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Busani speaks at DOE Justice Week panel

January 7, 2025 - By Carly Bowling

photo: Justice Week panelists

A faculty member from the University of New Mexico School of Engineering spoke on a panel during Justice Week, hosted in Washington D.C. by the Department of Energy.

Tito Busani, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, spoke on a panel highlighting the DOE’s first Minority-Serving Institution visiting faculty program and his research related to energy justice. Other speakers included Susan Hamm, director of the Integrated Strategies Office in the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; and Marcus Giron, undergraduate internship and faculty program manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

“The concept of energy justice is understanding what a community needs for energy and understanding that what we think they need is not necessarily what they want and need. Understanding renewable energy and its impact in community life does not mean embracing it, it is just one possible way that is worth exploring,” Busani said.

Last summer, Busani worked to develop a clean energy curriculum for high school teachers to encourage students to pursue careers in renewable energy. The work was Busani’s focus during his participation in the DOE’s first cohort Faculty-Applied Clean Energy Sciences (FACES) program, a 10-week summer program hosted last year at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. The FACES program provides renewable energy research opportunities for Minority-Serving Institutions like UNM. During his time in Colorado, Busani also worked with a graduate student and high school teacher from Zuni Pueblo and the agrivoltaic team leader Silvana Ovaitt. His unique research perspective led to an invitation to participate in DOE’s Equity Day.

One of Busani’s objectives is to encourage collaboration between Minority-Serving Institutions and rural communities, and tribes. His long-term goal is to develop educational tools in renewable energy that are inclusive of community traditions.

“We don’t force renewable energy on any community,” he said. “The idea is not to push the technology if it is not embraced, but for us to provide knowledge and ease the passage to higher education’’.

Ultimately, Busani would like to empower people to promote renewable energy technologies in their own communities, particularly through collaboration with high schools, promoting sustainable education, workforce and technology within the communities.

After the panel, Busani said he received a lot of audience interest and questions about how other groups can help enable joint programs between high schools and higher education institutions.

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