The Alabama Power Foundation made the largest research gift ever donated to the University, according to an announcement at the Nov. 7 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
The gift will be used to honor board member Charles McCrary and create the Charles D. McCrary Institute.
McCrary is a 1973 Auburn graduate in mechanical engineering and retired from Alabama Power last April as the president and chief executive officer of the company.
The Institute will emphasize the advancement of research in the areas of energy security and conservation of recourses.
The research on energy security will focus on the protection of the electrical power grid that supports all electricity in the United States.
According to Larry Fillmer, director of program development the U.S. government has identified the electrical power grid as essential to support our quality of life.
Students in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering will be engaged in hands-on research projects in the spring.
"[The grid] is a very essential element in our society and our economy that needs to be protected from cyber attacks," Fillmer said. "The research that will be done by the institute will be done to increase protection for that grid, and to increase technology that would support that kind of protection."
The Institute will also open doors for the University to hire experts in the field of energy security.
"It's going to help us to attract some of the world's leading experts in these areas, so we are going to have some great professors," said Christopher Roberts, dean of the College Engineering.
Conservation research will take place in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and will focus on the balance of conserving natural recourses while utilizing those recourses in the most economically beneficial way.
"Our state is blessed with an abundance of natural recourses," Fillmer said. "So part of the focus in this area will be how to balance the needs of development with the use of natural recourses in the state."
The Institute will provide an opportunity for graduate students to work alongside professionals in the field of wildlife and forestry.
"We are going to be able to do a lot more applied research related to certain commercial species of wildlife like deer," said Graeme Lockaby, dean of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. "It will update the expertise in the school as well as enable quite a few students to get their graduate education."
The Institute is in its early stages, so the next step will be to expand research to other areas.
"The intent is that it's a long-term institute that will expand beyond just those two focus areas," Fillmer said. "In furthering the research the institute will also focus on the economic development of the state, workforce development and sustaining an maintaining the quality of life for our citizens."
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