Biographies

Tim Donahue

Principal Investigator, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

Tim Donahue is the principal investigator of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. He is an expert in how microbes harness and convert solar energy. His laboratory researches genetic pathways and networks that microbes use to generate biomass or biofuels from sunlight. His work employs genome sequence, microarrays, proteomics and molecular techniques to determine how the energy in sunlight or renewable nutrients is diverted into cell biomass or biofuel formation.

Eric Gislason

Interim Chancellor, University of Illinois at Chicago

As interim chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago , Eric A. Gislason heads the Chicago area's largest university, with 25,000 students; one of the nation's leading academic research enterprises, with expenditures of more than $300 million; and one of Chicago 's largest employers, with 12,000 faculty and staff and a $1.6 billion budget.

Named interim vice chancellor in July 1999 and permanent vice chancellor in August 2001, Gislason presided over a substantial increase in funded research at UIC, which now ranks 47th in the nation in federal research funding, one of the best measures of faculty excellence. Gislason was appointed interim chancellor Jan. 1, 2008, and will serve until a permanent successor is named to Sylvia Manning, who retired at the end of 2007. Once the new chancellor is in place, Gislason plans to retire from UIC and complete writing a book about thermodynamics.

Gislason joined the UIC faculty in 1969 and served as head of chemistry from 1993-1999 and interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1997-1998. He holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard.

John Holdren

Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University; Director of the Woods Hole Research Center; NCEP Co-chair

John P. Holdren is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, as well as President and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center. He is also Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and from 2005–2008 served as President-Elect, President, and Chair of the Board of American Association for the Advancement of Science. His work has focused on causes and consequences of global environmental change, sustainable development, energy technology and policy, nuclear arms control and nonproliferation, and science and technology policy.

Tom Hunter

Director, Sandia National Lab

Dr. Thomas (Tom) O. Hunter is President of Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, and Director of Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia Corporation manages Sandia National Laboratories, with principal sites in Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Dr. Hunter joined Sandia in 1967 and became President in April 2005.

Before assuming his role as Director, Dr. Hunter was the Senior Vice President for Defense Programs at the Laboratories. In that capacity, he led the Defense Programs Strategic Management Unit, including approximately 60% of the Laboratories’ annual budget. His management role included oversight of research programs in microelectronics, materials science, engineering science, computer science, and pulsed power; nuclear weapons engineering; information systems and technology; and production and manufacturing.

He is a current member of the Engineering Advisory Board for the University of Florida, Council on Foreign Relations, American Nuclear Society, and the U.S. Strategic Command’s Strategic Advisory Group. He has served as a member and Chair for the Board of Visitors for the Dean of the College of Engineering (University of CA at Davis), on various review groups with other DOE laboratories, guest lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on nuclear waste management, and as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico.

Dr. Hunter earned a B.S.M.E. from the University of Florida, an M.S.M.E. from the University of New Mexico, an M.S.N.E. from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.

Melanie Kenderdine

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Melanie Kenderdine of Gas Technology Institute (GTI) provides commentary on the natural gas industry and issues related to U.S. energy policy and legislation. With more than two decades of experience in both federal and private energy sectors, she understands and communicates effectively about energy issues and policies, as well as the latest developments in pursuit of natural gas and other energy sources. She is particularly knowledgeable about trends in domestic and world energy supplies and in technologies that will impact energy supply and demand.

Bob Marlay

DOE, CCTP

Dr. Bob Marlay is the Deputy Director of the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP). Dr. Marlay is a career member of the Government's Senior Executive Service. He has more than 30 years of Federal Service and has been with the U.S. Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies since 1974. His contributions have focused primarily in the areas of national security, energy policy, science policy, and management of research and development programs. He serves concurrently as the Department's Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of Policy and International Affairs. He holds a B.S.E. degree from Duke University and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the District of Columbia.

Thom Mason

Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Dr. Mason, who became Laboratory Director July 1, 2007, is an experimental condensed matter physicist whose primary research tool has been neutron scattering, supplemented by the use of X rays and transport and thermodynamic measurements. His research interests include magnetic fluctuations in superconductors and novel magnetic materials, and applications of neutron scattering to problems of industrial relevance through measurements of residual strain in engineering materials.

Dr. Mason received a B.Sc. in physics from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1986 and a Ph.D. in physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1990. Following completion of his doctorate, he held a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey from 1990 to 1991. He then spent a year as a senior scientist at Risø National Laboratory in Denmark where, in addition to conducting ongoing physics research, he supported the user program and developed new instrumentation. From 1993 to 1998, he was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto. He became director of the Experimental Facilities Division of the Spallation Neutron Source in 1998 and served in that capacity until being named Associate Laboratory Director for the Spallation Neutron Source in 2001. In October 2006, following the completion of the Spallation Neutron Source construction project, Dr. Mason was named Associate Laboratory Director for Neutron Sciences, leading a new directorate charged with delivering safe and productive scientific facilities for the study of structure and dynamics of materials.

Theodore U. Marston

Marston Consulting

Theodore U. Marston, possesses over 35 years of international experience in the assessment and management of risk for industrial facilities, including nuclear and conventional power plants, refineries, chemical plants, railroads, and defense facilities. Before heading Marston Consulting in 2006, Dr. Marston worked as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President at Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. In addition to his work at Electric Power Research Institute which began in 1976, Dr. Marston has worked with EQE International, Failure Analysis Associates, Inc, Electricité de France, and Combustion Engineering, Inc. He currently serves on the Board of Managers of the Idaho National Laboratory.

Susan Mayer

Dean, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago

Susan E. Mayer is a professor and dean of the Harris School. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on the measurement of poverty, the effect of growing up in poor neighborhoods, and the effect of parental income on children's well-being. Recent articles include, "How Did the Increase in Economic Inequality between 1970 and 1990 Affect Children's Educational Attainment?" (American Journal of Sociology) and "How Economic Segregation Affects Children's Educational Attainment" (Social Forces). She is currently doing research on intergenerational economic mobility, having just published "Has the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status Changed?" (Journal of Human Resources) among other papers on this topic, and the social and political consequences of the increase in economic inequality in the United States.

Mayer is a member of the Board of Directors of Chapin Hall Center for Children and the Government Accountability Office Educators' Advisory Panel. She has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on National Statistics Panel to Review U.S. Department of Agriculture's Measurement of Food Insecurity and Hunger, and the Committee on Standards of Evidence and the Quality of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Mayer is the past director and deputy director of the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research. She has served as an associate editor for the American Journal of Sociology.

Julio Ottino

Dean, McCormick School, Northwestern University

Julio M. Ottino is currently dean of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University, and he holds the titles Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern. Ottino received a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota, his BS in Argentina, and has held research chaired and senior positions at Caltech, Stanford, and the University of Minnesota. He taught for a number of years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science and Engineering.

Ottino has been at the McCormick School of Engineering since 1991. He served as chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 1992-2000. He served as co-chair of an ad hoc group established by President Bienen to recommend future directions for the Basic Industry Research Laboratory (BIRL). Most recently, he has been instrumental in the creation of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO), of which he is currently co-director.

Ottino's research in fluids and granular matter has appeared on the covers of Nature, Science, Scientific American, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, and has impacted fields as diverse as fluid dynamics, granular dynamics, microfluidics, geophysical sciences, and nonlinear dynamics and chaos.

Paul Portney

Dean, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona

Paul R. Portney became Dean of the Eller College of Management in July 2005. He also holds the College’s Halle Chair in Leadership and is a Professor of Economics.

From 1972 through June of 2005, Portney was with Resources for the Future (RFF), an independent and non-partisan research and educational organization in Washington, D.C., that specializes in energy and the environment. From 1986-1989 he headed two of its research divisions, in 1989 became its vice president, and was named president and CEO in 1995.

He has held visiting teaching positions at both the University of California at Berkeley (1977-1979) and Princeton University (1992-1994), and since 1981 has been a core faculty member for The Washington Campus—a consortium of nearly 20 graduate schools of business that offer classes in Washington for both full-time and executive MBA students—and continuing education programs for major corporations. Since 1999, Portney has been a member of and has chaired the Finance and Investment Committee for the Johnson Foundation, one of the charitable arms of the Johnson family of Racine, Wisconsin. Until 2005, he was a member of the Sustainable Forestry Board, serving with the CEOs of five major forest products companies and the heads of five environmental organizations.

Portney received his B.A. in economics in 1967 from Alma College in Michigan and his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including Public Policies for Environmental Protection, and was recently named one of the 100 most-cited researchers in economics and business.

Victor Reis

Council on Government Relations

Victor H. Reis is Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary, Department of Energy, with primary responsibility for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, part of President George W. Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative. He is also a member Strategic Advisory Group of the U.S. Strategic Command.

From 1999 to 2005 Reis was Senior Vice President of Hicks and Associates, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), where he led the Nuclear Strategies Project. He served as a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of the U.S. Strategic Command, the Sandia National Laboratory National Security Advisory Panel, the Argonne National Laboratory Board of Governors, the NNSA’s Predictive Science and Independent Capability Review Committees, and chaired the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory National Security Panel, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory Weapons Physics External Review Committee.

Reis served as Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs in the U.S. Department of Energy from 1993 to 1999, where he lead the development of the DOE’s Stockpile Stewardship Program. From 1991 to 1993 he was Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) at the Pentagon, the principal advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for scientific and technical matters, basic and applied research, laboratories and early development of defense weapons systems. He also chaired the Nuclear Weapons Council. Earlier, he served as Deputy Director and then Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He has been Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning, SAIC; Assistant Director for National Security and Space, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, (OSTP); senior staff member, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory and other positions in industry and government. He was a member of the Director of Central Intelligence Science and Technology Advisory Panel and participated in numerous advisory panels for the Department of Defense, (Defense Science Board), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Research Council.

Reis earned a B.M.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, (1957) an M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University (1958); and an M.A. and Ph.D.(1962) from Princeton University. His many awards include two Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medals. He has authored numerous scientific and policy publications.

Robert Rosner

Director, Argonne National Laboratory

Robert Rosner, an internationally recognized astrophysicist, is President of UChicago Argonne, LLC, and has been Director of Argonne National Laboratory since April 2005. Prior to his position as Director of Argonne, he served as Chief Scientist at the institution since 2002. He was chairman of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago from 1991 to1997, and since 1998 has been the University's William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor. He was the Rothschild Visiting Professor at the Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University in 2004. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University (1976) and bachelor's degree in physics from Brandeis University (1969).

Most of Rosner's scientific work has been related to astrophysical fluid dynamics and plasma physics problems. Much of his current work involves developing new numerical simulation tools for modeling astrophysical phenomena, as well as validating these simulations using terrestrial laboratory experiments. He led the U.S. Department of Energy–funded Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes at Chicago from 1997 until 2002.

John Rowe

Chairman & CEO, Exelon Corp. and NCEP Co-Chair

John W. Rowe, 62, is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Exelon Corporation - one of the nation's largest electric utilities, with 5.4 million customers and revenues of more than $15 billion. Forbes ranked Exelon as the number one utility company on its 2005 list of “The Best Managed Companies in America” and ranked Exelon as the number one utility company in the United States on its 2004 list of “The World’s 2000 Leading Companies.”

Rowe has led electric utilities since 1984, consecutively serving as chief executive officer of Central Maine Power Company, the New England Electric System and Unicom Corporation (one of Exelon's predecessors). Rowe is a lawyer, and was general counsel of Consolidated Rail Corporation and a partner in the firm of Isham, Lincoln and Beale. Rowe's business activities have been marked by his attention to balance sheet strength, earnings consistency, service reliability and environmental performance. Rowe is also a member of the board of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, WiCell Research and has received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He holds honorary doctorates from DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Drexel University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Thomas College and Bryant College.

Rowe holds a bachelor’s and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin and its law school, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif and is the founder of the Rowe Professorship in Byzantine history.

Alan Schriesheim

President, Chicago Council on Science and Technology

Alan Schriesheim is the President and Founder, C2ST and Director Emeritus, Argonne National Laboratory. Schriesheim served as director of Argonne from 1983 to 1996. He joined Argonne after a long career with Exxon Corporation and was the first national laboratory director to be recruited from industry. He successfully launched a series of initiatives to diversify Argonne’s core competencies, broaden its research scope and expand its relationships with other government, academic and industrial organizations, both nationally and internationally.

During Schriesheim’s tenure, Argonne undertook programs spanning the full range of science—from high-temperature superconductors, to developing biological microchips and sequencing the human genome, to establishing a virtual-reality advanced parallel-processing computer center. He was the driving force behind the establishment of ARCH, a separate entity between the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory designed to commercialize technology from both institutions. He is the author or co-author of numerous publications and holds 22 U.S. patents.

Schriesheim is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a past chairman of the National Conference on the Advancement of Research. He has been active in community, educational and cultural affairs, placing emphasis on developing the scientists of tomorrow.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic University in New York and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Pennsylvania State University.

Dennis Spurgeon

Assistant Secretary, Office of Nuclear Energy, United States Department of Energy

Dennis Spurgeon was sworn in on April 3, 2006, as the first Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy (NE) at the Department of Energy in more than a decade. In this capacity, Mr. Spurgeon is the senior nuclear technology official in the U.S. Government.

Mr. Spurgeon is responsible for the Department’s nuclear energy enterprise, including nuclear technology research and development, management of the Department’s nuclear technology infrastructure, and support to nuclear education in the United States. NE’s nuclear technology infrastructure is comprised of hot cells, test reactors, accelerators and other highly specialized facilities that support nuclear research and development, materials testing, and production of isotopes for medicine and radioisotope power systems for space and national security users. He is responsible for execution of a $536 million annual federal budget (FY 2006).

Mr. Spurgeon leads the recently–announced Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a comprehensive strategy aimed at accelerating the demonstration of a more proliferation resistant closed fuel cycle and bringing the benefits of nuclear energy to the world in a safer and more secure manner, reducing the possibility that nuclear energy could be used for non-peaceful purposes. GNEP is part of the President’s Advanced Energy Initiative.

Assistant Secretary Spurgeon held posts in the Ford administration, including an assignment as Assistant Director for Fuel Cycle in the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. He was a member of the White House task force that developed President Ford’s nuclear policy. Earlier in his career, as a U.S. Naval officer, he served as technical assistant to Commissioner Tommy Thompson and later to Dr. Glenn Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and predecessor agency of the department. Mr. Spurgeon graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy. He holds a Masters of Science in nuclear engineering and the degree of Nuclear Engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sue Tierney

Managing Principal, The Analysis Group; NCEP Commissioner

Dr. Tierney is an expert on energy policy and economics, specializing in the electric and gas industries. She has consulted to companies, governments, non-profits, and other organizations on energy markets, economic and environmental regulation and strategy, and energy facility projects. Her expert witness, business consulting, and arbitration services have involved industry restructuring, market analyses, wholesale and retail market design, contract disputes, resource planning, resource procurement analysis, market monitoring, and asset valuations. In addition, Dr. Tierney’s work has covered regional transmission organizations, siting of generation and transmission facilities and natural gas pipeline projects, natural gas markets, electric system reliability, and environmental policy and regulation. A former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy and state public utility commissioner, she is chairman of the board of the Energy Foundation and a member of the National Commission on Energy Policy. She has published widely and frequently speaks at industry conferences.

Jay Walsh

Vice President for Research and Dean, Northwestern University

Joseph (Jay) Walsh began his service as the University's Vice President for Research on December 1, 2007. Walsh formerly served as senior associate dean of McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science (MEAS), where he is a professor of biomedical engineering.

Walsh received a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Immediately following receipt of his PhD in medical engineering from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Walsh joined the Northwestern faculty in 1988. He played an increasingly important role at McCormick, first as associate dean for graduate studies and research and later as senior associate dean.

External to Northwestern, Walsh has played active roles in service as the president of the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery (2003-04) and as the chair for six international conferences.

Paul Willems

Technology Vice President for Energy Biosciences, BP

As Technology Vice President for Energy Biosciences in BP, Dr. Paul Willems is responsible for integrating biotechnology into BP’s business activity. His duties include leading the development and execution of an integrated technology strategy which incorporates all of BP’s bio-related activity and which is fully integrated with BP's company-wide business strategies. Dr. Willems is also the Associate Director for the Energy Biosciences Institute, a 10 year research collaboration between the University of California at Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and BP.

Dr. Willems previously served as Business Technology Manager for BP’s global PTA (purified terephthalic acid, a polyester raw material) business, and as technology vice president for acetyls and aromatics. He earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ghent in Belgium in 1986.

Robert Zimmer

President, University of Chicago

On July 1, 2006, Robert J. Zimmer became the 13th President of the University of Chicago. President Zimmer returned to Chicago from Brown University, where he had served as Provost since 2002. Prior to his position at Brown, President Zimmer was a University of Chicago faculty member and administrator for more than two decades specializing in the mathematical fields of geometry, particularly ergodic theory, Lie groups, and differential geometry. As a University of Chicago administrator, Zimmer served as Chairman of the Mathematics Department, Deputy Provost, and Vice President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory.

As President of the University, he serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Among other boards, he is on the Board of Directors of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He is a member of the Council on Competitiveness in Washington, D.C., and serves on the executive committee.

President Zimmer is the author of two books, Ergodic Theory and Semisimple Groups (1984) and Essential Results of Functional Analysis (1990), and more than 80 mathematical research articles.

President Zimmer earned his A.B., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1975. He joined the Chicago faculty as an L.E. Dickson Instructor of Mathematics in 1977. He was also on the faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy from 1975 to 1977. He has held visiting positions at Harvard University and at institutions in Israel, France, Australia, Switzerland, and Italy.

Chip Zukoski

Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Chip Zukoski is the William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor and Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He received his B.A. from Reed College in 1977 and his Ph.D.
from Princeton University in 1984. Dr. Zukoski has lectured at the University of Illinois, California Institute of Technology, University of Notre Dame, and Princeton University. He also received the Alpha Chi Signma Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.