An engineer’s journey from Motor City to Capitol Hill

Tanya Das is the 2022 ECE Rising Star Alumni Award Winner. 

Abstract

 In 2011, Tanya graduated with an ECE degree and little awareness of American politics. A decade later, after getting her PhD in ECE and working on energy policy in the U.S. Congress, she found herself appointed by President Biden to lead the implementation of his agenda at the Office of Science, the $7 billion basic research arm of the U.S. Department of Energy. In this talk she will share her views on what “science policy” means, why it’s relevant for engineers and academics, and our nation’s progress towards addressing climate change.

Bio

Dr. Tanya Das is the Associate Director of Energy Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center. She works to strengthen U.S. government initiatives that help innovators go from idea to commercial product. Leveraging her experience in academia and government, she influences policy related to the federal research landscape, energy technology scaleup, the Department of Energy national labs, public-private partnerships, manufacturing, and workforce development in STEM fields.

She previously served the Biden Administration as the Chief of Staff of the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy where she led the implementation of Administration priorities including advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the research enterprise, supporting innovation ecosystems across the country, and advancing U.S. competitiveness in emerging technology areas. Prior to that role, she was a Professional Staff Member on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and an AAAS/OSA-SPIE legislative fellow in the Office of U.S. Senator Chris Coons.

A Michigan native, Dr. Das earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.