Carl Kukkonen

Dr. Carl Kukkonen is CEO of VIASPACE Inc., a renewable biomass energy company. VIASPACE grows Giant King Grass, a high-yield dedicated energy crop, as fuel for direct combustion in electricity-generating power plants, for energy pellets to be co-fired with coal, for bio methane production using anaerobic digestion, and as a feedstock for cellulosic biofuels, biochemicals and bioplastics. Previously, Dr. Kukkonen directed a research center in microelectronics and supercomputing at the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and before that, he was at Ford Motor Company, where he was Ford’s expert on hydrogen as an alternative automotive fuel and then led a team to develop a direct injection diesel engine. Dr. Kukkonen earned a B.S. in physics from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University. Dr. Kukkonen was awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and is a member of the Space Technology Hall Of Fame.