The Institute is organized to enhance
the capacity of UNC Charlotte to provide opportunities for faculty, staff and
students to collaborate across disciplines to implement research and allied
professional activities on critical energy and environmental issues. This is
consistent with our institutional mission, program needs and plans.
In 2000, UNC Charlotte was elevated to
the status of “Doctoral Institution” by the UNC System Board of Governors
following many years of steadily increasing graduate enrollment and research
productivity. Still, UNC Charlotte seeks the attainment of its research
potential on integrated energy and environmental research programs in order to
increase its contribution to the economies of the Charlotte region, the State of
North Carolina and beyond. Charlotte, the largest city in the Carolinas, is the
base for more than one hundred firms, the majority of which need high-level
environmental research support on technical and policy / regulatory issues. To
support this initiative, Duke Energy Corporation has teamed up with UNC
Charlotte to endow a professorship for leadership of the institute. Both
organizations plan to continue to work together, in collaboration with other
companies, public agencies and institutions and within the context of university
/ industry collaboration, to strengthen UNC Charlotte’s leadership role in
addressing environmental aspects of infrastructure development, especially in
the energy and civil infrastructure sectors. The institute does not award
degrees but supports regular academic programs within its coverage areas in
traditional academic departments such as Civil Engineering, Geography and Earth
Science, Architecture (College), Chemistry, Biology, Electrical Engineering,
Business Administration, Economics and Public Policy.
UNC Charlotte was recently selected as
the headquarters of the International Society of Environmental Geotechnology
(ISEG) a growing organization of more than 500 members representing professional
leadership in about 50 countries, for which a secretariat is being established
at the Cameron Applied Research Center (CARC) building. Also, the planned
International Consortium of Environmental and Energy Research Institutes and
Centers (ICEERIC) will be based at the proposed site. The Alliance for Disaster
Mitigation, which is a global organization of experts and associations for
mitigation of natural and technological disasters, is also headquartered at the
institute.
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