Dr. Tenent is a senior scientist in the Materials Science Center at NREL. Prior to joining NREL, he brought an early stage company out of a collaboration between North Carolina State University and the University of California-Riverside. This company (ZettaCore, Inc.) was founded to commercialize one of Science Magazine's Break Through Technologies of the year in 2001 in the field of molecular electronics. Dr. Tenent still maintains substantial partnerships within the entrepreneurial community at local, national and international levels and acts as an advisor to multiple early stage companies. He helped found the Rocky Mountain Section of the Materials Research Society (RM-MRS). This organization provides a forum for local companies as well as scientist and engineers to network and learn about materials science-based entrepreneurship on the Front Range. He continues to work with multiple early stage companies through various programs at the Department of Energy as well as through NREL based technology incubators and is currently a Fellow of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA).
Dr. Tenent's research interests range from characterization of fundamental electrochemical processes in a variety of systems to the integration of new materials into large scale architectural applications. He presently leads NREL's research program in advanced technologies for architectural window applications. He was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the National Fenestration Ratings Council (NFRC) which develops the scientific and engineering principles to define architectural window performance internationally. Dr. Tenent's research in building technologies cuts across multiple organizations within NREL including early stage technology development, building energy modeling, techno-economic analysis and technology demonstration and evaluation efforts. His interests in fundamental electrochemical processes build off of formal training as an electroanalytical chemist and focuses on understanding processes occurring immediately at electrode/electrolyte interfaces using a variety of methods. Dr. Tenent received a B.S. in Chemistry from Millsaps College in Jackson, MS (1994) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Mississippi State University (2000).