NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., shared his leadership philosophies and best practices regarding the Lab’s technology transfer program in pursuit of net-zero carbon emissions during the annual meeting of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC), held in a virtual format April 6-8.

FLC is the formally chartered, nationwide network of more than 300 federal laboratories, agencies and research centers that fosters commercialization best practice strategies and opportunities for accelerating federal technologies from out of the labs and into the marketplace. Earlier this year, FLC selected Anderson for its prestigious Laboratory Director of the Year award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to support technology transfer activities in the NETL organization and the communities it serves.

Since Anderson was named NETL director in 2018, his leadership has significantly advanced the Laboratory’s partnerships and technology transfer. He effectively broadened communications with industry stakeholders to deliver compelling messages about NETL’s vision for technology development and transfer and NETL’s technical research capabilities. In addition, Anderson’s leadership and advocacy led to increased production of NETL intellectual property and related requests for licenses and other development agreements.  

Leveraging NETL competencies and technical expertise, Anderson successfully led strategic engagements with industry partnerships to advance a range of technologies, including carbon capture and storage, toward commercialization. 

One example of Anderson’s technology transfer achievement was his leadership in hosting the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) InnovationXLab CarbonX Summit. Anderson fostered and supported development of a relationship between NETL and the DOE Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), which led to NETL being invited to host DOE’s InnovationXLab CarbonX Summit. The Summit highlighted the significance of collaboration and laboratory/industry partnerships, the hydrogen-carbon economy, carbon fibers and materials, carbon to chemicals and the circular value chain, and topics of artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as carbon capture, utilization and sequestration.

As one of three Laboratory Directors of the Year, Anderson spoke at the virtual 2021 FLC National Meeting which included an awards ceremony. A total of 33 awards were presented in a variety of focus areas. This year’s DOE winners were recognized for their ground-breaking new ideas, including COVID-19 ventilator designs, advancements in lithium-ion batteries and others.

“As our country enters one of the greatest energy transitions in its history to combat the effects of climate change, it’s a challenge NETL stands ready to meet,” Anderson said. “It’s one thing to invent a new technology or software suite and quite another to use it effectively at scale. However, by synergizing our national labs, industry, academia and other organizations, we can leverage the strengths of each party involved to accelerate the process from concept to commercialization.”

With more than 1,300 employees across multiple campuses and offices, NETL’s research portfolio includes more than 1,000 research activities across all 50 states, with a total award value that exceeds $5 billion inclusive of private sector cost-sharing of $1.3 billion. NETL’s expertise in carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies and research serves a key role as the U.S. transitions to a net-zero carbon emissions economy. 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory develops and commercializes advanced technologies that provide clean energy while safeguarding the environment. NETL’s work supports DOE’s mission to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy and environmental challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.