That person will oversee research on ways to save energy in buildings, agriculture and transportation. John McDonald is Chevron’s vice president and chief technology officer. 

“UC Davis was one of the first universities to put together a center focused on energy efficiency that was really well aligned with Chevron’s interests and the Chevron Chair of Energy Efficiency is going to drive the center’s goal of developing and commercializing energy efficiency technology.” 

The campus will now conduct a national search. The chair will be responsible for bridging academic research with real-world applications at the three-year-old center. 

The Chevron endowment isn’t the first gift from an oil company to a California university to study energy issues. UC Berkeley recently got a $500 million grant from another major oil company. That sparked a debate on campus about the role of corporations in academic research.