Peter Lehman
The Schatz lab celebrated its 20th year anniversary with a gala picnic and reunion last month. The food was delicious, the fog lifted just in time, and Schatzers new and old got to enjoy a wonderful afternoon at Freshwater Park.
So much has happened since that first phone call with Mr. Schatz and the first meeting that Charles and I had to plan the Schatz Solar Hydrogen Project. At last count, 77 people have worked and studied at SERC. SERC alumni have gone on to become professors, fuel cell researchers, engineers of all sorts, and energy aware citizens. We’ve developed the first PEM fuel cell car, two patents, and three still-running licenses for our technology. Soon, our new 6600 square foot lab and office building will be complete and we’ll have our dream home for decades to come. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this 20 years ago, but I feel fortunate to have had so many wonderful people as colleagues and that we have accomplished so much to promote clean and renewable energy.
Meanwhile, back at the lab, things are buzzing. Jenny Tracy reports on her work with Arne Jacobson researching energy efficient LED lighting in Kenya. The fieldwork done by Jenny and Peter Johnstone had some exciting moments. Andrea Allen reports on our progress with the HyTEC curriculum we’ve developed with Lawrence Hall of Science. HyTEC is about to go national and the experiment kit we developed will be marketed by LabAids, a New York company specializing in science materials for high schools. Jim Zoellick reports on our efforts to educate government leaders about hydrogen technology and its opportunities and Jim also reports on raising a 50 meter meteorological tower on the Yurok Reservation for wind energy measurements. Jim and the crew had plenty of exciting moments too.
As the equinox passes and the leaves turn, we hope you enjoy reading about our news as we head into our next 20 years.
