April 18, 2023

America is the Global Energy Superpower

Paul M. Dabbar
Former Under Secretary of Energy

The Honorable Paul M. Dabbar is Co-Founder and CEO of Bohr Quantum Technology, a spin-out of Caltech, developing and deploying technologies for the emerging quantum internet, and he is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Columbia University on energy policy.  He also a Wall Street Journal editorial page contributor, a member of the Board of Directors of Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp II, and an advisor to private equity firm Warburg Pincus.   

In 2017, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed him as the U.S. Department of Energy’s fourth Under Secretary for Science, managing several areas of the Department, and he served as the Department’s principal advisor on fundamental energy research, energy technologies, science, and commercialization of technologies. He managed over 60,000 people with a budget of $15 billion p.a. at over 100 sites, managing the majority of the U.S. National Labs.  He led the efforts for the country on developing new energy technologies and new areas of discovery in the physical sciences such as high energy physics, supercomputing, quantum technologies, chemistry and materials.  He also ran the Environmental Management program at the Dept., managing over $500 billion in nuclear liabilities resulting from nuclear weapons and nuclear power operations. 

He has also traveled to both the geographic North and South Poles during government service: to the North Pole by submarine to conduct military missions and environmental research while in the Navy, and to the South Pole in support of high energy physics astronomy missions of DOE at South Pole Station.

Prior to confirmation as Under Secretary, he worked in operations, finance, and strategy roles in the energy and national defense sectors. As Managing Director at J.P. Morgan, he had over $400 billion in transaction experience across all energy sectors.  In addition, he had a senior leadership role for the company’s commodity trading business, including energy.  Before J.P. Morgan, he was a nuclear submarine officer, and worked at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.  

Mr. Dabbar graduated from Bartlesville High School, the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear power and nuclear engineer programs, and Columbia University.