William J. McLean

William J. McLean

William McLean is Emeritus Director of the Combustion Research Facility (CRF), a Department of Energy User Facility at Sandia National Laboratories/California. At Sandia he worked in close association with the U.S. DOE research programs sponsored by the DOE Office of Science and by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The CRF programs uniquely couple basic and applied research to industrial applications via partnerships with key US industries, including among others, major automotive and truck engine manufacturers and fuel suppliers.

McLean received his undergraduate and graduate education in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and was Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University before joining Sandia in 1978. His past research has involved coal combustion, flame chemistry, engine combustion and alternative fuels.

McLean serves as a Senior Fellow for the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). He was a member of the CCST’s Public Interest Energy Research Independent (PIER) Review Panel, 2003-2005, which critically reviewed California’s publicly supported energy research programs. More recently he served on the Working Committee for CCST’s California’s Energy Future project, 2010-2012. The purpose of this project is to assess the technology needs and options for achieving reduction of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below the 1990 level by 2050.