CIEE traces its leadership, pragmatic approach, and passion for solutions to its founder, Art Rosenfeld, who pioneered energy-efficiency standards that have put California in the global spotlight.
A professor of physics at UC Berkeley and scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Rosenfeld was a champion of energy conservation and technologies to support it. His leadership led UC to establish CIEE in 1989 to wed that vision and the extraordinary UC researchers who are making it a reality.
In 2012 the students of the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly established the Art Rosenfeld Award for Energy Efficiency, to foster graduate-student research in sustainability issues. The award supports three Rosenfeld Fellows, recognizing their passion for advancing the science, policy, or implementation of energy-efficiency technologies — pursuits central to Art Rosenfeld’s career and legacy.
The Art Rosenfeld Award for Energy Efficiency is a $10,000 fellowship awarded to one graduate student in a Ph.D., Masters, J.D. or professional program who is committed to research on energy efficiency. This includes technical, social science and policy research that can lead to reductions in the use of energy.
The Rosenfeld Fund is an endowment managed by the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) and the UC Berkeley Graduate Division to support Graduate and Professional Students who pursue career paths and educational opportunities in local and global sustainability.
“More than any other person, Art Rosenfeld has showed us as a practical matter how we can approach energy self-sufficiency,” said UC Berkeley professor Daniel McFadden, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in economics, at a 2007 summit of Nobel laureates addressing the future of energy.
Rosenfeld served on the California Energy Commission from 2000-10. Thanks to efficiency initiatives advanced by Rosenfeld and adopted since the first energy crisis in 1973, American consumers are saving billions of dollars in energy annually. In California the savings are even more impressive: Californians now use 30 percent less electricity per capita than other Americans.
Arthur Rosenfeld passed away in January 2017. He was 90 years old.
