T.U. president Fitts lauds U.S – Israel Summit held here

Tulane University president Michael Fitts cited as significant the inaugural U.S.-Israel Energy Summit held this past Monday at the university’s Uptown campus. Tulane and several other major Gulf Coast universities sponsored the event, which explored how future energy and environmental concerns might be addressed. The conference brought together energy industry leaders and elected officials and paired them with top Israeli academicians and government officials.

“This U.S.-Israeli initiative incorporates several of my long-term goals for Tulane: to promote interdisciplinary collaborations that address societal, economic and environmental challenges; to develop new areas of technological innovation where Tulane can make a real difference in the world; and to expand Tulane’s global impact,” Fitts wrote to his faculty, staff, student population and alumni.

Fitts hopes that this initial groundwork may one day lead to the creation of a dedicated U.S.-Israel Energy Center, which would further the “collaboration between the United States and Israel on energy.” Israel has been at the forefront of energy research ever since it found and developed large natural gas reserves off its coast.

Fitts asserts that Tulane has much to offer in all of these efforts in terms of addressing complicated problems and arriving at determined solutions through its many schools and through collaborative efforts with industry leaders.

“When energy industry leaders, environmental scientists and law and business faculty collaborate like they did at this week’s summit, when the boundaries between schools and subjects are crossed, great things happen,” Fitts continued. “We not only create stronger institutions that answer critics’ demands that higher education demonstrate its relevance in a society yearning for solutions, we help create a new and better world.”