Ohio and Colorado universities team on renewable energy research

Ohio State University and Colorado State University are going to work together on environmental and alternative energy research, including exploring economic-development opportunities that might result from the effort.

The two public colleges said in a joint release they’ll fund a new post – vice president and enterprise executive for energy and the environment – to lead the endeavor, staffed by former astronaut and U.S. Air Force Undersecretary Ron Sega. Sega, who has a master’s degree in physics from Ohio State, will split his time between Columbus and Colorado State and serve as a full-time, tenured faculty member in both of their colleges of engineering. Sega is vice president for energy and the environment and a professor of systems engineering at Colorado State, located in Fort Collins, about 125 miles from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

At Ohio State, he’ll lead the school’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, which was founded in 2007 with a mission to find alternatives to fossil fuels as a source of energy. He’ll also be charged with enhancing Ohio State’s partnerships with research giant Battelle and others. Sega’s three-year post will pay $390,000 a year, with Ohio State paying $225,000 of that.

"This unusual arrangement between our institutions not only breaks down walls that are within institutions of higher learning but between them," Colorado State President Tony Frank said in the release. "The position leverages both universities' energy and environmental assets toward increased economic opportunity for Colorado and Ohio."

Read more in Business First of Columbus.