Matt Perkins came to Cornell to study sustainable energy with the best. “When I was choosing schools, Cornell stood out as the one that was really at the forefront of clean energy—especially in the engineering disciplines,” he says. “Also, it’s one of the most beautiful areas and it has a pretty awesome student population in terms of diversity and student interests.”
In the third year of his undergraduate career, Matt has found many opportunities to learn about sustainable energy at Cornell, both in and out of the classroom. Not only is he a member and past president of Kyoto Now!, the student group that pushed Cornell President David Skorton to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, but he has also worked with Cow Power (which studies converting dairy biogas to electricity with fuel cells), the Cornell Biodiesel Initiative, and the Solar Decathlon student team. In 2006, he won an Udall Scholarship for his commitment to and work in sustainability.
While Matt has remained focused on sustainable energy, he has also broadened his interests. “I had no intention of doing any sort of foreign language when I first came here; now I’m in my fourth semester of studying Chinese,” he says. “It makes a lot of sense to couple sustainable energy with learning Chinese. More than any other country, China has a challenge with that right now.”
Matt works hard at Cornell, but he does find time to play, too. Since his first year at Cornell, Matt has sung tenor in the Cornell Glee Club, the university’s oldest student organization. The all male choral ensemble sings everything from classical music like Beethoven’s Ninth to African folk songs like Somagwaza, Siyahamba. Matt is currently president of the group, considered one of the best in the country.
A paid position with materials science and engineering Professor Ulrich Wiesner in Cornell’s Fuel Cell Institute is giving Matt an early taste of research. He is working with Ph.D. student Scott Warren developing new catalysts and electrode materials for fuel cells. “I have this chance to do fairly in-depth research under the guidance of someone with encyclopedic knowledge of the subject,” says Matt. “He has taken time to help me and has actually incorporated some of my ideas into his work.”
The College of Engineering’s co-op program gave Matt an early taste of another sort—of life after school. After taking a semester’s worth of classes over the summer break, he spent the fall of his junior year working for General Electric Energy in Schenectady, N.Y. (He also traveled to Shanghai, China for an international co-op), helping the company find ways to reduce the cost of building wind turbines. “I’m very, very glad that I did that,” he says. “I definitely missed a lot—like in my friends lives—by not being on campus, but on the other hand, it was a great experience to see what life will be like after we graduate.”
