Dr. Kyle Fricker is a commercialization program manager within the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE’s) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT). In this position, he works with DOE program offices, national laboratories, and industry to develop and manage technology-agnostic funding programs and activities seeking to bring impactful energy technologies to market, with a specific focus on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act portion of the Technology Commercialization Fund.
Before OTT, Kyle served as technology manager on the Manufacturing and Competitiveness team within DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Office. In that role, his portfolio included projects that support entrepreneurs developing new solar products and programs that strengthen innovation ecosystems to accelerate the commercialization of early-stage energy technologies. He also led programs to scale up new approaches to expand affordable solar access to previously underserved populations.
Prior to joining DOE, Kyle co-founded Divvy Power LLC (Divvy), an online platform for crowdsourcing capital and facilitating development of community clean energy projects. Under his leadership, Divvy completed two pilot projects for off-grid solar systems at a school and community garden in the Bronx, N.Y.
Kyle holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from University of Florida and a Ph.D. in earth and environmental engineering from Columbia University, where he researched a mineral-based chemical process for carbon dioxide capture and storage. During his graduate studies, Kyle also assessed the commercial viability of physical science inventions disclosed by physical science and engineering labs across the university as a Columbia Technology Ventures fellow. In his free time, he enjoys snowboarding, hiking, and cheering for DC United. He is originally from Cocoa Beach, Fla.