Meet Peter Schubert
Peter Schubert is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering & Technology at IUPUI, and serves as the Director of the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy. He is also the CEO of Green Fortress Engineering, Inc., a successful IU spin-up company founded in 2016. He holds 43 patents in the US, plus 13 in the EU, and has published over 120 technical works including a textbook on the use of space resources. He has followed a vegan diet of 34 years.
In his free time, Dr. Schubert enjoys cooking and eating vegan meals. If everyone ate lower on the food chain, we would have longer to solve these civilization-threatening energy challenges.
My greatest joy is awakening motivation in students that spurs them to achievements they never realized they were capable of.
Dr. Peter Schubert
Q and A with Dr. Peter Schubert
Gasoline shortages when I was learning to drive, drove me to focus on clean, abundant energy sources.
Cheap, clean energy for everyone for all time to come will allow economic expansion and improved living conditions for all humans.
Hydrogen generation from biomass is carbon-free and cheap. Hydrogen storage in porous silicon is low-cost and convenient. Baseload power from orbiting powersats is pollution-free and available to all humans. My IU-spawned spin-up company is actively working to commercialize all three.
Much of the hard work comes from my students, each of whom works on a small portion of the overall vision. My greatest joy is awakening motivation in them that spurs them to achievements they never realized they were capable of.
I was the 2021 campus awardee for the Alvin B. Bynum Excellence in Academic Mentoring Award, based on testimonials from six of my students who expressed appreciation for the opportunity to work on topics well beyond the normal reach of undergraduates. My graduate students explain what they have done and get top-paying job offers right away. One day, I hope to be given 100 billion dollars to save civilization, and to call back all my students to make it happen.
Many companies sponsor research in my labs, including a Japanese-owned technology company, a power-beaming company from Michigan, and a start-up run by students from Stanford University. My side company, Green Fortress Engineering, Inc. recently won $100,000 to work with small rural communities in southeast Indiana to “crack the nut” on affordable renewable energy solutions. We just held our first community outreach in the tiny hamlet of Oldenburg, Indiana, founded in 1837, with 40 in attendance for a hot lunch and discussion of potential sites for a project.
The IUPUI split is essentially compelling me to retire early, so the next steps are not yet clear. I am working on several avenues to continue all this important work, but the reality is that I will probably need to select just one solution and make that happen first.
Conversation with Dr. Peter Schubert
On Friday, December 15, 2023 from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m., Dr. Peter Schubert talked about "Solving All the World's Energy Problems Once and For All." Dr. Schubert discussed three solutions needed so that everyone can enjoy a comfortable standard of living without damaging our planet. First, is baseload power for cities and factories, provided by Space Solar Power. Second is rural energy from non-food crop waste that can be converted, on-site, to electricity, heat, biochar, and also hydrogen transportation fuel. Third is safe, convenient hydrogen storage for mobile and portable applications that emit only water vapor as their liquid waste. Learn more about how these solutions can be built from earth-abundant materials that are recyclable, so that a clean and growing economy can benefit all humankind.
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IUPUI faculty member conducting translational community-based research
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