Updated by Staff

The University of Colorado at Boulder and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden today named Michael L. Knotek as director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute.

Knotek brings more than 35 years of experience to RASEI, a joint institute between CU-Boulder and NREL. Since 2001 he has served as a consultant specializing in transitions and creating new research directions in agency and institutional programs, projects and major research facilities. He also has been involved in strategic planning and project management for multidisciplinary and multi-institutional programs and facilities, including DOE biological programs, high performance computing, national facilities such as synchrotrons, environmental research and many aspects of energy science and technology.

Knotek, one of the nation’s most experienced leaders in multidisciplinary energy research, will focus on renewable energy research within RASEI.

“The appointment of Dr. Knotek continues our tradition of attracting the highest quality leadership, and will foster new opportunities for Colorado’s scientific and private sector communities to collaborate on new energy solutions,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano.

Knotek will have overall responsibility for management of RASEI’s CU-Boulder and NREL research fellows and private-sector Leadership Council.

RASEI is advancing solutions for producing energy economically from low-carbon sources to meet the global energy challenge. NREL is the DOE’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, comprised of the Midwest Research Institute, Battelle Memorial Institute, CU-Boulder, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, MIT and Stanford.