Dr. Eve Sprunt, who has 35 years of experience working for major oil companies, has been named Marietta College’s 2021-22 Fitzgerald Executive-in-Residence.
Sprunt, who was the 2006 President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, will be guiding approximately 10 students in a project that will investigate waste-to-energy possibilities at Marietta College and the surrounding area. This will include agricultural, industrial and municipal waste.
“I’m very excited about the topic because it is very timely,” said Dr. Gama Perruci, Dean of the McDonough Center for Leadership and Business. “As we focus more on sustainability and alternative energy sources, our students will have an opportunity to work with a top executive in the field. They will expand their problem-solving skills and prepare themselves to be innovators in an increasingly interconnected world.”
Before the end of the fall semester (2021), the participants will present to the EIR different ideas for possible projects and then select a single project to further refine in the spring semester. In the spring semester (2022), the participants will develop a detailed plan for a specific waste-to-energy project. They will determine what must be in a comprehensive proposal, divide the work so that parts are done by small groups and assemble a combined detailed plan to present to local stakeholders.
Sprunt said a successful waste-to-energy project eliminates waste while providing an environmentally acceptable form of energy. Waste can include excess heat that is not otherwise utilized, biomass, municipal, agricultural or industrial waste.
She is confident the project will appeal to students of all majors.
“This is an opportunity to be creative and explore how to minimize our environmental footprint by simultaneously solving two problems — reducing waste and providing energy,” Sprunt said. “What type of waste do you hate the most? How can we beneficially harvest the energy in that waste?”
In 2010, Sprunt received SPE’s highest recognition — Honorary Membership. She worked 21 years with Mobil and 14 years with Chevron, and in 2013, she received the Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers.
Her S.B. and S.M. degrees are from MIT (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and her Ph.D. (Geophysics) from Stanford. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Geophysics from Stanford. Sprunt has authored more than 120 editorial columns on industry trends, technology and workforce issues, 23 patents and 28 technical publications. She is the author of A Guide for Dual-Career Couples and Dearest Audrey, An Unlikely Love Story, and co-author with Maria Angela Capello of Mentoring and Sponsoring: Keys to Success.
Since 2013, the Dublin, California, resident has led her own consulting firm — Eve Sprunt and Associates.