Thursday, September 19, 2024
Academics, Awards, Faculty Focus
By Amanda Alaniz
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – SEPT. 19, 2024 – A UTRGV business professor has earned important recognition for his dedication to helping students and members of the university community interested in energy technology.
Derek Abrams, RCVCOBE associate professor of practice for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, recently was awarded the inaugural 2024 Faculty Explorer Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, as part of the EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP).
The competition primarily focuses on student teams, with cash prizes for successfully identifying a promising energy technology, assessing its market potential and creating a business plan.
In 2024, EnergyTech UP opened a track to recognize and support faculty at colleges as they explore, develop and implement educational activities. The end game is engaging more students in energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.
Abrams, associate director for UTRGV Center for Innovation & Commercialization, received his award in February 2024 and was one of 10 Faculty Explorer award recipients for showcasing a proposal promoting energy entrepreneurship.
Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan, chief commercialization officer for the DOE and director of its Office of Technology Transitions, said the EnergyTech University Prize is a significant accomplishment.
“This award represents a special honor for all faculty awardees and their universities, with national visibility in the areas of entrepreneurship and energy technology commercialization,” she said.
Abrams, the UTRGV Faculty Research Fellow for Technology Transfer and Commercialization in the Division of Research, also received the 2024 EnergyTech UP Faculty Track Runner-Up Award. He competed in the faculty track portion of the competition alongside faculty from 46 institutions across the country.
“These awards, just like the awards earned by others in the UTRGV community, help to signify UTRGV’s rising national prominence,” he said. “We have outstanding students, faculty, staff and university leaders here, all working together to enhance the institution, educate our students for the jobs of today and tomorrow, and support the Valley community at large.”
Abrams also had the opportunity to serve as faculty mentor to a student-track finalist team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the EnergyTech UP competition.
He said that, going forward, he wants to be more involved with the EnergyTech Up program as well as other DOE initiatives. And, he plans to provide intellectual property education for UTRGV students.
“Energy is a critical field for the United States,” Abrams said. “There are DOE career paths and competitions for students, funding support for researchers, and business opportunities for entrepreneurs who are interested in the energy field. The EnergyTech UP competition is just one of many ways to get started or involved.”
EnergyTech UP 2025 will open during fall 2024 for students and faculty to enter the respective competitions.
ABOUT UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.
UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.