Meet the Energy Department's salesman in chief: Ernest Moniz...
…As a main champion and first director of MIT's Energy Initiative (MITEI), Moniz helped the program become a key center for energy work in the United States. MITEI's analytical reports on the future of nuclear, coal and natural gas have become key references in thinking about U.S. energy technology and policy in a carbon-constrained world.
"His involvement in the MIT energy project for years has enabled him to work with a lot of people in energy, not just a niche in renewables and not just nuclear," said Linda Stuntz, who served as deputy energy secretary during the Bush administration…
…In 2005, he and MIT's [Bob] Armstrong -- the head of the Chemical Engineering Department at the time -- were appointed to draft faculty for an initial energy council that would develop the Energy Initiative.
Moniz's energy and personality helped MITEI draw top talent from a diverse set of departments at the university, said Armstrong, who became its deputy director under Moniz. He was appointed director of the initiative after Moniz left for Washington, D.C.
"He has a lot of people skills," Armstrong said. "He was very good at assimilating different points of view and finding common ground." And he always had a quip ready to lighten intense situations.
"He has a great sense of humor," Armstrong said. "It is one thing to work really hard but if you are humorless it can be no fun at all, even if it is important work that you are doing."…
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