Eve Sprunt '72, SM '73
Digging Deep for Alternative Energy Resources
She earns her living identifying promising alternative transportation fuels, but don't expect Eve Sprunt '72, SM '73 to write eulogies for petroleum. "We haven't seen alternative fuels enter the marketplace yet because petroleum is very tough to compete with," says the senior technical advisor for Chevron Technology Ventures. Sprunt advises the subsidiary regarding which forms of alternative energy—such as wind, biomass, solar, and hydrogen—Chevron should support.
Sprunt does have her favorite—bio-fuels. But while she finds them intriguing because they can be used in traditional vehicles, she cautions that every form of energy leaves its environmental footprint. "To compare different methods of powering transportation, the correct approach is to look at the full life cycle."
Sprunt credits MIT with cultivating the skills required to conduct her stringent analyses. Even more critically, "MIT trained me to develop my own perspective, along with the ability to support that perspective, and the courage and stamina to present it."
Such talents likely helped win Sprunt the 2006 presidency of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). She is not shy about citing petroleum's virtues, and exhorts her SPE colleagues in her travels worldwide to engage in discussions about oil's energy density, transportability, and usefulness.
One of Sprunt's predecessors as SPE president is also an MIT graduate, Kate Hadley Baker '71, PhD '75 and Sprunt finds alumnae in her professional travels. "The MIT link can be a powerful networking tool. MIT was providing women with the skills to succeed in male-dominated technical professions before there were women in leadership roles in those industries."
MIT has also nurtured Sprunt's family life. She met her husband, Hugh Sprunt '71, SM '72, at the Institute and their son Alex received his PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT last August. Daughter Elsa, who earned an undergraduate degree at Dartmouth, is enrolled at the University of Texas Law School.
For Sprunt, uncovering energy alternatives offers challenge and excitement. But nothing could top the thrill Alex provided when he recently asked Sprunt to preview his PhD thesis. "I was flattered," she says with a laugh. "And I learned quite a bit when I read it."
By Eileen McCluskey
(First published in Technology Review, October 2005)
