Dr. Martin Keller Named Director of National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Golden, Colo. – October 21, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — The Alliance for Sustainable Energy (Alliance) today announced the appointment of Dr. Martin Keller as director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and president of the Alliance which manages the laboratory for the Department of Energy. Keller will officially join NREL in this role on November 30, 2015. Keller was selected following a highly competitive national search.
“We are very excited to have Martin join NREL,” said Alliance Board co-chairs Ron Townsend, Battelle Executive Vice President for Global Laboratory Operations and Tom Fleener, Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, MRIGlobal. “Without a doubt, his visionary leadership, proven ability to form high-performance teams and produce world-leading outcomes, and his strong relationships with senior leaders across DOE, industry and the national laboratory system will lead NREL to even more impactful scientific discovery and market impact.”
Keller’s experience and passion are strongly aligned with the NREL mission and program portfolio. He joins NREL from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where he served as the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environmental Sciences, which includes ORNL’s programs in biosciences, environmental sciences, buildings technologies, transportation, climate change, manufacturing, and electrical and electronics systems. In 2006, Keller was recruited to ORNL from an industrial enzyme discovery and development company to lead the Office of Science-supported BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), in which NREL is a partner.
“Having seen firsthand the tremendous clean energy innovation at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in recent years under Martin’s leadership, I could think of no better person to lead NREL in the critically important years that lie ahead of us for clean energy,” said David Danielson, the Energy Department’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). “I look forward to working with Martin hand-in-hand as strategic partners to deliver the technologies and solutions that will help create American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy.”
Keller earned his doctorate in Microbiology (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Regensburg in Germany. He was appointed a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2013. He serves on multiple boards and advisory panels, including the Science Advisory Board for the Council on Competitiveness.
“I have enjoyed working with colleagues at NREL,” said Keller. “I’ve been impressed both by the quality of the research and the impact that NREL is having nationally and globally in enabling the transformation of energy systems. I am looking forward to becoming a part of NREL’s future success.”
Martin succeeds Dan E. Arvizu who served in this role for more than 10 years and whose retirement was announced in March. Arvizu led the successful Alliance bid that resulted in the award of the contract to manage NREL in 2008. Under Arvizu’s leadership, NREL’s research capabilities and impact were strengthened, its operational performance was elevated and the campus was transformed, including the addition of the Energy Systems Integration Facility — a new DOE user facility that provides a national capability for energy systems integration research.
Battelle and MRIGlobal anchor the Alliance for Sustainability, LLC, which holds NREL’s management and operating (M&O) contract. As the M&O contractor, Alliance is fully accountable to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for assuring NREL’s performance. The Battelle-MRIGlobal team has a multiple decade history of successfully working together at NREL and takes pride in the Laboratory’s continued successful delivery of energy efficiency and renewable energy mission outcomes for DOE and the nation.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
Visit NREL online at www.nrel.gov
