Dave Cooke

Dave Cooke is a senior vehicles analyst in the Clean Vehicles Program, specializing in both light- and heavy-duty fuel economy. He conducts research on fuel efficiency technologies and the implications for oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions across the transportation sector.

Before joining UCS, Dr. Cooke was a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow and associate program officer with the National Academies’ National Research Council, where his work with the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems focused on automotive technologies, including peer-reviewed consensus studies on the development of advanced technology vehicles by 2050 and the barriers facing electric vehicle deployment.

Dr. Cooke received his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics in 2010 from the University of California, Berkeley, where his dissertation focused on the fundamental science behind modern hard drive technology, exploring the electronic and magnetic properties of these novel material systems through microcalorimetry. Prior to this, he received his BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 2002 and his MS in physics from the University of California, San Diego in 2004.