Kevin OBrien, Ph.D.
Director, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) and the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS)
Prairie Research Institute
Kevin OBrien, Ph.D., is the Director of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) and the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) at the Prairie Research Institute. His focus at both organizations is to promote sustainable economic growth while contributing to the state's natural resources and quality of life.
Following his academic training in macromolecular engineering, Dr. OBrien embarked on a path of entrepreneurship and innovation from early stage to commercial stage results. He served in such roles at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, SRI International, and Parsons Corp. He has managed multi-million-dollar programs related to renewable and sustainable technologies and practices in the U.S. and abroad.
At PRI he has received DOE support for carbon capture research partnerships with global corporations to raise the technology readiness level of second-generation decarbonization approaches at coal-fired power plants. He is currently the principle investigator for the engineering design for a 10 MW pilot of next-generation capture technology, and for what would be the world's largest carbon capture plant (816 MW). Workforce development and regional economic growth are also important goals of his cleantech activities. Since 2015, Dr. OBrien has served on the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for ISO TC 265, Standards for CO2 capture, transport, and storage.