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Ohio governor lauds UT researchers, energy work during visit |
| By
Jon Strunk |
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Dec 3, 2007 |
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Choosing UT and its research into photovoltaics and other alternative energies as the backdrop for his Nov. 28 visit, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland joined Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and other University, business and elected leaders for a tour of a number of alternative energy-related startup businesses located in UT’s incubator building at the corner of Westwood Avenue and Dorr Street.
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| Dr. Xunming Deng, professor of physics, right, showed a solar panel fabricated by his team to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. |
Ohio should make a commitment that by 2025, 25 percent of the state’s electricity would be generated from renewable and advanced energy resources, like solar power, Strickland told a crowd of about 50 following the tour.
Strickland praised UT faculty and researchers, saying he and Lee Fisher, Ohio’s lieutenant governor and director of development, looked forward to continuing to build on the millions of dollars in alternative energy awards UT had already received, as well as the commercialization and, ultimately, the jobs that will result from the knowledge created at the University.
“We want to help you take the second and third steps from the laboratory toward job creation,” Strickland said.
Strickland’s visit added momentum to a research area at UT that already has considerable speed.
With help from Kaptur, Dr. Frank Calzonetti, vice president for research development, and many talented researchers, UT has become a center of alternative energy research, particularly in solar power. In February, UT received an $18.6 million award to take the lead in the creation of the Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization.
In addition to a $3.6 million award for solar research from the U.S. Department of Defense and a prominent article in Newsweek magazine, UT recently was chosen to house the University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio, a collection of 15 Ohio universities working together to advance and commercialize energy research.
The governor also said he may have caused UT President Lloyd Jacobs’ ears to itch.
“No one has been a better role model for higher education in this state than Lloyd Jacobs,” Strickland said, adding that he frequently talks about UT’s accomplishments as he travels the state and speaks with other university leaders.
According to Jacobs, the conversation in Columbus regarding higher education changed following Strickland’s election.
“I think for a long time, university and political leaders were missing each other; we were talking past each other,” Jacobs told the governor. “In the short time you have been in office, you have launched dramatic changes in the way we think about education and its role in our communities and their economic development. Our conversations have become very constructive.”
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