Ernie Moniz

Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has served on the faculty since 1973.  Dr. Moniz served as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy from October 1997 until January 2001.  In that role, he had programmatic oversight responsibility for the offices of Science; Fossil Energy; Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology; Environmental Management; and Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. He also led a comprehensive review of the nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship program and served as the Secretary’s special negotiator for Russia initiatives, with a particular focus on the disposition of Russian nuclear weapons materials.  Dr. Moniz also served from 1995 to 1997 as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, where his responsibilities spanned the physical, life, and social and behavioral sciences, science education, and university-government partnerships.  He is a member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and of the DOE Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

At MIT, Dr. Moniz served as Head of the Department of Physics and as Director of the Bates Linear Accelerator Center, a DOE user facility. His principal research contributions have been in theoretical nuclear physics and in energy technology and policy studies, which is his current research focus.

Dr. Moniz received a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in physics from Boston College, a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University, and honorary doctorates from the University of Athens, the University of Erlangen-Nurenburg, and Michigan State University. Dr. Moniz is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Humboldt Foundation, and the American Physical Society and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He received the 1998 Seymour Cray HPCC Industry Recognition Award for vision and leadership in advancing scientific simulation and, in 2008, the Grand Cross of the Order of Makarios III for contributions to development of research and education in Cyprus and the wider region.  He serves on the Board of Directors of or as an advisor to several energy and security companies.