CU, NREL name new director of joint energy institute

Knotek

The University of Colorado at Boulder and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden has named Michael L. Knotek, Ph.D., as director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI).

Knotek brings more than 35 years of experience to RASEI, a joint institute between CU-Boulder and NREL. Since 2001 he has served as a consultant specializing in transitions and creating new research directions in agency and institutional programs, projects and major research facilities. He also has been involved in strategic planning and project management for multidisciplinary and multi-institutional programs and facilities, including DOE biological programs, high-performance computing, national facilities such as synchrotrons, environmental research and many aspects of energy science and technology.

Knotek, one of the nation's most experienced leaders in multidisciplinary energy research, will focus on renewable energy research within RASEI, one of the world's leading university and federal laboratory partnerships.

"The appointment of Dr. Knotek continues our tradition of attracting the highest quality leadership, and will foster new opportunities for Colorado's scientific and private sector communities to collaborate on new energy solutions," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano.

Knotek will have overall responsibility for management of RASEI's CU-Boulder and NREL research fellows and private-sector Leadership Council.

"The breadth and depth of experience and knowledge that Dr. Knotek brings to RASEI is exactly the kind of leadership we need to help shape the nation's energy future," said NREL Director Dan Arvizu.

Knotek previously served as senior science and technology adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Energy; the distinguished science executive at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill.; chief technology officer with the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio; and chairman of the National Synchrotron Light Source research facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.

He also served as associate laboratory director for environmental and energy sciences at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and as special assistant to the director at Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp. in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.