Nina Bergan French

Dr. Nina French is energized.

The CEO of Lucid Energy, a company committed to turning millions of miles of gravity-fed water pipelines around the world into generators of clean, environmentally-friendly, renewable energy from in-pipe hydropower, Nina French has more than 37 years experience in energy, environmental technologies, energy policy, and business development.

Previously, as founder and CTO of Clean Coal Solutions LLC, she worked to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants, and as co-founder and President of Sky+ Ltd., an exclusive R&D contractor to Rolls-Royce, she helped develop an innovative turbine blade manufacturing process that saved up to 50% of the cost of first stage turbine blades using 3-D printing technology and single-crystal casting.

A former senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, Nina helped build and test the first solar central receiver, and was lead project manager for Sandia’s first molten salt solar central receiver test project. She also spent five years on the Department of Energy Mixed Waste Treatment committee to commercialize technologies to clean up legacy mixed waste from DOE weapons facilities.

Nina earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Davis, has served as a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board, and currently serves on the National Coal Council, appointed by the Secretary of Energy.