Director's Message
Dear Students, Faculty, Alumni and Friends,
It is a great pleasure and honor for me, as Henry R. Linden Professor of Energy, to serve as the first director of the Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (WISER) at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).
WISER was established in 2007 with the financial support of IIT Trustee and benefactor Ralph Wanger to further enhance the scope of energy and sustainability research activities formerly administered under the auspices of the IIT Energy and Sustainability Institute.
The overall mission of WISER is to continue to improve the quality of life while preserving our natural resources and the environment for future generations. Our approach is to use a least-cost strategy to follow a path toward decarbonization of the global energy system and to provide reliable, secure and affordable energy while improving energy efficiency and preserving resources and the environment.
To achieve this, we are developing several interdisciplinary research teams in targeted research and educational areas consisting of faculty from all IIT academic units and other universities and researchers from national and research laboratories and industry.
More than 40 faculty across all academic programs at IIT are presently involved in WISER educational and research programs. WISER faculty have expertise in specific research areas of energy production, energy efficiency and sustainability, and energy distribution.
Our current core competency areas include: clean coal technology and CO2 separation and sequestration, Perfect Power Initiative and smart grid, plug-in hybrid vehicles, sustainable built environment, and renewable energy including batteries, hydrogen storage and fuel cells.
Our educational goal is to provide opportunities for IIT students across all disciplines to receive the fundamental knowledge and understanding about energy, sustainability, and economical issues. Our goal also includes community outreach educational programs in energy and sustainability related areas.
Today, WISER is positioned to make key contributions to the advancement of energy and sustainability research, education, and policy issues. This contribution is expected to have an impact on reducing our nation’s dependency on foreign energy.
Hamid Arastoopour
Director
Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (WISER)