Dr. Jenifer Shafer currently serves as a Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Her focus at ARPA-E is developing economic and proliferation resistant technologies to support advanced reactor deployment, as well as manage nuclear waste and used nuclear fuel.

Before joining ARPA-E, Shafer served on the faculty at Colorado School of Mines as a Professor in the Chemistry Department and Nuclear Science & Engineering Program. Prior to that, she worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Shafer, an American Chemical Society Fellow, received a Ph.D. and B.S. in Chemistry from Washington State University and Colorado State University, respectively. She was the 2019 Chair of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Division of Nuclear Science & Technology, a member of the 2017 ACS Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research’s Class of Influential Researchers, and a 2014 Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career awardee. She is the co-author of several book chapters, nearly 80 technical manuscripts and has lead or collaborated on a number of projects for the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, and Defense.