Our Mission
The STRIKER Foundation for Energy Research and Education (SFERE) will provide a forum to encourage energy research and related scientific education for students and professionals to help ensure that the United States maintains a leading role on the world energy stage.
SFERE will provide research funding to organizations including research institutes, colleges and universities, and other non- or not-for-profit organizations engaged in energy industry research.
SFERE will hold workshops and classes for the continuing education of energy industry workers.
SFERE will create and hold programs for young people to learn about and explore careers in the energy industry.
Sponsored Event
In June of 2011, SFERE sponsored a GirlTalk event for the Rio Grande Valley Science Authority. In partnership with the Rio Grande Valley Science Association and STORE (an alliance at the University of Texas at Austin) this event was an energy workshop for incoming 6th- to 8th-grade girls from the Rio Grande Valley area as part of the organization’s Engaging Girls in Science Camp, June 6-9, 2011.
University of Texas at Austin faculty members Drs Jon and Hilary Olson provided curriculum and instruction for the workshop titled "Energy and You in the 21st Century." Topics included energy resources and challenges, climate change, carbon mitigation and carbon sequestration. Students completed hands-on lab activities as well as problem sets that involved higher level math, including some algebra, that helped them understand energy concepts and give them insight into an engineering and science profession. Two local middle school teachers also attended the workshop and assisted with instruction.
The girls had a great time with hands-on experiments and interactive demonstrations.
SFERE is working to hold GirlTalk events in several cities throughout Texas and the Gulf Coast region in the 2012-2013 school year.
Coal No More
Coal No More is an effort started by an environmentally conscious engineer from Texas who believed in a world no longer dependent on coal combustion. It was quickly joined by other concerned Texans who agree it is not only possible to rid America of the harmful effects of coal combustion but that there are alternatives to coal that are less expensive and less harmful, while being just as plentiful and plausible an energy source as coal could ever be.