Energy company Chevron has invested more than $5.7 million to establish an endowment to support a Professorial Chair in Gas Process Engineering in perpetuity at The University of Western Australia.

 

The endowment continues a partnership that began in 2008 with the appointment of Professor Eric May to what was then a new professorial appointment.

 

UWA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, and Chevron's General Manager for the Greater Gorgon Area, Mr Colin Beckett, established the partnership which has since widened to involve UWA's Energy and Minerals Institute and Chevron's involvement in the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance, to build a gas process engineering initiative in Western Australia.

 

Chevron's funding to UWA is part of its global University Partnership Program, which also includes Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University.

 

Director of the UWA Energy and Mineral's Institute, Mr Tim Shanahan, said the program had enabled UWA to include more industry input into engineering education.

 

"The program supports the aim of the Energy and Minerals Institute to bring together world-class researchers with key industries to get the best out of mining in our resource-rich State," Mr Shanahan said.

 

In addition to the funding from Chevron, UWA will provide more than $2.1 million to support ongoing training and research in gas process engineering by Professor May and his team.  This new funding builds upon the $2.2 million already invested by Chevron since 2008 to fund the Professorial Chair, two post-doctoral research fellows and two PhD students working at UWA on gas process engineering.

 

The Chevron Chair in Gas Process Engineering will become the fifth Industry-funded Professorial Chair established at UWA in perpetuity.

 

More information is at  Energy and Minerals Institute.