Presidential Lecture on Energy & Environmental Sustainability

"ARPA-E: Addressing the Sputniks of our Generation" The report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" proposed the creation of ARPA-E, which was later authorized and appropriated by Congress. The report suggested ARPA-E to be modeled after DARPA, which was created in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik. It was then felt that the US had lost its technological lead. The US now faces three Sputnik-like challenges: (a) energy security; (b) US technological lead; and (c) greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. In many cases, we as a nation are lagging behind and need to change course with fierce urgency. ARPA-E’s goal is to help catalyze this change by attracting the best minds to focus on the major technical challenges in this field and by stimulating technical and the entrepreneurial community to innovate on energy technologies. While ARPA-E is adopting many of the best practices from DARPA, there are key differences between the defense and energy sectors of our economy, which must be recognized in ARPA-E’s design. This talk will provide some thoughts of how we are putting its “DNA” together, and an outlook for the future. Seating is limited so registration is encouraged; use online link provided below.

NIS