Mark Petri, an engineer with 23 years of experience at one of the largest national laboratories has been named the next director of the Iowa Energy Center, effective Feb. 25. Since 2008, Petri has been the technology development director with the Argonne National Laboratory’s Energy Engineering and Systems Analysis Directorate near Chicago, where he coordinated a $40 million portfolio of multidisciplinary applied and basic research programs.Petri has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nuclear engineering, and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering, all from Purdue University. The Iowa Energy Center, administered through Iowa State University, was created by the Legislature to advance Iowa’s energy efficiency and renewable energy use. Based in Ames, the energy center operates the Energy Resource Station at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny and the Biomass Energy Conversion facility in Nevada, Iowa.