I just finished the front-page article in the December 20 issue of MIT’s TechTalk newsletter concerning the first Massachusetts Energy Summit held at MIT on Dec. 13, 2006. The Summit was convened by MIT President Susan Hockfield and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and meeting’s major purpose was to gather the movers and shakers of the Commonwealth to discuss methods for establishing leadership in solving the world’s energy crisis.
The term coined at the summit to describe these still-amorphous methods is “enertech”, a play on the hot-button words we technophiles commonly use to impress our non-technical friends at parties: infotech, biotech, nanotech, etc. For an extended explanation of the etymology of “enertech”, I refer you to the VCMike guest blog by Robert Metcalfe. Incidentally, Metcalfe was one of the speakers at the Energy Summit, and he includes some interesting expanded commentary on enertech in Massachusetts within his posting.
When Susan Hockfield took the reins at MIT, she set out to consolidate the Institute’s hodgepodge of energy research to focus on solving the world’s energy crisis. This endeavor culminated in the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), a virtual research center which is overseen by the MIT Energy Research Council (ERC). Given MIT’s newfound energy momentum, it is hoped by many that the Institute will anchor a new energy technology cluster in Massachusetts.
So it looks like I got pretty lucky. I may be in the right place at the right time to blog from the future enertech capital of the world!
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