technology, University of California, Los Angeles Associate Professor Diana Huffaker noticed there was one thing still missing: a program to train the future leaders of environmental industry in L.A.

So she created it — and, working with about 20 other professors, won support for it through a stimulus-funded grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Clean Energy for Green Industry Fellowship, designed to develop leaders in environmental energy, will grant Ph.D. students a $33,000 stipend for pursuing coursework in the science, business and policies of clean technology.

"Over the course of the five-year program, we'll graduate 33 Ph.D.s with expertise in energy storage, energy harvesting and energy conservation," Huffaker said. "They'll be in existing Ph.D. programs, such as chemistry or engineering, and for our fellowship they'll take a series of five classes, including lab research and policy. The program is the first of its kind in the L.A. basin."

Huffaker is an electrical engineering professor with a background in engineering physics and nanotechnology.  She arrived at UCLA two years ago.

"When I hit the ground, it seemed like there was a lot of good research in clean technology, but it needed an anchor," she says. "An educational program seemed like the right start."

Huffaker’s own clean-energy specialty is energy harvesting, focusing on collecting waste heat with thermal photo-voltaics — like solar panels for heat instead of sunlight. But according to a colleague and contributor to the clean tech leadership training program’s curriculum, Huffaker's gift is in reaching out to other disciplines.

Magali Delmas, a management professor with the Institute of the Environment (IOE) who studies how green products are marketed and what works says, "She had this vision, which is so unique, about bringing policy and management to the program."   Learn more >>

Huffaker’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant through NSF’s Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship program is for $3 million.