The TMS2023 All-Conference Plenary session will be held Tuesday, March 21, offering an opportunity for all annual meeting attendees to come together for a shared presentation of common interest.
Featured Speaker:
David T. Danielson
Managing Director, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE)
"Gigaton Opportunities at the Intersection of Materials and Climate Technology"
Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Time: Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Ballroom 20 ABC
Solving climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. In this talk, Danielson will discuss big (Gigaton scale) opportunities and white space at the intersection of materials and climate technology: from decarbonizing cement and steel, to building 1,000-hour batteries for seasonal storage of wind and solar energy . . . and everything in between.
About the Presenter
David T. Danielson is co-founder and managing director of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $2 billion + climate-technology venture capital investment firm created and led by Bill Gates. He is also an adjunct professor at Stanford University, where he created and teaches Stanford Climate Ventures, a climate-technology startups class that has resulted in the launch of 38 new climate-technology startups which have collectively raised $500 million in capital. He also served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE), where he led the largest government clean-energy innovation funding agency in the world. At EERE, he directed the U.S. government’s innovation strategy in the areas of sustainable transportation, renewable power, energy efficiency, and clean-energy manufacturing, directing investments of about $10 billion during his four-year tenure. Prior to serving as assistant secretary of EERE, Danielson was founder and employee #1 at the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), a government funding agency that focuses on the development of high-risk, high-reward clean-energy technologies. Prior to his government service, he was a clean-energy venture capitalist at General Catalyst. He holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, both in materials science and engineering. In addition to serving as the TMS2023 All-Conference Plenary speaker, Danielson is the 2023 recipient of the TMS Sadoway Materials Innovation and Advocacy Award.