Richard Rosen, PhD

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Dr. Richard Rosen brings over 50 years of leadership as Chief Engineer, Technical Director, Project Manager, and a pioneering innovator delivering advanced engineering solutions across the global energy sector.

Dr. Rosen received his PhD in Engineering from Harvard University. Dr. Rosen has lectured at Harvard in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and in General Education, teaching advanced calculus, hydrology, environmental engineering, and mathematical modeling for complex industrial systems. 

Dr. Rosen played a key role in shaping major U.S. environmental legislation, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and regulations governing aquatic discharges from steam-electric power plants. He invented and later patented an efficient method to reengineer existing landfills at substantially lower cost than building new facilities, modernizing waste-disposal operations while addressing long-standing environmental liabilities.

Dr. Rosen has had many notable successes in the private sector. At ERCO Petroleum Services, Dr. Rosen transformed the company into a global oil-recovery enterprise producing oil from depleted reservoirs. He engineered semi-permeable membrane systems to enable the demulsification of complex fluid mixtures in enhanced oil-recovery operations. He further designed and deployed fluidized-bed technologies that powered the construction of more than 30 industrial-scale biogasifiers. These systems, which are still in operation today, convert agricultural waste and other biosolids into renewable energy while generating valuable co-products such as activated carbon. 

As Technical Director and Chief Executive at AET, Dr. Rosen developed technology to evaluate the properties of the earth’s subsurface for geothermal exploration and the estimation of natural gas resources located in complex geological environments. His work led to the successful exploration of numerous geothermal projects in Japan and large-scale oil discoveries in other countries within Asia. 

Dr. Rosen’s technological expertise and capacity to deliver large-scale industrial projects have led him to advise the U.S. government and numerous foreign governments, including Japan, China, South Africa, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on high-impact energy initiatives. He received a medal from the Chinese government in recognition of his contributions to a major oil discovery in the Xinjiang Region. Dr. Rosen is also a specialist in the field of solids separation, developing cost-effective tools to extract and produce high-value materials including rare earths, minerals, and pure silica.

As Founder and CEO of American Ag Energy, Dr. Rosen has established a large-scale vegetable-production facility and is now advancing the scientific foundations of controlled-environment agriculture in the Northeastern United States. His work implements a decision-and-control model that enables rapid, remote, and highly efficient management of indoor-growing operations, paving the way to enable high density, sustainable agricultural solutions for a growing and hungry planet.