Terry Penney joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 1979. Prior to joining NREL, he worked for Concentration, Heat and Momentum (CHAM) a consulting group headed by Prof. Brian Spalding, based in London developing unique finite element computational codes for multiphase heat and mass transfer problems. He also worked Von Karmen Facility at the Arnold Engineering Development Center in middle Tennessee where he worked on the Space Shuttle program. At NREL he has worked on Ocean Energy, Buildings Research, Optical and Thermal Fluid Science. In 1992, he launched the Hybrid Vehicle program, which grew into the Partnership for New Generation Vehicles (PNGV) between the government and GM, Ford and DaimlerChyrsler. Currently he is NREL's Technology Manager for Freedom Car and Advanced Vehicles responsible for both alternative fuels and advanced vehicles projects in both light and heavy-duty hybrid platforms.

He has more than 50 technical publications to his credit, including energy-related articles in Scientific American and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Terry has worked on computational fluid dynamics problems for a variety of applications and has pushed math-based analysis, which has evolved simultaneous multi-physics based tools with optimization including six-sigma, optimization and virtual proving ground. He has 30 years experience in testing and analysis in aerodynamics, heated mass transfer components, and advanced thermodynamic cycles, including gas turbines. He is an SAE member, a Baldridge team competition examiner, National Science Bowl scientific judge and winner of the Van Morris Award for performance. His undergraduate degree was from Purdue University in Aeronautical Engineering and Engineering Science and his graduate work was at the University of Tennessee in Mechanical Engineering.