Clarissa Bhargava

Clarissa works at the intersection of energy, science, and innovation policy as the Lab's Federal Relations Officer. Prior to her current role with Berkeley Lab, Clarissa served as a AAAS Congressional Fellow on Senator Ben Ray Luján's energy and environment team, where she worked on several issue areas including emissions reduction strategies, advanced energy technologies, a just energy transition, environmental protection and cleanup, and wildfire science.

Previously, she studied 2D semiconducting materials for next-generation electronics at Berkeley Lab, where she also worked in science communication as a Marketing and Communications Specialist for the Molecular Foundry.

She holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in the same field from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Clarissa is based at the Berkeley Lab site and lives in San Francisco with her husband Rishabh and their cat Faraday.