Dear Vince,

	We have been working on the curriculum for some of the educational
programs to be offered by the Energy Markets Institute that Arthur Warga and
I discussed with you in the summer.  I am attaching (tentative) curricula
for two important programs: (1) A graduate certificate in Energy Finance,
(2) A 5-year BBA/MS program in Energy Finance.
	Briefly, the certificate is a 5-course for-credit program that is
available to people with sufficient basic background in finance, economics,
statistics and mathematics.  This certificate includes coursework in
accounting issues specific to the energy industry, basic aspects of energy
sources and the organization and regulation of energy industry, forecasting
and time-series econometric methodologies, basics of financial engineering
and derivatives, real-options and project analysis as it applies to the
energy industry, and energy derivatives and risk-managament.
	The 5-year program is more ambitious. It seeks to provide a broad
but rigorous curriculum for future energy industry professionals and
managers. In the undergraduate component students take rigorous courses in
math, probability and statistics, economics, chemistry and physics, and
accounting and finance. This is conceived to be an "elite" and highly
demanding program where students have to handle the more demanding courses
in a variety of areas.  The 5th or graduate year of the program is given
over to the energy certificate and additional graduate courses in finance
and accounting.
	I know you are extremely busy, but it would be very helpful to get
your reaction (even at a broad level) to these programs and the type of
courses that are envisaged.  We view these programs to potentially form the
core of the educational activities of the Institute, but the next step would
be to develop more specialized programs (of shorter duration) aimed at
professionals already working on challenging problems in the industry. We
are in the process of setting up the Institute and developing its governance
and administrative structure. I will give you more details very shortly.
	On another topic, Darrell Duffie (with whom I interacted with a lot
during our student days at Stanford) will be coming to present a seminar at
the Bauer College on January 10. We very much hope to see you and the Enron
group there.
	Finally, I hope that you and all of your loved ones and colleagues
are as well as possible in light of the recent tragedies. We can only hope,
pray and work to see that these senseless acts never again occur anywhere.


Best wishes,

Praveen



Praveen Kumar
Chair and Professor of Finance
C.T. Bauer College of Business
334 Melcher Hall
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-6021
713-743-4770/713-743-4789 (fax)


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