Ernest Moniz

Ernest Jeffrey Moniz, GCIH (Portuguese: [muˈniʃ]; born December 22, 1944) is an American nuclear physicist and former government official. From May 2013 to January 2017, he served as the 13th United States secretary of energy in the Obama administration. Prior to this, Moniz served as associate director for science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President of the United States from 1995 to 1997 and undersecretary of energy from 1997 to 2001 during the Clinton administration. He is currently the co-chair and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), as well as president and CEO of the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), a nonprofit organization funded by the natural gas industry that works on climate and energy technology issues, which he co-founded in 2017.

He notably oversaw the production of a MIT Energy Initiative Report, which promoted natural gas as a clean energy source despite since corroborated peer-reviewed research showing methane leaks from natural gas production meant it could have more climate warming potential than coal. This study was funded by the natural gas and fossil fuel industries.

Moniz, who is one of the founding members of The Cyprus Institute, has served at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as 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. Before his appointment as secretary of energy, he served in a variety of advisory capacities, including at BP, General Electric and the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.