ABSTRACT

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is tasked to overcome long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of energy technologies. To do so, ARPA-E funds projects with the potential to accelerate break-through technical approaches toward practical applications in reducing US dependence on energy imports, improving energy efficiency, and reducing energy emissions, including greenhouse gases. ARPA-E has developed a unique program management approach that closely couples technical milestones with commercialization milestones.

ARPA-E’s program portfolio includes alternative transportation fuels, energy storage (both vehicular and stationary), low-carbon power, modernization of the electric power grid, and efficiency in buildings, transportation, manufacturing and power generation. Developing and applying advanced materials is an essential component of many of ARPA-E’s programs.

The presentation will use program and project examples to illustrate ARPA-E’s program development process, and the successful evolution of projects from concept to prototype demonstration.

About the Speaker:

Ellen Williams is the Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA-E, in the Department of Energy. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment.

Prior to Senate confirmation for her role in ARPA-E, Ellen served as a senior advisor to the Secretary on the DOE’s technology transfer policies, issues, and plans. She recommended and helped establish the Departments’s new Office of Technology Transitions to expand the impact of the Department’s extensive Research and Development activities.

Ellen joined DOE from BP, where she had been the Chief Scientist since January 2010. There she was responsible for assurance of technology programs, and strategic research and program development. Her priority actions included developing the Advisory Oversight structure for BP’s Gulf Research Initiative, running a multi-university research program on natural resource constrains in the context of energy (the Energy Sustainability Challenge), and establishing cores of scientific excellence and innovation in key disciplinary areas essential to BP’s long term technical competitiveness.

Prior to joining BP, Ellen worked for over thirty years in academia, obtaining her Ph.D at Caltech in 1981, and then moving to the University of Maryland, where she rose to become a Distinguished University Professor in the Institute of Physical Science and Technology and the Department of Physics. She founded the University of Maryland Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and served as its director for 15 years. In parallel, Ellen has worked extensively in providing technical advice to the U.S. government, primarily through the Departments of Energy and Defence.

Ellen is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, American Vacuum Society and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been recognized by awards from the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society. She has a distinguished history of professional service, including chairing the development of the NAS report on Technical Issues for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.