Pitt awarded $22 million grant

Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering received a $22 million grant — one of the largest… Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering received a $22 million grant — one of the largest private foundation grants in Pitt’s history — to help the school become a national center for energy and research development.

On Thursday, the Richard King Mellon Foundation awarded the grant to Pitt, which will be payable over three years, in order to create a strong center for energy research and development in the surrounding Pittsburgh area.

“The level of our investment reflects our confidence in the academic and administrative leadership of the University,” said Scott Izzo, director of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, in a press release. “The center has tremendous potential to make an impact in Pittsburgh, as energy will be the major driver of our regional economy for years to come.”

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg thanked the foundation for its grant and expressed hope that this money will help attract talented new staff and students to the Center for Energy in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, which was created in 2008.

“With this historic gift … we now are positioned to more quickly … reach ever-higher levels of impact and stature for both our center for energy and for the region,” he said.

Gerald Holder, U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering, further outlined the school’s goals for the grant. He said it is the “most critical investment for our energy plan” and described areas the school plans to improve, including research in advanced material, energy delivery and reliability, carbon management and utilisation, direct energy conversion, unconventional gas resources and workforce development.

Nordenberg pointed to Pitt alumni in attendance like John Swanson, after whom the engineering school is named, to illustrate Pitt’s role in training highly skilled engineers who contribute to the regional and national economy. Since 1997, Pitt’s school of engineering has increased its number of graduates by 75 percent.

At the conference, Nordenberg also took time to address the recent state budget cut proposals that will soon affect Pitt, refuting claims that grants such as this are evidence that Pitt does not need government money.

“We really are in it together,” Nordenberg said, “This [funding cut] is a long-term bad strategy for the region … or short-term, as the case may be.”