US and UAE energy officials discuss future energy at Masdar Institute

ABU DHABI, 5th October, 2015 (WAM) -- Senior energy officials from the United States and the United Arab Emirates recently convened at the Masdar Institute to encourage more women to be active in energy leadership and to discuss technological collaboration with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The UAE and US delegations were led by Fatima Al-Foora Al Shamsi, Assistant Under-Secretary for Electricity Clean Energy and Desalination of Water at the UAE Ministry of Energy, and Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Deputy Secretary at the United States Department of Energy, DOE, respectively. Barbara A. Leaf, the US Ambassador to the UAE, accompanied the delegation. As senior women leaders in the sector, Al Shamsi and Sherwood-Randall shared their unique perspectives on renewable energy with Masdar Institute students and faculty and other invited guests during a lunchtime seminar. Both women are champions of the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Initiative, launched by the US Department of Energy to encourage more women in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. Dr. Lamya Fawwaz, Vice-President, Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs at Masdar Institute, welcomed the speakers and guests, offering them an insight into the vital role women play in advancing the UAE’s research into new sustainable technologies that are addressing some of the world’s most pressing issues such as improved access to food, energy, and water. The Masdar Institute currently has a collaboration with the US National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project that is led by RTI International, an independent non-profit research institute. The project is jointly funded by US DoE and Masdar. The event was convened as part of the UAE-established "Women in Sustainability, Environment and Renewable Energy," which was formally launched on the side-lines of the United Nations General Assembly. Speaking from New York City, Dr. Nawal Al Hosany, Masdar’s Director of Sustainability, said, "We launched WiSER with the ambitious aim of empowering women to be catalysts of innovation to address climate change. One of the pillars of the initiative is to provide opportunities for young women to be inspired by the real-world experiences of women already active in driving solutions to the world’s toughest energy challenges. By speaking to our Masdar Institute students and other young female professionals, Dr. Sherwood-Randall and Fatima Al-Foora Al Shamsi have provided invaluable building blocks to support the next-generation of women energy leaders." Al Shamsi, who serves as the UAE’s C3E International Ambassador, commented on the WiSER initiative, saying, "This UAE-led initiative has a critical role to play in catalysing more women to take leadership roles in the fields of sustainability and renewable energy. It was my pleasure to share the stage with my colleagues from the US Department of Energy and to have the opportunity to share my personal experiences with this group of extremely talented students and professionals from all over the world." Dr. Sherwood-Randall, a leading official in the Obama Administration, said of her visit, "Masdar Institute represents the forward-looking spirit of the UAE and is an important partner for us in developing and deploying advanced, renewable, and sustainable energy technologies. I am impressed by the innovative research these young women are doing to tackle energy and climate-related challenges. They are on the path toward becoming the energy leaders of the future." – Emirates News Agency, WAM -http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395286288261.html