Dr. Shawn Thorne is the Associate Director for Power and Energy and Functional Materials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Global office in London, United Kingdom. He is responsible for developing connections between the US Naval Research Enterprise and outstanding international academic and commercial researchers working in Power and Energy, specifically alternative energy generation and efficient distribution, to include Smart Grids. Dr. Thorne graduated from Boston University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and a minor in Economics and graduated with a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of California, Berkeley in 2008. He is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at London Business School.