Human resources for future alternative-energy research.

To the Editor – We face, after over two decades of not-so-benign neglect, a serious deficit of alternative-energy (AE)-oriented basic science researchers. Indeed, a major problem in meeting the global energy challenge may well be the paucity of top scientists pursuing AE-related research problems. This deficit has the potential to self-proliferate, because a limited core of experienced researchers will encourage a limited group of talented students and post-docs to seek research opportunities in AE research in the future. In early September 2007, Israeli scientists performed an ‘experiment’ to break out of this pattern: A selected group of 24 of the nation’s top, final-year PhD students from all areas of physical, life and engineering sciences, assembled in a tranquil Galilee mountain location, along with 20 senior Israeli and foreign scientists, who are all experts in various aspects of AE or in directly relevant core areas. Most students didn’t have any previous AE experience, but had showed a clear interest in the subject. The meeting (www.weizmann.ac.il/conferences/ASEO/) funded by the Bat-Sheva de Rothschild foundation, with support from the Safed foundation, the Mizpe Yamim hotel and our parent institutions, had a rather conventional name: ‘Alternative, Sustainable Energy Options’. But there was nothing conventional about the programme and atmosphere of the meeting. After a packed two-day crash course of general presentations by experts, explaining AE issues “from fundamentals to engineering”, the group split into smaller sets and was introduced to systematic innovative thinking approaches. In each of the smaller groups, dynamic discussions and brain-storming sessions developed, interspersed by intense tutoring by the senior scientists in their areas of expertise (see Fig. 1). The final discussion sessions were led by students on topics they proposed, such as: “is there really a crisis in energy resources?”; “is there an ideal electrical storage approach?”; and “theoretical limit(s) of biological solutions to the energy challenge”. Students and lecturers admitted to being initially sceptical about the nonconventional seminar programme, but the ‘pleasant week in a nice place’ expectations were surpassed by intense days of discussions, focused personal tutoring and plenty of lively arguments. “The seminar made us aware of, and knowledgeable about, the energy challenges and related worldwide scientific research, but it also allowed us to form our own opinions about directions for fruitful avenues of research for possible new approaches to AE,” was the response from one student. How large a new cadre of energy researchers will develop as a result of the meeting remains to be seen, but it seems clear that its first seeds could have been planted on a beautiful, peaceful Galilee mountain side. Our message to all our colleagues is that investing some time and effort now in such projects should help us all to a brighter future, by introducing a new generation to AE research.