The US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has named Noël Bakhtian as its inaugural director of the Berkeley Lab Energy Storage Center.
Bakhtian said she took the role because of the center’s potential to make significant progress along the ‘entire spectrum of energy storage challenges’, from fundamental science to more applied R&D, issues of manufacturing, technology transfer, and workforce development.
The new center aims to galvanise research and development in all types of energy storage, extending beyond batteries and fuel cells to a range of storage technologies.
Bakhtain has worked as a senior policy adviser in the US White House Office of Science and Technology and spent the last three years as director of the Center for Advanced Energy Studies at Idaho National Laboratory.
Among her many awards and honors, Bakhtian was named the 11th most powerful female engineer in the country by Business Insider in 2018.
Ravi Prasher, Berkeley Lab’s associate laboratory director for Energy Technologies, said: “Noël is an accomplished researcher and leader with an impressive record of achievements.
“She has demonstrated an ability for developing strategic plans to address society’s most pressing technological challenges, and we’re very much looking forward to her leading our top-notch science team to help meet our country’s energy storage needs.”