AN Indian American material scientist has been named the inaugural dean of Stanford University's new school on climate change and sustainability.
Dr Arun Majumdar is an internationally recognised expert in advanced energy systems, new materials, electrical grids, and renewable energy. He will assume the new position on June 15, the university announced last week.
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability is the university's first new school in 70 years, and aims to accelerate solutions to the global climate crisis. It will be launched on September 1.
Currently, the chair of the advisory board to the US secretary of energy, the Indian American professor is the Jay Precourt Professor, professor of mechanical engineering, senior fellow and former co-director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he co-chairs the George Shultz Energy and Climate Task Force.
Originally from Kolkata, Majumdar received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.
He was nominated for the position of under secretary of energy in the US between November 30, 2011 and May 15, 2012 but then the nomination was retracted.
After leaving Washington, Majumdar was the vice president for energy at Google, where he assembled a team to create technologies and businesses at the intersection of data, computing, and electricity grid.
He was the founding director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).
“I am deeply honoured and humbled by the opportunity to serve as the inaugural dean. Building on the extraordinary leadership of transitions deans, Kam Moler and Steve Graham, we will not only harness the intellectual horsepower of our students, faculty, and staff across our campus, but we will also partner with external organisations around the world to co-develop innovative solutions and identify new insights through research and education," Majumdar said.
"As is often said, we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. We must collectively figure out how to create a future where humans and nature thrive together."
