Although Duke’s newest energy and environment center first opened earlier this Fall, the location plans to continue renovations going into next semester.
The Energy Hub welcomed its first coordinator this month, and plans to renovate its space with the hopes of finalizing the center by the end of the Spring.
The Energy Hub opened in August and is still very much a “work in progress,” said Lincoln Pratson, professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment and the director of the new center. Situated on the first floor of the Gross Chemistry Laboratory, the center at present is composed of meeting spaces and classrooms.
So far this semester, the Energy Hub has hosted a number of events, from a workshop on carbon capture for the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions to a Duke Alumni Association board of visitors meeting.
Renovations for this $1.5 million project are still underway, including the newest addition of Energy Hub Coordinator Katie Moore, who started Dec. 1. In addition to planning events at the location, Moore will head renovations of the faculty staging area, which is a spot for the professors using the venue.
“I would say that the hub is going to continue to be built out in terms of reaching its potential over the course of the Spring semester, and our hope is that by the start of the Fall semester the hub is operating at its full potential,” Pratson said.
The center hopes to have an official launch for its speaker series and its symposium of Duke researchers in the Spring, he added. Renovation of temporary office space into the faculty staging area is another goal for the upcoming semester.
“We are going to invite groups and individuals from the different schools to kind of share what they’ve been doing on a particular energy topic and discuss how we might work together to actually make that area a focus for research where we’re really able to leverage each other’s expertise and resources,” Pratson said.
Other schools, including the Pratt School of Engineering, Trinity College, the School of Law and the Sanford School of Public Policy, have plans to use the space.
Among the Energy Hub’s top priorities in the short-term is setting up a University-wide energy environment website that shares information about Duke’s events and research in energy affairs.
“I’ve just recently... started thinking about our website and seeing how it will bridge this gap between institute, school departments and the University-wide website,” Moore said.
In the coming weeks, she and Pratson are scheduled to meet with the various school heads. They contend the Energy Hub should be viewed as an extension of each school and as an interdisciplinary energy resource center.
The center is now trying to gauge how it can best serve the needs of the Duke community, but also wants active involvement from the schools, clubs, professors and students in shaping its role.
“I want to engage the whole University community and a very important part of that is the students,” Pratson said. “We want this to be a facility that really excites them about the challenges and opportunities in energy and we want to engage that creative thinking that the students are so good at.”
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