A Message from the Provost on Professor Elizabeth Wilson

Dartmouth Provost David Kotz sent the following message this week:

I write to let you know that Elizabeth Wilson is leaving her role as director of the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society to return to research and teaching on the faculty. An interim director will be appointed shortly as we prepare to launch a national search for a new leader for the institute.

As its inaugural director, Elizabeth built the institute from scratch, helping to design an impressive high-efficiency building, recruiting talented staff, establishing a distinguished advisory board, and reinvigorating the Dartmouth Energy Collaborative (with Tuck's Revers Center, Thayer, and the Sustainability Office). Under Elizabeth's leadership, the institute initiated education, research, and engagement programming designed to advance affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy futures for the benefit of society. These initiatives include a new sustainable energy minor with the Department of Environmental Studies, a new Energy Justice online class (via Coursera), as well as an Energy 101 lecture series for the campus, community, and alumni. 

The institute supports energy and society research at Dartmouth. It established a seed grant program that awarded faculty, post-docs and students over $800,000 in funding. These funds leveraged more than $2,500,000 in new sponsored grants and supported the creation of new energy and society courses, seminars, and student research across campus. Additionally, the institute and its campus partners secured $3,000,000 in government funding to support energy research in cold regions. The institute collaborates with partners across campus and, in spite of the pandemic, moved programming online and sponsored or co-sponsored more than 90 events in the form of symposia, seminars, panels, and conferences. These academic engagement activities have helped the new institute forge critical partnerships across campus and around the world. For example, the New Energy Series, led by Dartmouth, joins 16 universities to support and promote the scholarship of early-career assistant professors and post-docs. 

Please join me in thanking Elizabeth for her vision and pioneering efforts to bring the work of the institute to life, helping us develop the next generation of energy experts, leaders, and citizens, and increasing our understanding of the challenges facing energy systems across different contexts, technologies, and geopolitical realities in a climate changing world.

 

Posted 3/9/22