Howard Branz

Howard is an early-stage technology consultant focused on renewable energy and carbon reduction, working with start-ups, investors, and government agencies. From 2012 to 2015, Howard served as a Program Director at the U.S. DOE Advanced Projects Research Agency – Energy, where he selected and incubated more than $70M of interdisciplinary technologies with transformational potential. Before ARPA-E, Howard was a Research Fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). During more than 25 years at NREL, Branz led R&D groups to discoveries and new technologies in photovoltaics, nanotechnology, electrochromic windows, surface chemistry, semiconductor devices, optics, photoelectrochemistry, and materials science. His group pioneered inexpensive black silicon anti-reflection processes now fielded globally in over 20 GW of solar modules valued at more than $5B. Branz earned his PhD in physics at MIT, has over 20 patents issued and applied, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Note: Howard is serving as a long-term consultant to Galvanize.