[Assam] [assam] Indian-American scientist to leave top energy job

[bhuban.baruah]

Times of India (May 16, 2012)

Arunava Majumdar, a top Indian-American scientist, is leaving his job 
at the US energy department as the Senate has not confirmed his 
elevation as an undersecretary at the department.

WASHINGTON: Arunava Majumdar, a top Indian-American scientist, is 
leaving his job at the US energy department as the Senate has not 
confirmed his elevation as an undersecretary at the department.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday withdrew Majumdar's nomination, which 
was sent to the Senate on Nov 30 last year, a brief White House 
announcement said.

However, Science journal citing Energy Secretary Steven Chu reported 
that Majumdar, who has led the energy department's Advanced Research 
Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) for nearly two-and-a-half years, will 
leave June 9.

"Under Arun's leadership, we have seen ARPA-E grow from a fledgling 
programme to become a leading agency for innovation and energy 
research," Chu wrote to agency staff members in an e-mail last week.

"Arun has recruited some of the most talented professionals across the 
country to join the ranks at ARPA-E and create programs that have the 
potential of changing the entire energy landscape."

Majumdar came to Washington from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 
in California.

"Arun's departure is a kick in the stomach," Barton Gordon, a former 
member of the US House of Representatives who spearheaded the creation 
of ARPA-E in 2007, was quoted as saying.

Gordon, now a lobbyist with K&L Gates in Washington, DC, said Majumdar 
is a "good scientist and a good organizer who created a good bipartisan 
following [in Congress] for ARPA-E. I don't think people realised what 
a good politician he is. He's a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of 
guy."

Modelled after the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects 
Agency, ARPA-E is designed to funnel money quickly to high-risk, 
"transformational" efforts to develop new energy technologies.