Robert Haber (E '79, EG '80) and his wife Marcy Haber have donated $2 million to the School of Engineering to create a professorship that will respond to concerns about energy availability and research alternative energy resources.
The donators hope that the Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professorship in Energy Sustainability will bring a professor to Tufts who can facilitate research across the various departments of the School of Engineering.
"We think that Tufts is the perfect place for a professorship of this type because of the dean's flexibility and because of the school's ability to look at a problem such as the world's dependence on fossil fuels from a fresh perspective," Haber said in a statement from the Beyond Boundaries campaign.
Dean of the School of Engineering Linda Abriola is excited about the donation.
"The Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professorship in Energy Sustainability will expand our research efforts in alternative energy with the goal of lessening the world's reliance on oil with an environmentally sensitive approach," Abriola said in an e-mail.
Abriola anticipates that the School of Engineering will be able to implement the new professorship within the next two years.
"Candidates have been identified and interviews are underway," she said.
The candidate who is selected to become a senior faculty member of the School of Engineering will most likely be an expert in several fields of engineering.
"Of course, we understand that development of alternative energy sources takes a collaborative research effort crossing all engineering disciplines including civil, mechanical and electrical engineering," Abriola said.
According to Julia Keller, spokesperson for the School of Engineering, this will be the School of Engineering's third endowed professorship.
Robert Haber worked at Fidelity Investments as an engineer before accepting his current position as funds manager of the corporation. He also serves on the Board of Overseers of the School of Engineering.
