Noted organic chemist Seth Marder has been named the new director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), one of several affiliated with CU Boulder, effective July 2021.
RASEI (pronounced RAY-see) is a joint institute between CU Boulder and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). NREL works to transform energy by advancing renewable energy science, engineering and analysis through research, education and industry partnerships.
Seth Marder
Former RASEI Director Robert McGrath retired. At present, Carrie Eckert and Gregor Henze are serving as interim co-directors.
“We are excited that Seth has agreed to take on this new challenge,” said Terri Fiez, vice chancellor for Research and Innovation at CU Boulder. “He brings unique expertise that will help us create a vital bridge between the sciences and engineering on our campus, and between CU Boulder and NREL on the partnership side.”
Marder will have joint appointments in chemical and biological engineering within the College of Engineering and Applied Science and in chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. He will also be named a RASEI fellow and have a joint appointment at NREL.
Marder is presently the Georgia Power Chair of Energy Efficiency and Regents’ Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a professor of materials science and engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also directs Georgia Tech’s Center for the Science and Technology of Advanced Materials and Interfaces.
“NREL is proud to welcome Seth to RASEI and we look forward to even deeper collaborative interactions leading to continued, and highly impactful, solutions for our energy future”, said Peter Green, deputy laboratory director for science and technology at NREL. “Research partnerships like this one with CU-Boulder on RASEI are critical to the development and deployment of new energy technologies at speed and scale, and Seth’s unique experience and expertise enhances our capability to accomplish our mission.”
He received his BA in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing his postdoctoral work at the University of Oxford, he moved to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology.
Marder has served on numerous advisory boards for journals and is the founding chair of the editorial board for the Royal Society of Chemistry materials journal Materials Horizons.
He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Materials Research Society, the Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the Optical Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a member of the World Cultural Council.
