DURHAM, N.C. – Lincoln F. Pratson, professor of energy and environment at 91’s Nicholas School of the Environment, has been selected for a Bass Chair, which includes membership in the Bass Society of Fellows.

Bass Chairs are awarded annually for excellence in research and teaching. This year’s Bass Chairs were recognized at a dinner and ceremony May 9.

Faculty members who are selected for the university-wide honor receive named professorships.  Pratson will be Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences, effective July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2016.

Widely cited for his research and teaching on energy and energy systems, Pratson is director of the Nicholas School’s Energy & Environment Program. He co-leads a research group at Duke on carbon capture and storage. Working with students, he is conducting research into integrating different forms energy storage and renewable energy generation into the electricity delivery system, assessing current and future water use in thermo-electric power generation, and evaluating future demand for and supplies of energy resources.

He also is director of the 91 Energy Hub; associate director of the Gendell Center for Engineering, Energy & the Environment at Duke; serves on the executive committee for the Research Triangle Energy Consortium; and is co-founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy Fellowship.

Earlier this year, Pratson was named a Leopold Leadership Fellow, a national honor awarded to outstanding, mid-career academic researchers in environmental fields of critical importance and are also actively engaged in public outreach.

The Bass program, established through a gift to Duke in 1996 from Anne T. and Richard M. Bass, honors faculty members who have achieved “true excellence in both research and teaching, and are good university citizens.” The Bass Society provides an opportunity for some of Duke's most celebrated educators to pool their experiences and resources and to exchange ideas in a casual setting. Through regular meetings of professors across the university, the Bass Society seeks to develop innovative ways to connect students and faculty in an academic setting as well as to bring together various disciplines.

Four other Nicholas School faculty members previously have been selected for Bass Chairs and membership in the Bass Society. They are Richard Forward, Emily Klein, Susan Lozier and Daniel Rittschof.