David T. Danielson, whose career has been devoted to promoting clean and renewable energies, was nominated in July to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

A native of Monterey, California, Danielson earned his BS in materials science and engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 2001. He added a Ph.D in clean energy materials in 2008 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Meanwhile, he worked for Applied Materials, IBM and Intel, before returning to MIT, where he created and taught courses on advanced materials for clean energy.

In November 2007, Danielson joined the venture capital company of General Catalyst Partners, where he co-founded the firm’s clean energy practice and helped fund companies in various clean-energy technology areas, including solar photovoltaics, solar thermal power, wind power, advanced biofuels, bio-gas, carbon capture and storage, and advanced lighting. In light of the controversy involving the Obama administration’s funding of the now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra, it is worth noting that at least two of the startups Danielson helped fund while at General Catalyst, Wakonda and LumenZ quickly went out of business.

In 2009 joined the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), focusing on advanced electrical energy storage technologies for vehicle electrification and grid-scale applications.

Danielson was the founder of the MIT Energy Club, a co-founder of the MIT Energy Conference and the non-profit New England Clean Energy Council.

He is the author of more than 20 scientific articles in the field of advanced materials and is the holder of one U.S. patent.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

Official Biography (Department of Energy)