Photo: Chris Calwell (left) and Jonathan Koomey (right) in 2010 presenting Art Rosenfeld with recognition of a new unit coined in his honor, in a peer reviewed article in Environmental Research Letters. One Rosenfeld equals savings of 3 billion kWh/year (at the meter) and reductions of 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to avoiding the need for a typical 500 MW coal plant.
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Arthur Hinton Rosenfeld passed away peacefully early today, January 27, 2017. He was 90 years old.
Over the course of his career he inspired
thousands of students, post-docs, and other researchers to make the world a better
(and more efficient) place, and motivated policy-makers to adopt these ideas with
a combination of personal charm and convincing analysis. His quick wit,
enthusiasm, and unrivaled personal energy made him a beloved figure in the
world of energy efficiency policy and technology.
Even when expressing controversial ideas, he did
it in disarming and often whimsical way, without putting his ego in the debate.
He communicated a sense of wonder and innocence, all the while recognizing the
importance of getting the numbers right.
He unerringly identified the right questions to ask about the right
topics, and had the persistence to take research results all the way to advocacy
that had real societal impact. And he did it with a friendly and collegial
charm that is reflected in the fact that his students referred to him as “Art”
rather than the expected “Professor Rosenfeld”.
Born in Alabama on June 22, 1926, Art spent his
childhood years in Egypt, where his father was a consultant to the Egyptian
sugarcane industry. He graduated with a
B.S. in physics at age 18, enlisted in the Navy towards the end of the war, and
afterwards enrolled in the Physics Department of the University of Chicago,
where Enrico Fermi accepted him as his last graduate student.
Art married Roselyn Bernheim in 1955. They had
three children, Margaret, Anne, and Art junior (Chip).
After receiving his Ph.D. in Physics in 1954, Rosenfeld
joined the physics faculty at the University of California at Berkeley, where
he worked in, (and from 1969 to 1974, led) the particle physics group (“Group
A”) of subsequent Nobel Prize winner Luis Alvarez at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (LBNL).
The oil embargo of 1973 galvanized Art; and
he began asking endless questions. Why were Bay Area offices all brightly lit
at 2AM when nobody was there? Why were California home-heating bills comparable
to those in Minnesota? Why were
utilities giving away free 200-watt electric light bulbs? And why were the then
popular Eichler Homes using electric resistance heating with no roof
insulation? For what activities, and in
what devices, was the US consuming energy? And what where the physics-based limits
for how little energy these activities really needed?
These and other questions led Art
and several of his colleagues to frame the energy problem as “How to accomplish
society’s goals most efficiently and cheaply” rather than “How to supply enough
energy.” This reframing was
revolutionary in the era that most people thought energy consumption and economic
growth always increased in lockstep.
Following a yearlong “sabbatical”
from particle physics, Professor Rosenfeld decided to continue working on the efficient use of energy,
mainly in buildings. He eventually
founded the Center for Building Science at LBNL, which he led until 1994. Art
attracted a cadre of talented, creative, and energetic people to LBNL in the
1970s and early 1980s, and these leaders helped Art build a world-class center
for energy and environment studies. The
center also inspired a small army of students at UC Berkeley to focus on energy
efficiency, and these researchers helped build the energy efficiency industry
once they left the university.
Art’s contributions to the
fledgling knowledge base of building science were seminal, and he is widely
considered the father of energy efficiency. The Center for Building
Science developed a broad range of energy efficiency technologies, including electronic ballasts for fluorescent lighting—a key component of compact fluorescent lamps
(CFLs)—and a transparent coating for window glass
that blocks heat from either escaping (winter)
or entering (summer).
He was personally responsible for developing the DOE-2 series of computer programs
for building energy analysis and design that has been
the gold standard for building energy
analysis for
more than 25 years.
Art’s work quickly took him into
the policy arena. In 1975, Utilities had selected sites, and requested
permits for 17 GW of power plants to come online by 1987. But long before 1987, all but 3 GW had been
quietly forgotten. An even more extravagant report by Ronald Doctor of the RAND
in Santa Monica had projected need for 150 GW of new power plants for
California by 2000, which would put one GW of power plants every 3 miles along
the coast between San Diego and San Francisco. Art worked with legislators,
regulators and the then new California Energy Commission to implement much less-expensive
efficiency policies that made those plants superfluous. California’s peak
demand has been held to 60 GW today. So in retrospect, we have avoided at least
$75 billion in wasted investment.
Art was the co-founder of the American Council for
an Energy Efficiency Economy (ACEEE), and the University of California’s
Institute for Energy and the Environment (CIEE). He was the author or co-author
of over 400 refereed publications or book chapters.
During the Clinton administration Art served from
1994 through 1999 as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. He also served
as Commissioner at the California Energy Commission (CEC), after California
Governor Gray Davis appointed him in 2000.
He was reappointed in 2005 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 2010 he returned to LBNL and was elected to the
National Academy of Engineering. In that same year he was appointed
Distinguished Scientist Emeritus at LBNL. Until his death he devoted his
attention to an international campaign for the adoption of white roofs and
“cool colored” surfaces to reduce heat islands and mitigate global warming
His many awards and honors include the Szilard
Award for Physics in the Public Interest (1986), the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Carnot Award for Energy Efficiency (1993), the University of
California’s Berkeley Citation (2001), the Global Energy Prize from President
Medvedev of Russia (2011), the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from
President Obama (2013), and the Tang Prize for Sustainable Development (2016).
When friends asked him what he does for
relaxation, Art used to say “relaxing makes me nervous”. He did enjoy going jogging every weekend,
particularly with his children.
Of all his prizes he was most proud of the Enrico
Fermi Award in 2006, the oldest and one of the most prestigious science and
technology awards given by the U.S. government and named for his mentor.
Dr. Rosenfeld received the Fermi Award from Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman
on behalf of President George W. Bush, “for a lifetime of achievement ranging
from pioneering scientific discoveries in experimental nuclear and particle
physics to innovations in science, technology, and public policy for energy
conservation that continue to benefit humanity.” This award recognizes
scientists of international stature for a lifetime of exceptional achievement
in the development, use, control, or production of energy.
Professor John Holdren, director
of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama
says, “Art Rosenfeld had an enormous impact on U.S.
energy policy, starting in the early 1970s, with his insights and compelling
quantitative analyses pointing to the potential of increased end-use efficiency
as the cheapest, cleanest, surest response to the nation’s energy challenges.”
Dr. Rosenfeld is survived by daughters
Dr. Margaret Rosenfeld and Dr. Anne Hansen, two granddaughters and four
grandsons, as well as the entire energy efficiency community.
Acknowledgement
This article was prepared by Art
Rosenfeld’s former graduate students and longtime friends and admirers, Ashok
Gadgil, David B. Goldstein, and Jonathan Koomey.
Additional Information
To learn more about Art
Rosenfeld’s life and career, go here.
Any gifts in Art’s memory are to
be made to the Global
Cool Cities Alliance. (www.gobalcoolcities.org)