Ben Loeffler Steps Up to UAF’s PMEC Director

As Jeremy Kasper moves into the interim director role at ACEP, Ben Loeffler will step up to take on the UAF co-director position of the Pacific Marine Energy Center.

In 2018, Kasper was instrumental in merging the Alaska Hydrokinetic Research Center, a research program of ACEP, into the U.S. Department of Energy designated Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center to create the Pacific Marine Energy Center, a consortium between UAF, Oregon State University and the University of Washington.

Loeffler has held the role of UAF’s Pacific Marine Energy Center research manager since 2018, when he returned from serving three years as the Fairbanks North Star Borough energy management engineer. Before that, Loeffler worked as a research assistant at ACEP, performing data analysis and reporting for remote energy projects.

Loeffler’s new role includes overseeing all aspects of UAF’s marine energy research and management of the Tanana River Test Site near Nenana.

“I’m honored to hand the leadership of our marine energy research to Ben. He has proven to be a capable and professional manager of the PMEC program, and I believe he will represent UAF and Alaska well in the Pacific Marine Energy Center, and beyond. His skills and training as an engineer are a perfect fit for where marine energy is moving versus where it was when I took the lead,” said Jeremy Kasper.

 

 Ben Loeffler is the UAF co-director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center. Photo by Jeff Fisher.