Allison Ray is a Strategy and Innovation Consultant in Nuclear Science and Technology at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), where she supports strategic planning, cross-directorate collaboration, and international program engagement to advance INL’s national nuclear energy mission. She previously served as Interim Chief Technology Officer for Nuclear Science and Technology, assisting the associate laboratory director in strengthening mission alignment and innovation across INL’s nuclear portfolio.

Before returning to INL, Ray was Director of Research Affairs at Alder Renewables, where she strengthened industry–laboratory partnerships and supported the scale-up of novel biocrude technology to advance sustainable aviation fuel pathways. At INL, she also served as Director and Lead of Research Excellence for Science and Technology, leading efforts to elevate research quality, chairing the INL Science Council, and supporting capability investments and research alignment across mission organizations.

Prior to these roles, Ray served as Feedstock Variability Task Lead for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Feedstock Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC), funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), leading a multidisciplinary team across six national laboratories and advancing understanding of how biomass composition and structure influence feedstock quality and conversion performance. She also served as principal investigator on several BETO-funded research projects.

Ray holds a Ph.D. in environmental microbiology from Idaho State University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological engineering from Purdue University.