The Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI) celebrated its four-year birthday and Earth Day by hosting a party for Hopkins students, faculty, and staff in the Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus. The celebration, which has become an annual tradition for ROSEI, had well over 200 people in attendance, making it the most well-attended event in the institute’s history.
“ROSEI has grown so much in the past four years, and it’s exciting to see our Earth Day celebration grow with it,” said Ben Schafer, ROSEI’s director. “I don’t expect that trend to change. I expect our Earth Day celebration in 2026 will be our biggest yet to celebrate half a decade of ROSEI, and the institute will continue to build on the progress it has made by expanding our research efforts and recruiting more talented faculty to our ranks. It’s important now more than ever to come up with creative solutions for the many problems that climate change poses before it’s too late.”
Along with highlighting the institute’s accomplishments of the past year, ROSEI also honored the seniors that are set to graduate next month with the energy minor, which receives support from the institute. Five of the students were able to attend the celebration and were called out individually on stage to receive a gift bag with various ROSEI swag items. This included:
- Cassie Eckert, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChemBE)
- Sunny Li, ChemBE
- Megan Lim, ChemBE,
- Manning MacAvoy, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Liam McMullin, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
“Educating our students so that they become the leaders of the next generation’s efforts has been one of the main aims of ROSEI since its inception,” Schafer said. “Having the energy minor created a couple of years ago was a big win for the institute, and it’s so exciting to see it evolve to the point that we now have a handful of students that will be graduating with it in May. Publicly honoring those students was a highlight of this year’s Earth Day celebration for sure.”
