Abstract

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) was established within the US Department of Energy to solve the critical energy needs of the United States. Our work is to identify and fund the development of disruptive technologies that have the potential to transform our energy system capacity and enhance industrial operations, but for which the financial risks of development are too great to attract investment from existing industries or other agencies within the US government. In this talk, we will explain the work that ARPA-E does and advertise two opportunities within ARPA-E: (1) the Summer Scholars program and (2) the ARPA-E Fellowship. The Summer Scholars program is an 8–12-week paid summer internship for MBA and graduate students to work on commercialization-focused energy projects. Selected applicants will work closely with ARPA-E’s Tech-to-Market Advisors, Program Directors, and Fellows to transition early-stage disruptive technologies into commercial products and/or services. The ARPA-E Fellowship is a 2-year federal employee position for recent PhDs to identify solutions to urgent energy problems, engage in new ARPA-E program development, and support existing ARPA-E programs. This presentation will be given by two current ARPA-E Fellows, Alina Lapotin and Peter Dotti.

Bios

Dr. Peter Dotti serves as a Fellow at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). He is interested in technologies for enhanced manufacturing supply chains, including mineral extraction, metals production, semiconductor fabrication, and quantum industry development, as well as technologies for electrical power systems that increase energy generation, storage, and transmission. His PhD work was in atomic, molecular, and optical physics at UC Santa Barbara.

Dr. Alina LaPotin serves as a Fellow at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Her interests are in heat transfer, energy conversion, industrial heat, and nuclear energy technologies. For her doctoral work at MIT, she demonstrated efficient and power-dense thermophotovoltaics under high-temperature emitters and designed and built a solar-driven atmospheric water harvesting system.  Prior to joining ARPA-E, she developed laser furnaces at Limelight Steel.