Jaquelin Cochran — Acting Associate Laboratory Director, Strategic Energy Analysis and Decision Sciences
Jaquelin Cochran is the acting associate laboratory director for strategic energy analysis and decision sciences at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
She oversees NREL's research on grid planning, decision science, and systems analysis. This work supports clean energy transitions across the nation and internationally. Modeling and simulation tools developed by directorate staff—such as reV, ReEDS™, Sienna, PRECISE™, and dGen™—are widely used by energy stakeholders. Several have garnered prestigious R&D 100 awards.
Cochran has held several leadership roles since joining NREL in 2009, including most recently as director of the Grid Planning and Analysis Center. She served as principal investigator for the LA100 Renewable Energy Study, a first-of-its-kind analysis of pathways to 100% renewable energy for the city of Los Angeles. This study has been the basis of the city's plans to achieve its clean energy targets and has been lauded as a national model by U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, city council members, and the LA Department of Water and Power. Cochran has also led a portfolio of international work under USAID's Greening the Grid program, the Clean Energy Ministerial 21st Century Power Partnership (21CPP), and the U.S. State Department.
Before joining NREL, Cochran was an assistant professor at KIMEP University in Kazakhstan and was a Peace Corps volunteer with the Polish Foundation for Energy Efficiency.
Cochran served on the National Academies of Sciences committee Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States. She also served on Duke Energy's Integrated System and Operations Planning Advisory Council.
Cochran holds a doctorate and master's degree from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor's in public policy/physics from Pomona College.
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