Agilent Technologies, Chevron Donate $4 Million To UH Geoscience Department

The University of Houston (UH) took another step toward firming up its title as the Energy University in the Energy City when it became the recipient of combined donations totaling $4 million from Chevron Corp. and Agilent Technologies Inc., two California-based companies. The donations were for enhanced energy research laboratory equipment.

“They include a remarkable set of organic and inorganic mass spectrometry facilities that will benefit a large number of scientists and engineers on campus, providing them with powerful and valuable technologies that can identify and quantify parts-per-billion to parts-per-trillion level concentrations,” said Rathindra Bose, vice president for research and technology transfer for the University, in a statement.

Agilent provided $3.3 million for laboratory equipment, while Chevron provided another $530,000 in laboratory equipment. The donations are expected to assist UH in managing its growth in the geosciences, which has become the largest such program in the United States.

Houston’s strong energy sector is providing the impetus for the growth in geosciences at UH. In recent years, fracking and horizontal drilling have produce a boom in the oil and gas sector. With a  crew change” on the way as experienced energy industry careerists prepare to retire in the coming years, leaving openings within the industry, the alarm bell has been rung by an industry in need of workers and to keep the momentum going.

The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences held a reception Nov. 13 to showcase the new lab equipment, which includes a RockEval-6 pyrolysis instrument, a Delta-V stable isotope mass spectrometer, and an Agilent 7890 Gas Chromatograph, all from Chevron’s donation.

The donation from Agilent Technologies will provide for a microwave plasma-atomic emission spectrometer, organic instruments, and additional equipment, including an inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer.