Former US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz Joins Board of Directors for Fusion Energy Leader Tri Alpha Energy

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., May 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tri Alpha Energy, the world's largest and most advanced private fusion company pioneering an innovative approach to clean fusion energy, is pleased to announce Dr. Ernest Moniz, distinguished physicist and the 13th United States Secretary of Energy, as the newest member of its Board of Directors.  

"We are honored to have Ernest Moniz join our Board of Directors," said Steve Specker, CEO of Tri Alpha Energy. "Ernie's wide breadth of experience in innovative energy technologies and policies will help further our company's pursuit of safe, clean, sustainable, and commercially competitive fusion based electricity generation."

Upon joining the board, Dr. Moniz added that, "as someone dedicated to innovation breakthroughs for a low-carbon energy future, I am pleased to join outstanding colleagues at Tri Alpha Energy who see the company's technology offering the real possibility of just such a game-changer."

Moniz served as the Secretary of Energy from May 2013 to January 2017.  As Secretary, he advanced energy technology innovation, cutting-edge capabilities for the American scientific research community, and environmental stewardship.  He strengthened the Department of Energy's (DOE) strategic partnerships with its seventeen national laboratories and with the Department of Defense and the broader national security establishment.  Moniz's involvement in national energy policy began in 1995, when he served as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He later oversaw the Department of Energy's science, energy and security programs as Under Secretary from 1997 to 2001.  He was also a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 2009 to 2013 and received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award in 2016.

Before his appointment as Secretary in 2013, Moniz had a noteworthy career spanning four decades at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Moniz was Head of the MIT Department of Physics during 1991-1995 and 1997, and was the Founding Director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment.  He was a leader of various multidisciplinary technology and policy studies on the future of energy in a low-carbon world.  Currently, he is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems emeritus, Special Advisor to the MIT President and has been announced as co-chairman and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.  Dr. Moniz is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center and the inaugural Distinguished Fellow of the Emerson Collective.

Moniz has served on numerous public and private boards, including the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Advisory Committee and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Humboldt Foundation, and the American Physical Society.

About Tri Alpha Energy

Tri Alpha Energy is leveraging breakthrough science and engineering to solve the quintessential problem of our time: how to harness an unlimited and powerful source of clean, renewable energy. With pioneering work in advanced plasma physics, and an abundant and safe fuel source found in common beach sand, Tri Alpha Energy is recreating the same natural process that occurs in stars: the fusion of hydrogen atoms in a hot plasma gas, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. The company applies advanced particle accelerator and plasma physics in order to create a commercially competitive fusion electric generator that is compact, safe, carbon-free and sustainable, creates no environmental or health hazards, produces only helium, is not a controlled substance, and is non-radioactive. From its headquarters in California, Tri Alpha Energy is solving energy for the world.  For more information, please visit www.trialphaenergy.com.

SOURCE Tri Alpha Energy