The Alliance for Sustainable Energy has announced the appointment of Jud Virden, Ph.D., as the new director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and president of the Alliance, which manages NREL on behalf of the US Department of Energy. He will assume the role on 1 October 2025.
Virden joins NREL from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where he has been associate laboratory director for the Energy and Environment Directorate since 2011. At PNNL, he led around 1,700 staff working on applied energy programmes including grid modernisation, energy technologies, and environmental management.
He holds a doctorate and a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and has worked at PNNL since 1991.
Virden will succeed Martin Keller, who has served as NREL director since 2015. Keller will stay on as a strategic advisor through early November to support the leadership transition, before taking up a new role as president of the Helmholtz Association in Berlin, Germany.
