Staffer Cunningham key to success in getting the energy efficiency grant
Lots of people were saluted from the speaker's podium at last week's launch of the Energy Efficiency center, but one name not mentioned was Joshua Cunningham, the UC Davis staff member who did the crucial groundwork that ultimately won UC Davis the $1.5 million in grants.
Cunningham is a project manager at the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis). A 2001 graduate of UC Davis with a master's in transportation technology and policy, Cunningham is an optimist about the country's energy future and about the contributions UC Davis can make to it.
‘Despite these problems, there is hope.’
Joshua Cunningham, writing in the successful $1 million grant application
The campaign to get the $1 million California Clean Energy Fund grant (which also would lead to a $500,000 grant from PG&E Corp.) began with ITS-Davis director Dan Sperling and vice chancellor for research Barry Klein.
Sperling, an international authority on transportation fuels and technology, knew that UC Davis had the requisite expertise in transportation energy as well as other areas, such as agriculture and residential lighting.
Klein motivated campus deans to get their faculty involved and to put up matching funds for the $1 million CalCEF grant. He also assigned his crack new grant-writing team to the project.
But, said Sperling, "The person who did more than anyone to bring this all into being is Joshua. He took the lead in putting together the proposal, working with faculty, drafting the proposal report, and even helping prepare the materials for the press event. Joshua is the star."
When the UC Davis application was weighed against those of Stanford University and UC Berkeley, it won the day.
Said CalCEF president Lisa Bicker: "Simply put, the UC Davis proposal was superior. Joshua’s role in researching the key issues and in marshalling the expansive and multi-disciplined resources of UC Davis clearly resulted in a win for all — CalCEF, the UC Davis campus and the citizens of California, who will soon benefit from the good work of the new center."
Cunningham was all smiles at the launch event on Wednesday, when he got to see his project praised by the state's top energy-efficiency experts, as well as the governor.
"I'm just really excited to see this center moving forward," Cunningham said. "It's great to be involved with the birth of such a large initiative on campus."
Now Cunningham is on to the next big thing — a new ITS-Davis multi-year research program comparing hydrogen-powered vehicles with those powered by biofuels or electricity.