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Robert Danziger receives honorary doctorate

Robert Danziger, a sustainable energy pioneer, lawyer, inventor and musician, was honored Sept. 14 by California State University, Monterey Bay and the CSU.?

CSU Monterey Bay President Dianne Harrison conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on the Carmel resident at a ceremony on campus in recognition of his accomplishments as an innovative and cross-disciplinary thinker.?

?“This honor recognizes excellence and extraordinary achievement in significant areas of human endeavor,” President Harrison said.?

“Mr. Danziger’s career linking the sciences, humanities and the arts embodies the interdisciplinary values integral to the Vision of CSU Monterey Bay,” she said.?

In 1980, at age 27, he founded Sunlaw Energy Corp., reflecting his interests in alternative energy and law. His goal was to research, develop, demonstrate and commercialize new energy and environmental technology. “I did not accomplish one of the most important goals I had set for myself: to achieve in my lifetime a kind of universal prosperity coupled with energy independence and a clean environment of the sort we enjoy here in Monterey.” He explained that Sunlaw built and ran a real-world commercial, unsubsidized power plant, where the air coming out was cleaner than the air going in – the first and still the only such plant to do so. “We made good-paying jobs that didn’t cannibalize other jobs," he said. "We set an example that has yet to be equaled, and cannot be bettered.” The company he founded and ran caused worldwide emissions and energy consumption to be reduced by billions of tons, Danziger said. Addressing his university audience, he added, “The next generation you are training will hopefully have a chance to make this kind of performance commonplace, although partisanship is the enemy of prosperity, energy independence, and a clean environment.” Before Danziger started Sunlaw, he was a musician and artist, graduated from law school and worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology. He concluded by saying, “This university and this place we live in is a special place of blessedness. We are singing a great song, harmonizing with generations past and generations yet unborn. “Let’s keep the music flowing.”

Photo: President Dianne Harrison confers honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on Robert Danziger while chair of CSUMB's Faculty Senate, Carl Ferguson, looks on