The Institute for Energy & the Environment (IEE) at New Mexico State University is a multidisciplinary organization inside the Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering that coordinates research, education, and outreach to develop comprehensive solutions for environmental, energy, and water challenges.
IEE‘s major objectives include:
- developing, promoting, and commercializing renewable energy and water technologies;
- advancing education, training, and public outreach in the fields of energy, water, and food security; and
- researching advanced electrical power delivery, public policy, materials sciences, alternative resources, and environmental security to meet increasing global energy needs.
IEE also encompasses WERC: A Consortium For Environmental Education and Technology Development.
Originally known as the Waste-management Education and Research Consortium, WERC was started in 1989 by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to provide a multidisciplinary program for education, research, and outreach in environmental technologies. This program was developed through the partnerships between New Mexico State University (NMSU), the University of New Mexico (UNM), the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMIMT), and Diné College in collaboration with Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories as well as DOE.
Although WERC has been encompassed by IEE, WERC‘s mission remains the same: build environmental education, technology development, and collaborative partnerships between New Mexican educational, industrial, and research organizations to make our world safe and sustainable. WERC accomplishes its mission through developing the human resources and technologies needed to address pressing environmental issues using a three-fold approach: 1) Education; 2) Public Outreach; and 3) Technology Development and Deployment.
WERC’s successes are numerous:
- an active higher education program that supports students pursuing environmentally-related degrees;
- an outreach program that has the ability to reach thousands of children and hundreds of regional businesses and agencies; and
- a research and development effort that consistently creates new environmental technologies.
Since 1991, WERC has also hosted the International Environmental Design Contest, a unique event that brings industry, government, and academia together in the search for improved solutions to environmental challenges. The competition is held annually at NMSU, drawing hundreds of college students from throughout the United States and around the world.
WERC’s consortium members have included: