MechSE alumnus K.R. Sridhar (PhDME ’90), co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy in Sunnyvale, CA, was praised by California Governor Gavin Newsom for his efforts in refurbishing large quantities of ventilators to meet the state’s high demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more and watch a video about Sridhar’s efforts at abc7news.com.
Sridhar also earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from Illinois in 1984. He was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of the MechSE department in 2011.
In 2010, Sridhar launched Bloom Energy with a solid-oxide fuel technology he developed – called a Bloom Box – that is producing clean electricity for some of the biggest corporations in America. Google, eBay, FedEx, Wal-Mart, and Coca-Cola, to name a few, use large Bloom Boxes to power manufacturing facilities and large office buildings. Bloom also offers a service that enables customers to purchase electricity generated from Bloom servers without having to buy those servers.