Dr. Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Distinguished Award in Science and Technology at 2026 AAEOY Conference
The organizing committee of the 2026 Asian American Executive of the Year (AAEOY) Award and Conference is pleased to announce Dr. Arun Majumdar, the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, will receive the Distinguished Award in Science and Technology at the 2026 AAEOY.
Dr. Majumdar is a globally recognized leader in energy science, technology innovation, and sustainable systems. As the founding Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, he has played a transformative role in shaping one of the most ambitious academic efforts to address climate change and sustainability at scale. His leadership bridges fundamental science, engineering innovation, and real-world impact, advancing solutions that are critical to the future of our planet.
Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Majumdar has made pioneering contributions to energy efficiency, clean energy technologies, and systems-level thinking in addressing complex global challenges. His work has influenced both academia and industry, and he has held key leadership roles that have helped guide national and global energy policy and research priorities.
Bio:
Dr. Arun Majumdar is the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, a faculty member of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Science and Engineering, a Senior Fellow and former Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy and Senior Fellow (courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. He is also a faculty in Department of Photon Science at SLAC.
In October 2009, Dr. Majumdar was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to become the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), where he served until June 2012 and helped ARPA-E become a model of excellence and innovation for the government with bipartisan support from Congress and other stakeholders. Between March 2011 and June 2012, he also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy, enabling the portfolio of Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability, Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of Fossil Energy, as well as multiple cross-cutting efforts such as Sunshot, Grid Modernization Team and others that he had initiated. Furthermore, he was a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, on a variety of matters related to management, personnel, budget, and policy. In 2010, he served on Secretary Chu’s Science Team to help stop the leak of the Deep Water Horizon (BP) oil spill.