Chris serves as a reviewer in DOE BETO peer review event
I was invited to serve as a reviewer for the DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) Project Peer Review in Denver. During the event, which is held every other year, "new research and development projects from 11 technology areas within BETO’s portfolio were presented to external subject-matter experts from industry, academia, and federal agencies. Experts reviewed the research and provided critical feedback."
It was a new experience for me to sit at a table at the front of the audience, like Simon Cowell, while researchers presented their progress for my evaluation. All told, I was genuinely impressed by the scope and depth of the program and the amount of industry collaboration. Predictably, my main feedback was that every research initiative should have an associated techno-economic model to help guide R&D, evaluate uncertainty, and demonstrate progress. A few of them did this nicely, but it was more the exception than the rule.