Arun Majumdar of Google will give the plenary address at the 2013 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting to be held April 1–5 in San Francisco. The plenary session will be held on Wednesday, April 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
Access to affordable and reliable energy has been a cornerstone of the world’s increasing prosperity and economic growth since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Majumdar says society’s use of energy in the 21st century must also be sustainable. In his presentation, “A New Industrial Revolution for a Sustainable Energy Future,” Majumdar will provide a techno-economic snapshot of the current energy landscape and identify several research and development opportunities and challenges, particularly related to materials research and engineering, to create the foundation for this new industrial revolution.
Currently a vice president for energy at Google, Majumdar is driving Google.org’s energy initiatives and advising the company on its broader energy strategy. Prior to joining Google, Majumdar was the founding director of the US Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to innovate the future of energy technologies. During part of this time, he also served as Acting Under Secretary of Energy and a senior advisor to the Secretary of Energy. In this role, he was responsible for integrating technologies and policies across all of the Department of Energy along techno-economic sectors to maximize leveraging of federal funding and to accelerate technology transition from research to markets.
