Ten research proposals awarded grants under new Chicago Energy Initiative

The University has funded 10 research proposals under the Chicago Energy Initiative, which President Zimmer launched earlier this year. The initiative fosters interdisciplinary research on the economic, environmental and geopolitical aspects of energy use.

Robert Topel, Director of the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State in the Graduate School of Business, announced the funded proposals. The Stigler Center serves as the administrative home of the initiative.

The funding recipients and their projects are as follows:

Justin Borevitz, Assistant Professor in Ecology and Evolution: “Optimizing Genetic Diversity in Prairie Grasslands for CO2 Sequestration,” $100,000.

John Frederick, Professor in Geophysical Sciences and the College: “Energy Demand and the Urban Heat Island of Chicago,” $43,200.

Charles Glaser, the Emmett Dedmon Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies: “Oil Consumption and Major Power Relations,” $26,300.

Jon Guryan, Associate Professor of Economics in the GSB: “Health and Economic Costs of Climate Change,” $20,000.

Ali Hortacsu, Professor in Economics: “Private and Regulator Approaches to Develop Renewable Energy Sources,” $30,495.

Ray Pierrehumbert, the Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences and the College, and Liz Moyer, Assistant Professor in Geophysical Sciences and the College: “Climate Studies in Aid of Energy and Assessment Models,” $30,000.

Tiberiu Stef Praun, Computational Sciences Researcher, Computation Institute: “Tools for Computable General Equilibrium Models,” $60,000.

Dmitri Talapin, Assistant Professor in Chemistry and the College: “Combining Colloidal Nanostructures with Molecular Precursors for Inorganic Semiconductors,” $99,205.

Eugene Yan, Meredith Franklin, John Quinn and Rao Kotamarthi, Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory; Timothy Allison, Decision and Information Sciences Division, Argonne; and Ian Foster, Director of the Computation Institute: “Energy-Water Nexus: A Regional Scale Evaluation of Hydrological and Economic Constraints to Energy Resource Development in the Upper Mississippi Valley,” $40,000.

Erez Yoeli, graduate student in the GSB: “Does Social Approval Generate Pro-Social Behavior? Field Experiments in the Residential Electricity Market,” $15,000.