Steven Koonin is a University Professor at NYU with appointments in the Stern School of Business and the Tandon School of Engineering.  He has previously served as Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy (2009-2011), as Chief Scientist for BP (2004-2009) moving the firm into renewable energy, and as a professor at Caltech (1975 – 2004, the last nine years as the Institute’s Vice President and Provost). Koonin is member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the JASON group of government advisors, a Governor of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, and a Trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses. Among Steven’s numerous awards and honors are the Department of Energy’s Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award and the Barry Prize from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.  Steve holds a BS in physics from Caltech and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT.