Prez appoints Indian American to key post

US President Barack Obama has appointed Indian American Arun Majumdar as in-charge of advanced research in the field of energy, one of the key posts in his administration.

A product of Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, Majumdar has been nominated as Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy in the US Department of Energy.

Currently, Majumdar is the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Obama also announced his intent to nominate Daniel W Yohannes as Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Challenge Corporation and Gustavo Aranavat as US Executive Director to the Inter-American Development Bank.

“These individuals have proven that they will bring skill, dedication and expertise in these important areas to my administration, and I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years,” Obama said in a statement.

With a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, Majumdar has had a highly distinguished research career in the science and engineering of energy conversion, transport, and storage ranging from molecular and nanoscale level to large energy systems, the White House said in a statement.

For his pioneering work, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. At Berkeley Labs and UC Berkeley, he helped shape several strategic initiatives in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy as well as energy storage, and testified before Congress on how to reduce energy consumption in buildings, the White House said.

Majumdar has served on the advisory committee of the National Science Foundation’s engineering directorate. He was also a member of advisory council to the materials sciences and engineering division of DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences, and was an adviser on nanotechnology to the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.

He has also been an entrepreneur and has served as an adviser to startup companies and venture capital firms in the Silicon Valley, it said.