Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has announced a $2 million gift from alumnus Jeffrey Gendell and his wife, Martha, to support an expanded curriculum in energy studies at its Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

The gift will support two new full-time faculty positions in the school's Energy and Environment program as well as an energy research fund, a speakers series, and a visiting executives program. It also will endow a general fund to support energy innovation initiatives.

"Supporting an initiative such as the Nicholas School's [Environment and Earth Sciences] program will help foster future leadership and innovation to meet these challenges by training students to think broadly and strategically about energy policy, management, and research," said Gendell, a general partner of Greenwich, Connecticut-based Tontine Associates. "As someone who studies the energy industry for a living, I am acutely aware of the profound challenges society faces in finding safe, reliable sources of energy for the future."