Shell Oil Co. executives visited The University of Texas at Austin Friday, Feb. 10, to present a check in the amount of $3,963,250, representing the company's investment in the university for the year.
About $3.5 million of the total was designated for sponsored research. Shell has active research partnerships with the university’s Cockrell School of Engineering, Jackson School of Geosciences and Marine Science Institute. Those partnerships include the Shell-UT Unconventional Research (SUTUR) initiative.
SUTUR is a five-year, $7.5 million collaboration between Shell and the university's Department of Petroleum & Geoscience Engineering and Bureau of Economic Geology to address short- and long-term challenges facing the growing worldwide unconventional oil and gas industry.
“We not only celebrate Shell’s investment of $3.9 million in The University of Texas at Austin, we also celebrate our mutually respected partnership,” said David Onion, the university’s senior associate vice president for development. “The world is faced with many serious energy-related issues, and it is good to know that Shell, a leader in technology and innovation, has partnered with UT Austin and its energy-rich research initiatives to provide the world the necessary solutions.”
The nonresearch, philanthropic portion of the funding, about $470,000, included Shell’s support for student activities and programs throughout the year that contribute to its recruiting success. The company recruits employees from the McCombs School of Business in addition to the Cockrell and Jackson Schools. Shell also matched charitable donations from employees and retirees.
Including its latest contribution, Shell’s cumulative philanthropic giving to the university stands at more than $24.8 million.
