Director for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office and coordinates activities across offices for the U.S. DOE Hydrogen Program, Sunita Satyapal is responsible for more than $1.6 billion in hydrogen and fuel cell research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) activities within the office and for coordinating more than $9.5 billion in hydrogen activities across DOE. In addition, she led the development of the national clean hydrogen strategy and roadmap and serves as the Director for the Hydrogen Interagency Taskforce, which includes a dozen agencies and is co-chaired by the Deputy Secretary of Energy and the White House Deputy National Climate Advisor. She has more than two and a half decades of experience across industry, academia, and government, including at United Technologies managing RDD&D and business development, and as a visiting professor.
Dr. Satyapal also coordinates international hydrogen activities as Vice-Chair of the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy, a partnership among over 25 countries to accelerate progress in hydrogen, and is the U.S. co-lead for hydrogen efforts within the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and did postdoctoral work in Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University. She has numerous publications, including in Scientific American, 10 patents, and several recognitions including a Meritorious Presidential Rank Award in 2015, a Distinguished Presidential Rank Award in 2022, and selected as an Ambassador for C3E, the Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Initiative, to advance the leadership of women in clean energy.