After years of planning and dreaming, the future seemed within grasp at Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday as university officials, elected leaders and supporters raised a glass at the site where the Energy Innovation Center will be built, thanks to $83 million in state funding.
“Kern County has always been the energy capital of California,” said CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny. “And on the day we meet back here again to christen the Energy Innovation Center, that capital will have a new home.”
Zelezny hosted an acknowledgement of the 2021 California budget allocation for construction of what the university intends to be “the epicenter of exploration, research and discovery in Kern County’s long and proud history of energy.”
Also speaking at the event were Ben Chida, chief deputy secretary of the Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom; Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield; Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh and Dr. Jane Dong, the new dean of CSUB’s School of Natural Science, Mathematics and Engineering.
“I have so many stories to share about this funding,” said Salas, referring to the negotiations in Sacramento required to keep the allocation in the final budget. “I asked President Zelezny which story to share, and she said share them all. There were so many midnight calls. So many calls from the floor.”
Budil noted that when the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory published its Getting to Neutral report in early 2020, Kern County was identified as the perfect community to help California achieve its ambitious climate goals because of the region’s long history of oil production.
“The center is going to educate students and advance the research agenda as a collaborative effort, where environmental justice and equity in the community is at the forefront,” she said.
Dr. Dong, who left Cal State Los Angeles over the summer to become dean at CSUB, was encouraged by the community, government and industry support she saw at CSUB’s toast Wednesday.
“It takes a village to build something like this, but Kern County has that village," she said. "That’s why I came to Bakersfield.”
Following the remarks, Zelezny led the gathering of supporters in a toast.
“Here is to the tenacity and energy of the people of Kern County, and the ambitious vision we have for our region," she said. "In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt: ‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.’”
The three-story, 74,000-square-foot Energy Innovation Center will be constructed near the science buildings on the southeast side of the campus.
It will contain CSUB’s California Energy Research Center, expanded fabrication lab, 44 faculty and staff offices as well as 17 laboratory spaces. The center will serve as the home base for 30 degree programs from the School of Natural Science, Mathematics and Engineering as well as Extended Education and Global Outreach.
Click here for more information about the center.
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