The ARPA-E Innovation Model: A Glimpse into the Future of Automotive Battery Technology

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) focuses on funding game-changing R&D aimed at reducing U.S. foreign energy dependence and emissions. ARPA-E has made a strong commitment to support breakthrough energy storage technologies that can accelerate the mass adoption of electrified vehicles.  This presentation will highlight the range of ARPA-E’s efforts in this area, offering a glimpse into the ARPA-E innovation model and the future of automotive battery technology.

Presenter(s)

Ilan Gur is a Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). His technical focus areas include: electrical and thermal energy storage, advanced battery management, solar energy, and new materials for energy conversion and storage.  Dr. Gur also serves as a senior advisor helping lead ARPA-E's Technology-to-Market effort, which focuses on preparing breakthrough energy technologies for the transition from lab to market.

Dr. Gur has spent his career developing and commercializing clean energy technologies based on advances in materials science. Prior to ARPA-E, Dr. Gur served as a co-founder and director of Seeo, Inc., a venture-backed lithium battery start-up, bringing the company from lab-stage chemistry innovation to one of the top emerging startups in the sector. Previously, as a Ph.D. research fellow at U.C., Berkeley, Dr. Gur developed a new class of low-cost photovoltaics based on printed semiconductors. This work served as the basis for Solexant, a company commercializing the technology for grid-parity solar power.

Dr. Gur holds Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.  He serves as an occasional member of the professional faculty at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, where he has worked to develop and promote curricula that tie together science, market, and policy considerations for advancement of new technologies.