ARUN MAJUMDAR
Dean-Designate, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Jay Precourt Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Founding Director, ARPA-E
Chair of the Advisory Board of the US Secretary of Energy
Arun’s expertise and genius are complemented by his incredible ability to communicate. He explains our electrical grid with such nuance and approachability that it no longer feels so daunting or complicated. For a man with such a complex understanding of this topic, he presents it in a way that puts us all at ease and prepares us to tackle the problem. He deserves a Pulitzer for explaining the grid.
Dr. Majumdar’s research in the past has involved the science and engineering of nanoscale materials and devices, especially in the areas of energy conversion, transport, and storage as well as biomolecular analysis. His current research focuses on using electrochemical reactions for thermal energy conversion, thermochemical redox reactions, understanding the limits of heat transport in nanostructured materials, and a new effort to re-engineer the electricity grid.
Arun was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to become the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), where he served until June 2012 and helped ARPA-E become a model of excellence for the government with bipartisan support from Congress. SunShot, a program under ARPA-E, provides funding to projects that have the potential to improve the solar energy industry. Aurora Solar and Heila Technologies are among the recipients of SunShot prizes.
Arun also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy and was a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy. In 2010, he served on Secretary Chu's Science Team to help stop the leak of the Deep Water Horizon (BP) oil spill. Arun was later the Vice President for Energy at Google before joining Stanford.