Arun serves as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy and, in 2009, became the first Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency—
Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, which is the country's only agency devoted to transformational energy research and development. His highly distinguished career includes work in the science and engineering of energy conversion, transport, and storage ranging from molecular and nanoscale levels to large energy systems. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and has served on the advisory committee of the National Science Foundation's engineering directorate, advisor on nanotechnology to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and as an advisor to start up companies and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and his Ph.D. from the University
of California, Berkeley.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)