Steven Koonin

Steven E. Koonin, Undersecretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, will speak Monday, Feb. 1, at Davidson College on “Addressing America’s Energy Challenges: Science, Politics, and the Global Search for Alternative Energy.” The free public lecture is at 7:30 p.m. in the Alvarez College Union 900 Room.

Mr. Koonin oversees the country’s national laboratories, which places him at the
center of the effort to identify alternative energy sources.

He is among a series of speakers coming to Davidson this year for the Bank of America Lecture Series, all addressing the topic “Responding to the Global Energy Crisis: Technology, Policy and Security.” His talk is also being presented as the college’s annual Smith Lecture.

Mr. Koonin was appointed last March by President Barack Obama, who recruited him from five years as chief scientist for BP, where he guided the company’s long-range technology strategy in alternative and renewable energy sources.

Before BP, Koonin taught theoretical physics for 29 years at the California Institute of Technology, including a nine-year term as the Institute’s provost. He established national and international alliances that provided the institute with funding to carry out some of the country’s most important research in the physical sciences. His personal research interests have included theoretical and computational physics, as well as global environmental science.

Koonin has served on numerous advisory bodies for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy and its various national laboratories.