U.S. energy undersecretary tours Berkeley
| 28 October 2009
BERKELEY — Slashing the nation's use of fossil fuels by 2030 will take enormous strides in energy efficiency, and "Berkeley is leading the way" in research on new technology to make that possible, U.S. Undersecretary of Energy Kristina Johnson said in a day-long campus visit Tuesday.
Johnson laid out the Obama administration's efforts to meet the nation's daunting energy challenges to a standing-room-only crowd in Hearst Memorial Mining Building.
She also saw some of Berkeley's research projects firsthand, touring Stanley Hall, home of QB3, and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) in Sutardja Dai Hall. Later, she met with Graham Fleming, vice chancellor for research, and Paul Alivisatos, interim director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Johnson leads the Department of Energy's initiatives around energy efficiency and renewable energy, among other things. Her visit came a day after Berkeley landed one of the first 37 grants under a new federal program, ARPA-E, supporting cutting-edge energy research.
An electrical engineer who served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at The John Hopkins University, Johnson serves under Steven Chu, who was a Berkeley professor of physics and molecular and cellular biology and LBNL lab director when appointed U.S. energy secretary earlier this year.