Dr. S. Julio Friedmann 

Senior Fellow

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Low-cost, clean energy represents an enormous economic opportunity as well as an environmental and national security imperative. To maintain high reliability, low cost, and minimal environmental impacts requires major investments in advanced technology to deliver new solutions to market. Innovation in finance, business models, and policy is also important. Changing national and global markets as well as changing political dynamics have created an utterly new circumstance where the cost, performance, and footprint of US energy infrastructure and the global markets they support can lead to dramatic improvements in climate risks, energy security, and economic performance.

Dr. Julio Friedmann is a senior fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he serves as the Lab’s chief expert in energy technologies and systems. He recently served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy where his portfolio included R&D and programs in Clean Coal and Carbon Management, Oil and Gas systems, international engagements in clean fossil energy, and inter-agency engagements within the US government. He is one of the most widely known and authoritative experts on carbon capture and sequestration and clean energy systems. He has testified before the US House, Senate, and several state legislatures, published in Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, and the New York Times. 

Friedmann received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by a Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Southern California. After graduation, he worked for five years as a senior research scientist in Houston, first at Exxon and later ExxonMobil. He next worked as a research scientist at the University of Maryland. A native of Rhode Island, he has worked in many states and countries.