Woodward CEO, NREL Scientist to Headline Colorado State University Clean Energy Supercluster and Cenergy Expo April 18

Tom Gendron, chief executive officer of Fort Collins-based Woodward, and Dana Christensen, deputy lab director for Science and Technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, will speak at Colorado State University’s fourth annual Cenergy Clean Tech Expo on April 18.

The Cenergy Clean Tech Expo will be held in the East and Middle Ballrooms of the Lory Student Center from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will showcase cutting-edge, clean-energy research from CSU. Sponsors include the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association, Home State Bank, the Governor’s Energy Office, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Vergent Products, Encorp, Sample and Bailey, and Sage Law Group.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, go to http://www.energy.colostate.edu/cenergyexpo.html. Breakfast and lunch are included with the registration.

Gendron was named chairman of the board of Woodward in 2008 after having served as president and chief executive officer since 2005. He was named president and chief operating officer in 2002. He has served Woodward for more than 20 years in both the aircraft and industrial businesses, providing leadership in sales, marketing, business development and product support management. He also serves on the board of directors for Hexcel Corp.

“In the last year, Colorado State faculty and Cenergy have worked together to develop new startups and innovations in bioplastics, batteries, biofuels, software and human interface behavior modification,” said Tim Reeser, chief operating officer for Cenergy. “We continue to focus on forging business alliances and developing new commercial opportunities for faculty.”

Reeser said that, at the event, Cenergy will announce a new matching grant program that provides industry and university faculty joint grants to work together to solve clean energy issues.

Industry partners, faculty researchers, graduate students, government representatives, startup ecosystem supporters and investors have attended the event in previous years. The Expo will also include poster presentations from Clean Energy Supercluster faculty members and presentations from several university clean-energy startup companies.

Cenergy is the business component of the Clean Energy Supercluster. Professor Bryan Willson in mechanical engineering serves as director of the Clean Energy Supercluster and chief scientific officer of Cenergy, overseeing clean-energy research activities of the university. He works closely with Reeser at Cenergy, which is the non-profit commercialization arm of the supercluster managed through CSU Ventures.

The mission of the CSU Clean Energy Supercluster is to deliver solutions in clean energy through more effective partnering with the clean-energy industry, governments, investors and the public to rapidly develop product opportunities emerging from CSU’s world-class, clean-energy research. More than 100 CSU faculty members in all eight colleges are directly involved in this institution-wide effort.

For information on corporate sponsorships of the event, contact Reeser at Tim.Reeser@colostate.edu or (970) 492-4196. For more information about the Clean Energy Supercluster, go to http://energy.colostate.edu/index.html.

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