Announcement from the Office of Technology Transitions, August 22, 2016.

Washington, D.C. –The Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) is delighted to announce that that Rochelle Blaustein has joined the team as its Deputy Director.

Rochelle will serve as the senior member of OTT’s career staff, serving as Deputy Director. She brings to OTT a passion for innovation and a deep understanding of policies that can foster technology transfer and increase commercialization.  Her extensive experience bringing together diverse stakeholders has led to the rethinking, development and implementation of ground-breaking strategies to grow innovative ideas. Her experience spans multiple disciplines of science, business, law, policy, government, academia, industry and non-profits. Her background in scientific research, as a mediator, negotiator, lawyer, and professor, coupled with government service as a Senior Advisor at the US Department of Energy (DOE) and as Director of Technology Development for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide her with unique expertise to understand today’s complex problems, and the ability to lead teams to discovery of novel and integrated solutions.

Preceding her current role as Deputy Director of OTT, Rochelle spearheaded a collaborative, critical thinking skills program, bringing together individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and perspectives, as the inaugural Director of eXtended Learning Initiatives at EcoLand Institute, a nonprofit focused on engaging stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to work together to solve complex problems. She served as Ambassador-at-Large for the Cleantech Open Southeast, a national business accelerator for energy and environment technologies.  She has served on numerous policy boards at the NIH and DOE, on the Council on Competitiveness Working Group for Accelerating Technology, and the Virginia Joint Commission on Technology & Science Advisory Committee for Intellectual Property.  Rochelle served as Chair of the Dean's Advisory Council for the University of New Hampshire School of Law. 

Rochelle is a patent attorney. Prior to her government service, she practiced intellectual property law.  As Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Franklin Pierce Law Center (now University of New Hampshire), she taught attorneys, government and military officials from over 35 countries, in addition to traditional law students.  Her teaching includes courses, workshops, and guest lectures at Franklin Pierce Law Center, the Mason Enterprise Center, the National Technology Transfer Center, NASA and MIT.  She holds an AV rating, recognition by her legal peers for preeminent legal ability and high ethical standards. 

Rochelle is the recipient of numerous honors.  She was honored with an NIH Director’s Award for her leadership, and by DOE for the ground-breaking pilot known as Agreements for Commercializing Technology (ACT) that enables industry to engage with the National Laboratories in efficient ways to promote commercialization of research and new technologies.  She was recognized by the NIH Technology Development and Transfer Committee for outstanding leadership, and by the FPLC Women’s Law Caucus for her work with students from all over the globe that strengthens our worldwide legal community.

Rochelle holds a law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center (now University of New Hampshire School of Law) and a multi-disciplinary degree in Science from Yale University.  While a student at Yale, she received laboratory training in human gene mapping and clinical cytogenetics at the Yale School of Medicine.

The Mission of the Office of Technology Transitions is to expand the commercial impact of DOE’s portfolio of Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment (RDD&D) activities over the short, medium and long term.

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