Greulich Endowed Chair

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The Center for Energy Systems, its students, lab manager, and director, would all like to express their appreciation to Mr. Don Greulich and Mrs. Jennifer Greulich for their generous donation of the Greulich Endowed Chair in Energy Systems to WKU. This donation allowed for the establishment of the Energy Systems Lab in 2012 and later to its evolution into the Center for Energy Systems (CES) in July 2018.

The CES has been completely focused on undergraduate engineering students, using an operation model similar to those used in the industry, and up until July 2019, the CES had been completely industry funded. In that sense, the Center for Energy Systems is unique; it provides an inviting and engaging environment for students where they are able to apply their classes learning from one context to another context, creating meaningful and innovative real-world solutions. This has led to the creation of new products and/or new market features and functions for existing products.

The Center for Energy Systems has now become an “engine for workforce development” for the southern Kentucky region, state of Kentucky, and the nation. Our graduates have been admitted to some of the top-20 engineering schools in the nation, including the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University, University of Norte Dame, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Vanderbilt University. Other graduates of the CES have been hired in local industries, such as Logan Aluminum, Fruit of the Loom, and Heathco LLC, or have found jobs at nationally-renowned companies, such as Boeing, GE, and ANSYS. As of September 2019, the Center has had over 70 alumni who have gained highly valuable research skills applicable to both working in the industry or attending graduate school. As one of our sponsors put it, the Center for Energy Systems creates “workforce-ready graduates.”     

The students at the WKU Center for Energy Systems would once again like to extend their deep appreciation towards the Greulich Family and let them know that without their gift, they would have never been able to reach to the professional positions that they are at today.