Dr. Arun Majumdar is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, a faculty member of the departments of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering (by courtesy) and senior fellow and former director of the Precourt Institute for Energy. He is also a faculty in department of photon science at SLAC.
In October 2009, Dr. Majumdar was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the senate to become the founding director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), where he served till June 2012 and helped ARPA-E become a model of excellence and innovation for the government with bipartisan support from congress and other stakeholders. Between March 2011 and June 2012, he also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy, enabling the portfolio that reported to him: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability, Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of Fossil Energy, as well as multiple cross-cutting efforts such as Sunshot, Grid Tech Team and others that he had initiated. Furthermore, he was a senior advisor to the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, on a variety of matters related to management, personnel, budget, and policy. In 2010, he served on Secretary Chu’s science team to help stop the leak of the Deep Water Horizon (BP) oil spill.
After leaving Washington, DC and before joining Stanford, Dr. 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.
Dr. Majumdar is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research in the past has involved the science and engineering of nanoscale materials and devices, especially in the areas of energy conversion, transport and storage as well as biomolecular analysis. His current research focuses on redox reactions and systems that are fundamental to a sustainable energy future, multidimensional nanoscale imaging and microscopy, and an effort to leverage modern AI techniques to develop and deliver energy and climate solutions.
Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Majumdar was the Almy & Agnes Maynard Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at University of California–Berkeley and the Associate Laboratory Director for energy and environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He also spent the early part of his academic career at Arizona State University and University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Majumdar served as the vice chair of the advisory board of US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz, and was also a science envoy for the US Department of State with focus on energy and technology innovation in the Baltics and Poland. He also serves on numerous advisory boards and boards of businesses, investment groups and non-profit organizations
Dr. Majumdar received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.
Arun Majumdar
Investor Profile
Looking for the exit: Oregon battles overweight allocations to illiquids
Oregon Investment Council’s exposure to private markets has been a great source of excess returns over the years, but today the overweight allocation to illiquid markets is a growing concern with ramifications for liquidity particularly.
Sarah RundellMay 8, 2024
Sustainability
How to tip social systems (for the better, of course?)
Positive social tipping points are probably the fastest and most powerful way of addressing the climate crisis but how do we tip a social system? The Thinking Ahead Institute's Time Hodgson investigates.
Tim HodgsonApril 29, 2024
Investor Profile
South Africa’s GEPF prepares the ground for a two pot system
South Africa’s $119 billion Government Employee Pension Fund is in the process of readying its investment processes for a new law that will allow people to draw down some of their retirement income early.
Sarah RundellApril 24, 2024
Featured Story
CalPERS mulls tying climate KPIs to incentive pay
CalPERS may tie the incentive pay of its staff to meeting climate KPIs in the near future. The fund's executive pay consultants also discussed other ways the fund should tweak incentive pay like adding an asset class investment performance weighting to the annual incentive formula.
Sarah RundellApril 24, 2024
Investor Profile
Dutch fund tackles the cost and time of shifting to DC
The clock is ticking for Dutch fund PWRI to transition to a new DC scheme in line with pension reform. Imke Hollander explains why the pension fund is unlikely to invest more in risk assets and flags mounting costs in the transition, particularly in fees paid to advisors.
Sarah RundellApril 23, 2024
Investor Profile
LACERA adds downside protection as equity markets look unsustainable
The $77 billion LACERA has positioned for the downside, launching a new asset allocation that pivots towards diversification and downside risk, adding to hedge funds and investment grade bonds. Top1000funds.com talks to CIO, Jonathan Grabel.
Sarah RundellApril 23, 2024
Featured Story
Brightwell ponders implications of shake up in UK pension scheme surpluses
New rules may enable employers to tap surplus funds built up in defined benefit plans in the UK. It remains unclear if this would alter investment strategy and see these funds invest more investment in so-called productive assets rather than UK government bonds.
Sarah RundellApril 18, 2024