Praveen Amar is the Director of Science and Policy at NESCAUM (Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management). NESCAUM is an interagency association of eight northeastern states that provides high-level scientific and policy-relevant input to its member states on regional air pollution issues. Dr. Amar's area of expertise is to "translate" the implications of findings of science and developments in technology into workable and cost-effective policy options for the states in the Northeast. He has testified before the US House Science Committee on control strategies for particulate air pollution and before the Democratic Policy Committee of the US Senate on EPA's proposed rule to control mercury emissions from coal-fired utility boilers. Before joining NESCAUM, Dr. Amar was with the California Air Resources Board where he managed programs on air pollution research, strategic planning, and industrial source pollution control. He received his Ph.D. in engineering from UCLA.
John Beér is Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Fuel Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Educated in Hungary and in England, he was a research engineer at Babcock & Wilcox in Renfrew, Scotland, head of the Research Station of the International Flame Research Foundation in Ijmuiden, The Netherlands, and taught at the Universities of Pennsylvania State and Sheffield (England), before coming to MIT in 1976. His main research interests are the clean combustion of fossil fuels and high efficiency electric power generation. While in England he served on the Advisory Committee of the Department of Energy and since 1992 is a member of the US National Coal Council, an advisory council to the US Secretary of Energy.
John Deutch is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having previously served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Dean of Science and Provost. He has published over 140 scientific publications, co-authored the "Making Technology Work: Applications in Energy and the Environment" and numerous articles on technology, energy, international security, and public policy. He co-chaired the MIT studies on the "Future of Coal" and "Future of Nuclear Power". Dr. Deutch has also served in significant government posts throughout his career, most notably Director of Central Intelligence, Director of Energy Research, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology, and Undersecretary of the Department of Energy. He serves on the Boards of Directors of the following publicly held companies: Cheniere Energy, Citigroup, Cummins, and Raytheon. He is a trustee of the Center for American Progress, Resources for the Future, the Urban Institute (life), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Julio Friedmann received his B.S and M.S. degrees from MIT, followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. After graduation, he worked as a senior research scientist at Exxon and ExxonMobil. He next worked as a research scientist at the University of Maryland. In his current appointment as Carbon Management Program Leader for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he leads initiatives into carbon capture, carbon storage, and fossil fuel recovery and utilization. He has worked with the EPA, USGS, many private companies, many NGOs, and Department of Energy. He was invited by MIT to join their team on the Future of Coal Energy Report and on the National Petroleum Council report on the future of US oil and gas. His research interests include carbon sequestration, underground coal gasification, and hydrocarbon systems. A native of Rhode Island, he has worked in CA, WA, UT, WY, CO, Spain, Ireland, the North Sea, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela, Azerbaijan, and Australia.
Neville Holt joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in 1974 and is currently technical fellow for Advanced Coal Generation Technology. He is technical lead for the CoalFleet program of Future Coal Generation Technology Options. He is the recipient of lifetime achievement awards from EPRI and the Gasification Technologies Council. In recent years, he has been increasingly involved in generation technical and economic information and analysis on various options for reduction of CO2 emissions to inform discussions of the global climate issue. He has provided assistance to the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank in evaluation of clean coal technology opportunities in China and India, and has conducted seminars in the Asia Pacific region.
Carol Hunter is vice president of external communications and division services for Rocky Mountain Power. She is responsible for demand-side management, external communications, human resources, labor relations, economic development, service territory integrity, business planning and performance reporting. After joining PacifiCorp in 1977 as a customer service engineer, she has served in various management positions in resource planning, wholesale marketing and community and business services. In 1995, she became director of retail business development. Hunter also served with other top-level managers on a six-month assignment developing the company's transition plan following PacifiCorp's 1999 merger with Scottish Power. She received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Utah.
Dianne Nielson was appointed energy advisor to Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah in June 2007. She has served as executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and as a member of DEQ's five policy boards. Dr. Nielson directed the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining; served as a member of the Utah Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining; and worked as senior economic geologist for the Utah Geological Survey. She has conducted energy and mineral exploration with private industry. She has chaired, or worked on, numerous state and federal commissions and advisory committees dealing with environmental quality and resource development.
George Peridas is a Science Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Working at the Climate Center, currently he heads NRDC's efforts in Carbon Capture & Sequestration technology, policy and regulation, and also plays an active role in the organization's state and federal advocacy efforts. Prior to joining NRDC in October 2006, Dr. Peridas worked as a senior consultant on energy markets for Pöyry in the UK. His expertise includes power, oil, natural gas and renewables markets, as well as emissions trading. In that role, he worked extensively for the power and oil/gas industry, the finance community and government. He was part of a team that investigated the economics of CCS for the Department of Trade and Industry of the UK government. George received his masters and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Oxford and his masters in Environmental Science & Policy from Imperial College, London. He comes from Athens, Greece.
During his forty-one-year career at Berkeley as a professor of mechanical engineering, Dr. Sawyer's teaching and research included rocket propulsion, energy conversion, combustion, air pollution, and regulatory policy. He chaired the Energy and Resources Group and was selected to be the first Class of 1935 Professor of Energy at Berkeley. From 2003-2005 he headed the University of California Education Abroad Program in London. In January 2006, Dr. Sawyer left the University of California to accept the appointment by Governor Schwarzenegger to head the California Air Resources Board, a position he held through June 2007. He currently is the Class of 1935 Professor of Energy Emeritus at UC Berkeley, a Visiting Professor of Energy and Environment at University College London, and Senior Faculty Engineer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers and a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.
Dr. Joseph Strakey is the Chief Technology Officer at the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). In this capacity, he is responsible for providing strategic direction and oversight for all of the NETL's research, development and demonstration programs including its in-house research efforts. NETL's RD&D programs encompass a broad range of advanced technology development initiatives in the areas of coal gasification and combustion technology, environmental control technology, hydrogen and fuels production, carbon capture and sequestration, gas turbines, and fuel cells. During his 36 years of Federal service, Dr. Strakey has held senior management positions leading major RD&D programs, including the national RD&D programs related to both coal and natural gas. Dr. Strakey has a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University. Dr. Strakey has authored or coauthored over 100 publications in technical journals and the proceedings of various energy and environmental conferences.