April 5, 2011 - 2:10pm
The 'U' ranked number five in study of top 10 cleantech universities
BY NICOLE ABER
In a study measuring colleges across the country on their clean energy technology development and future outlook, the University of Michigan was ranked number five.
Conducted by Shawn Lesser, founder and president of Sustainable World Capital, a company that fundraises for and develops green technology businesses, the study ranked the “top 10 cleantech universities in the U.S. for 2010,” with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology taking the number one spot.
In an article that appeared on cleantech.com on Monday, Lesser identified various University programs like MPowered, an entrepreneurship development group managed by students, the College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship and the Ross School of Business’s Zell Lurie Institute as key organizations that are making strides in investing in clean energy technology.
Part of the Zell Lurie Institute, the Wolverine Venture Fund and the Frankel Commercialization Fund are two venture capital funds that are run by MBA students at the Business School, and which Lesser wrote are doing great work in their field in terms of investing in sustainable energy technology companies like Environmental Operating Systems and Accio Energy, an Ann Arbor-based company that develops wind energy systems.
Seven out of the ten institutions ranked, including the University, are large public universities. Many of these colleges have large amounts of funding for research, which enables them to do leading work in the clean technology field, according to the article.
“With research expenditures of over $1 billion and an innovation pipeline unparalleled among the nation’s public universities, the University of Michigan can rightly take its place among the leading Cleantech universities in the U.S.” Lesser wrote.
