Chris Gearhart

Director, Hydrogen Technologies and Systems Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Chris Gearhart joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 2012 as director of the Hydrogen Technologies and Systems Center. In 2013 he was appointed to his current position as director of NREL’s Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences (formerly known as the Transportation and Hydrogen Systems Center), where he manages a staff of more than 150 scientists and engineers dedicated to understanding the science and engineering needed to efficiently and sustainably move people and goods in a highly integrated system of systems. 

Prior to joining NREL, Dr. Gearhart spent 16 years with Ford Motor Company.  He started his career at Ford working in computer aided engineering developing finite element, CFD, and multi-body dynamics models. He went on to lead research and development teams in that company's Fuel Cell System, Stack, and Hydrogen Storage division as well as playing pivotal roles in product development, safety research, and reliability engineering.  

He holds doctorate and master's degrees in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, where he used computational models of large many-body physics to study heavy nuclei and neutron stars. He has bachelor's degree in physics and math from Drake University.  Dr. Gearhart has also served on the faculty of Michigan State University and the School for Renewable Energy Science in Akureyri, Iceland.