The Senate on Thursday confirmed two key Department of Energy (DOE) nominees, approving Darío Gil as undersecretary for science and innovation and Conner Prochaska as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
The Senate voted to confirm the two picks alongside dozens of other nominees via a roll call vote.
Gil steps into the role after serving as the senior vice president at IBM Research. During his confirmation hearing in April, Gil told lawmakers that the United States must win the race to build a quantum supercomputer by the end of the decade.
“This future industry is one the U.S. must dominate, as it has profound scientific, economic, and national security implications,” Gil said on April 10 before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Gil added that it’s time for the United States to mobilize the “best teams to achieve the final frontier of building an error-corrected quantum supercomputer by the end of the decade.” He pledged to work to “ensure that America wins this great race.”
Prochaska, meanwhile, assumes the top role at ARPA-E after previously serving there during the first Trump administration, including as chief commercialization officer.
During his confirmation hearing in May, Prochaska told lawmakers that, if confirmed, he would work to advance energy and critical technologies.
“Energy and critical technologies are at an inflection point,” Prochaska told members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources during his May 14 confirmation hearing. “Quantum, artificial intelligence, fusion, small module reactors, geothermal, the list can go on, but these technologies will fundamentally change how the country and the world consume and produce energy.”
“If confirmed, I intend to make sure that we attack all of those technologies as best as we possibly can,” he added.