NREL Director Dan Arvizu Named Chair of National Science Board

Dan Arvizu, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), has been elected chairman of the National Science Board.

The 25-member body advises the president and Congress on science and engineering issues, and is the policy-setting and budget-approving body for the National Science Foundation. With an annual budget of $6.9 billion, the foundation funds about 20% of all federally supported basic scientific research at U.S. colleges and universities. Arvizu will serve a two-year term as chairman.

“It is an honor to serve in this capacity on behalf of an incredibly talented and accomplished group of individuals, all with one purpose in mind, to serve our national science interests,” Arvizu said.

Arvizu, who has served as director of NREL since 2005, was nominated to a seat on the board last year and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

He also is executive vice president of MRIGlobal, one of two partners in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, which manages and operates NREL for the DOE.

Arvizu holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University and a master’s and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. Arvizu started his career at the AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories.

He was first appointed to the National Science Board in 2004, and chaired the Audit and Oversight Committee for four years and co-chaired the NSB Task Force on Building a Sustainable Energy Future.

Before NREL, Arvizu served as chief technology officer with CH2M HILL and worked for more than 20 years with Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. Arvizu was inducted into the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference Hall of Fame in 2008 and was named the Hispanic Scientist of the Year in 2010 by the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, FL.

Arvizu serves on many boards and advisory panels including the American Council on Renewable Energy Advisory Board; the Stanford University Precourt Energy Advisory Board; the Singapore Clean Energy International Advisory Panel; the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria’s U.S. National Committee; and the Colorado Renewable Energy Authority Board of Directors.