NREL’s Johney Green Appointed Chairman of National GEM Consortium

Nonprofit Impact Through Minority STEM Talent

July 20, 2022 | By Kassidy Gamble | Contact media relations

Johney Green, associate laboratory director for Mechanical and Thermal Engineering Sciences at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), was appointed Chairman of The National GEM Consortium Board of Directors on July 18, 2022.

The National GEM Consortium is a 45-year-old national nonprofit organization whose vision is to make scientific impact through underrepresented minority STEM talent in the United States. GEM enhances the value of the nation’s human capital by increasing the participation of African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic Americans at the master’s and doctoral levels in engineering and science.

At NREL, Green conducts research and development to enable technology innovations in the areas of energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, and renewable power. He oversees the transportation, buildings, wind, water, geothermal, advanced manufacturing, concentrating solar power, and Arctic research programs, which encompass a portfolio of over $200 million and more than 550 employees.

Green also helped transform NREL’s wind site near Boulder, Colorado, into its Flatirons Campus and transitioned that campus from a single-program wind research site to a multiprogram research campus that is the foundational experimental platform for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) initiative.

Two men speak outside next to electrical equipment — Green spoke with President Joe Biden during a visit to NREL's Flatirons Campus in 2021. *Photo by Werner Slocum, NREL*

As a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an SAE International fellow, he has served on numerous advisory boards for organizations including the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Memphis. He has also received several awards during his career and holds two U.S. patents in combustion science. Additionally, he has an h-index of 28, is the lead or co-author of several technical publications, and has given many invited, keynote, and plenary presentations.

Prior to his current position, Green served as director of the Energy and Transportation Science Division and group leader for fuels, engines, and emissions research at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). It was during his tenure as a division director that ORNL developed the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy demonstration project, a model of innovative vehicle-to-grid integration technologies and next-generation manufacturing processes. Green received a GEM Fellowship with ORNL as his sponsor, where he interned for two years.

“Being a GEM Fellow and having the opportunity to intern at a national laboratory changed the trajectory of my career,” Green said. “I know firsthand the impact this organization can have, and I’m looking forward to expanding the impact of GEM as Tim Archer and others before me as chairman have done.”

Brennon Marcano, CEO of The National GEM Consortium, echoed those comments as well.

"Under the leadership of Tim Archer, GEM has been able to make significant strides, and we are forever grateful to Tim for that,” Marcano said. “But just like in the past, we continue to push this organization to greater heights, and I can think of nobody better to help us shift into an even higher gear than Dr. Johney Green. I look forward to working and strategizing with him."

Learn more about The National GEM Consortium.