Presidential Recognition

David Auston, executive director of UC Santa Barbara’s Institute for Energy Efficiency, is among 10 University of California faculty members to receive the Award for Outstanding Faculty Leadership in Presidential Initiatives.

The award recognizes Auston and faculty members from UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz for demonstrating outstanding leadership on UC President Janet Napolitano’s systemwide initiatives. They range from increasing student access and diversity, enhancing campus entrepreneurialism, achieving carbon neutrality, promulgating healthy and sustainable food systems around the world and furthering UC’s engagement with Mexico.

Auston is a member of Napolitano’s Global Climate Leadership Council and co-chair of the council’s Applied Research Working Group. Within months of the creation of the council, he helped to convene two workshops on how UC research could be deployed to help meet the systemwide goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2025. He also played a leading role in organizing a carbon neutrality research summit that included Napolitano, Gov. Jerry Brown and other state leaders, top administrators, sustainability managers and researchers from UC.

“This is a very special honor,” said Auston. “It has been — and continues to be — a great pleasure to work with all the members of the Global Climate Leadership Council and the many faculty, staff and students from the 10 UC campuses, the three national laboratories and UCOP, who are workingto advance the Carbon Neutrality Initiative.”

“The brainpower and creativity of these 10 faculty members represent one more proof point of the tremendous difference the University of California makes in our state and beyond,” said Napolitano. “I look forward to congratulating them in person when we recognize their achievements in the New Year.”

Award winners will receive $3,000 and will be honored by Napolitano at a dinner she will host in early 2016.