Senator Catherine Cortez Masto toured the Desert Research Institute to highlight the $9.2 million in investments from a recently passed bipartisan legislation.
These investments the Senator delivered will fund DRI initiatives to map and identify lithium resources in Nevada, provide free STEM education and workforce development programs for K-12 students and teachers and work on research to combat pollution.
“The opportunity to fight for federal funds right now, about $9 million this cycle, to come to Desert Research Institute to support our kids, to support the environment, to support the scientists here that are doing this groundbreaking research, it’s a game changer for us,” said Senator Cortez Masto.
“I was thrilled to join the Desert Research Institute today to see how their work is helping ensure Nevada continues lead the way in the fight to combat climate change and drive a sustainable future,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “From developing our lithium resources to preparing Nevada students for the jobs of tomorrow, this funding I delivered will help promote Nevada’s clean-energy industries, create more good-paying jobs, and keep our families healthy.”
This is a part of the Senator's "Innovative State Initiative".
Senator Cortez Masto kept emphasizing the importance of STEM.
“It’s important that our kids, we engage them in STEM courses, because a lot of their future and the jobs of the future are based on STEM and they’re great paying jobs and innovation economy and we don’t want our kids to be left behind,” she said.
“It is continuing to ensure that as we are doing this research, we are using our graduates and our undergraduates, we are utilizing opportunity to expose our kids K-12 to the sciences and the potential and the opportunity so they can make a difference in science in our health in our environment,” she added.
Regarding the environment, Senator Cortez Masto says some of the funding is going toward studying microplastics as a way to keep our environment clean.
“Federal funds that came in to continue the research and the equipment that they need, cutting edge equipment that really the DRI from my understanding today is really one facility in the United States that has this cutting-edge equipment to do this research,” she said.
“We appreciate Senator Cortez Masto’s continued support of important environmental research and K-12 STEM education,” said DRI President Kumud Acharya. “DRI researchers are conducting science that matters now, and this funding to research environmental pollutants and lithium resource mapping are critical environmental topics important to Nevadans and beyond.”
Here is a list of funding Senator Cortez Masto helped Deliver to support the DRI initiatives:
- $2,800,000 for K-12 STEM Education Pathways: This funding will support DRI’s STEM Education Program and will help fund new computer science education for K-8 students, support mentorship and workforce development programs for high school students, and provide professional development and free STEM curriculum units for Nevada teachers
- $1,800,000 for Instrumentation for Environmental Pollution Studies: This funding will support research on environmental pollutants in Nevada and providing education opportunities for students to improve our understanding of emerging contaminants like PFAS (or forever chemicals) and other pollutants in our environment.
- $1,630,000 for Lithium Resource Mapping: This funding will help the state better understand the extent of the critical minerals in Nevada. The project will support a comprehensive geologic map of lithium resources and help study lithium recovery techniques that are critical to supporting the emerging clean energy economy.
- $3,000,000 for Environmental Research to Protect Lake Tahoe: This funding will support research by DRI and UNR to balance the needs of protecting Lake Tahoe with recreational activities.
