A proud Michigander (and equally proud Michiganian), prior to Princeton Ben Brenner spent eight years working in Congress and for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In the Senate, Ben worked his way up from the copy room to become a legislative adviser to Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, focused on public-private research partnerships. At DOE, he served as a liaison between the Department’s leadership and the congressional Appropriations Committees, specializing in funding and management of DOE’s energy, science and nuclear security projects. Between his Princeton years, Ben joined the communications team of ITER: a seven-nation project to build a one-of-a-kind nuclear fusion device, which would replicate the physics that powers the sun as a (basically) limitless and carbon free energy source. At Princeton, Ben hopes to think through big questions: how government and the private sector can collaborate to meet modern energy challenges; whether IT platforms and policies can or should be managed in the public interest; and if he is actually, finally ready to get a dog.