Tim Healy:
Champion of Energy Education
For more than 40 years Tim Healy, professor of electrical engineering, has been a champion of energy education in the School of Engineering. When he starts talking on the subject, his eyes light up with an energy that we can only wish could be harnessed as an alternative power source.
Healy was a proponent of sustainability long before the word ever entered our common vernacular. In the 1970s he published a book entitled, Energy, Electric Power and Man. Showing his true feminist colors, he laughs sheepishly now at the title, explaining that the second edition published the following year was called, Energy and Society.
During the energy crisis of the 1970s, Healy developed and taught a popular interdisciplinary undergraduate core course called “Energy and the World’s Resources,” that explored how gas, oil, water, coal and the sun are related to technology and the social, economic and political problems of generating electric energy. He commented at the time: “It is important knowledge for anyone. It helps make students better informed and more responsible citizens, able to make critical analysis of readings and of statements that are made about energy and also able to identify the real problems.”
These days, Healy continues to help students identify and address energy problems. He teaches an undergraduate core course called “Sustainable Electric Energy,” recently co-founded the Latimer Energy Laboratory, and directs the Latimer Energy Scholars program, which is committed to developing Bronco engineers into top-flight experts in photovoltaic and renewable energy. As a Scholar and member of the Steering Committee of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, as well as a long-time proponent of energy studies at Santa Clara, he is the perfect professor to generate interest among the next generation of energy enthusiasts.
