Peter Fiske

Dr. Peter S. Fiske is the Director of the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) and Water-Energy Resilience Research Institute (WERRI) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. WERRI’s goal is to orient and align the water-related research programs at LBNL to address critical gaps in the reliability, efficiency and sustainability of water-energy systems in California and the nation.

Fiske was the Chief Executive Officer of PAX Water Technologies, Inc. from 2008 until January, 2017 when it was acquired by UGSI Inc. in an al-cash transaction. PAX Water pioneered the use of biomimicry to develop innovative and energy efficient technologies to improve drinking water quality and reliability in municipal water systems. He is on the Board of Directors of Kohana Technologies Inc. – which won one of the first ARPA-E awards in 2008 and is presently developing advanced wind turbine technologies with Vestas. He has been an advisor, mentor and friend to numerous early-stage technology entrepreneurs. He is also a frequent writer and lecturer on the subject of career strategy, entrepreneurship and leadership for scientists and engineers. He has been a keynote speaker or guest lecturer at some of the leading research universities in the United States including MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, Princeton and the University of California at Berkeley (where he teaches at the Haas School of Business). He is a founding faculty member of the Department of Energy’s I-Corps Program. He is the author of Put Your Science to WORK!, numerous articles for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s career website ScienceCareers.org, and presently writes an occasional column in the journal Nature.

Prior to joining PAX Water, Fiske was co-founder of RAPT Industries, Inc., a pioneer in the field of plasma processing of optics and semiconductors. Fiske led negotiations to license a portion of the technology to a major semiconductor equipment manufacturer, and led the first sales of products. Fiske was CEO of the Company from May, 2001 to April, 2004. Fiske spun the company out of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he was a staff scientist.

Prior to starting RAPT, Fiske led a research team in condensed matter physics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with applications to materials science, energy storage and weapons. He is the author of 24 technical articles, most in international peer-reviewed journals including SCIENCE. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1994 and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley in 2002. In 1996, Fiske was one of 18 young professionals selected nationally for the White House Fellowship. He served his fellowship year as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Special Projects where he led a major personnel policy reform initiative for the Pentagon.

Education

• MBA University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business (1999 — 2002)
• PhD Stanford University (1988 — 1993)
• B.A./B.S.E. Princeton University (1984 — 1988)

Companies

• Executive Director National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) (2019)
• Director of the Water-Energy Resilience Research Institute Berkeley Lab (2017)
• Lecturer University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business (2004)
• Author and Lecturer Put Your Science to WORK! (1994)
• Elemental Excelerator - Cohort 8 Market Intelligence Lead and Coach Elemental Excelerator (2019 — 2020)
• Consultant, Investor Self-Employed (2017 — 2017)
• CEO PAX Water Technologies, Inc. (2008 — 2017)
• Chairman of the Board of Directors Kohana Technologies (2012 — 2017)
• Founder, VP for Business Development RAPT Industries, Inc. (2001 — 2007)