Clean Fuels Alliance Foundation awards Videchak 2025 Beth Calabotta Sustainable Education Grant
The Clean Fuels Alliance Foundation announced March 11 that it has awarded Courtney Videchak the 2025 Beth Calabotta Sustainable Education Grant.
A mechanical-engineering doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan with experience working on diesel engines, Videchak’s research inspired her to enroll in sustainability courses offered by the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and the School of Environment and Sustainability.
Videchak’s dissertation is focused on creating fuel-specific engine calibrations optimized for biodiesel, renewable diesel and a 50 percent (by volume) blend of the two fuels to decrease CO2 emissions and increase engine efficiency.
Videchak will attend Clean Fuels Alliance America’s 2025 Sustainability Workshop in Kansas City, Missouri, in April, where she will share her research and collaborate with industry and scientific leaders in the field.
“Ultimately, the results of my work will hopefully encourage engine manufacturers to make these alternative fuels a primary consideration rather than an afterthought,” Videchak wrote in her application. “I am eager to attend the workshop to deepen my understanding of alternative-fuel sustainability, a critical area for my future career. This opportunity would allow me to apply what I learn to my professional aspirations in renewable energy and low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels.”
The Beth Calabotta Grant was established to support deserving students interested in clean fuels, science and research.
The grant honors scientist and past foundation director Beth Calabotta, whose legacy and dedication to biodiesel and sustainability tremendously impacted the industry.
“First offered in 2018, this grant continues Beth’s efforts to encourage students in science and research,” said Tom Verry, executive director of the foundation.
“Courtney’s research, perseverance and vision are inspirational and exemplify exactly what this grant was meant to support,” Verry added. “Beth would be proud.”
Calabotta had an unquenchable love for agriculture and life sciences.
Later in her career, Calabotta’s efforts focused almost solely on developing biofuels as viable energy alternatives to conventional fuels.
Based on Calabotta’s work, the foundation and Clean Fuels’ governing board continue building on the idea that adopting innovative technologies and diversifying markets will produce environmental benefits that can be documented through research and data.
The foundation works closely with Clean Fuels Alliance America to address national issues affecting everyone—cleaner air, greater economic development for rural communities and enhanced national security through energy independence.
Organized in 1994, the mission of the foundation is to accomplish outreach, education, research and demonstration activities for the advancement of biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.
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