Nichole Fitzgerald is the deputy director for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO). She leads HFTO’s efforts to advance hydrogen and fuel cell research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) to enable a strong domestic economy and an affordable and secure energy future. Her team is responsible for more than $1.6 billion in hydrogen and fuel cell RD&D activities within the office and for coordinating more than $9.5 billion in hydrogen activities across DOE. Nichole led the development of the 2024 DOE Hydrogen Program Plan, which describes how DOE tackles and coordinates hydrogen and fuel cell RD&D across the department.
Prior to her current role, Nichole developed new initiatives for BETO including BOTTLE, which develops new biobased recycling and upcycling technologies; ChemCatBio, an Energy Materials Network consortium focused on catalysis for bioenergy applications; and BioESep, a national lab-led consortium on separations for bioenergy. Nichole served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at BETO and was an NIH post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley where she developed highly effective reagents for pharmaceutical applications.
Nichole earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University and a B.S. in chemistry from the College of William and Mary.
