February 18, 2010
‘Addressing the Sputniks of Our Generation’ is title of talk today
Arun Majumdar, inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), will give a free public lecture today, Feb. 18, at 3:30 in the atrium of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering.
Majumdar was appointed by President Obama in October to lead the newly formed ARPA-E, an agency that has been described as the “blue-sky science arm” of the U.S. Department of Energy. The new initiative is modeled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, which funds high-risk research and hosts public challenges to address tough problems in defense. ARPA-E’s mission is to “focus exclusively on high-risk, high-payoff concepts — technologies promising genuine transformation in the ways we generate, store and utilize energy.”
The lecture, ARPA-E: Addressing the Sputniks of our Generation, will provide an overview of the agency and an outlook on its future.Majumdar was formerly a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and an associate director for energy and environment research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His afternoon campus visit will include one-on-one meetings with scientists, a roundtable with 10 energy-related scientists and engineers, and a roundtable with 10 energy-related entrepreneurs and investors.
After the talk Majumdar will meet with members of the governor-appointed Washington State Clean Energy Leadership Council and with Senator Maria Cantwell. The visit is being co-hosted by Ed Lazowska, professor of computer science and engineering, Karen Fries, ex-Microsoft, and Lars Johansson, a local energy entrepreneur who co-chairs the Northwest Energy Angels investment group.
Learn more online here
