Baker Institute’s Capuano to be nominated to key Department of Energy post

President Donald Trump announced Nov. 2 that he will nominate Linda Capuano, fellow in energy technology in the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, to serve as administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the Department of Energy. EIA is the department’s statistical and analytical agency.

LINDA CAPUANO

A member of the Baker Institute since 2014, Capuano focuses her research interests in the energy-water-food nexus on accelerating the treatment and use of non-fresh water sources.

She previously served as vice president of technology at Marathon Oil Corp.; senior vice president of engineering design at Solectron Flextronics; executive vice president and chief technology officer at Advanced Energy Industries; vice president of technology strategy at Honeywell; general manager of wide body aircraft auxiliary product units at AlliedSignal Aerospace; and manager in computer memory product development at IBM. She also co-founded and served as chief financial officer of Conductus, a Silicon Valley startup. Capuano currently serves on the board of Peak Reliability and has served on the board of the California Independent Systems Operator.

An associate member of the National Academy of Sciences, Capuano received the Technical Excellence Award from the Society of Women Engineers and the IBM Outstanding Achievement Award, which recognized contributions to computer memory storage.

She earned a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering and Master of Science in engineering management from Stanford University. She also earned a Master of Science in chemistry and Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies is ranked No. 2 among the world’s energy- and resource-policy think tanks, according to the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program’s 2016 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report.