Jaquelin Cochran — Associate Laboratory Director, Strategic Energy Analysis and Decision Sciences

Jaquelin Cochran serves as the associate laboratory director for the Strategic Energy Analysis and Decision Sciences directorate at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

She oversees NREL's research on grid planning, decision science, and systems analysis. The directorate's work supports state and national goals, including energy affordability, energy addition, innovation, grid reliability and security, and streamlined permitting. Modeling tools developed by directorate staff—such as reV, ReEDS™, Sienna, PRECISE™, and dGen™—are widely used by energy stakeholders. Several have garnered prestigious R&D 100 awards.

Cochran has held various leadership roles since joining NREL in 2009, including most recently as director of the Grid Planning and Analysis Center. Her expertise in power systems has enhanced the capacity and reliability of grids—from U.S. cities to multi-country networks. She served as principal investigator for the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study and has led extensive portfolios of international work for organizations such as the U.S. State Department.

Before joining NREL, Cochran was an assistant professor at KIMEP University in Kazakhstan and was a Peace Corps volunteer with the Polish Foundation for Energy Efficiency.

Cochran served on the National Academies of Sciences committee Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States. She also served on Duke Energy's Integrated System and Operations Planning Advisory Council.

Cochran holds a doctorate and master's degree from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in public policy/physics from Pomona College.