Paul von Hirtz is President of Thermochem, a geothermal energy engineering firm he founded that initially served The Geysers in Sonoma County. Thermochem now works with all major geothermal power developers worldwide. In 1998 Paul founded Thermochem Indonesia. The two companies employ 60 engineers, scientists and technicians in SE Asia and the USA. The Thermochem companies were recently acquired by a large Japanese utility, Kyushu Electric Power Company. Paul is remaining in his current position as President for the next few years, while he remains active in geothermal R&D programs, but is looking forward to more sailing, skiing, running and little league coaching soon.

Paul studied chemistry and physics at UC Berkeley, and Sonoma State University, earning a BS in chemistry from SSU while working in a lab full time. Paul has been active in educational and editorial roles in his industry, by chairing education committees, conducting numerous workshops, serving on the editorial board of a peer-reviewed journal (Geothermics) and chairing technical committees for organizations such as ASTM. Paul’s dad was a high school teacher in Sonoma County, and both Paul and his wife Ana are Sonoma County natives. Their son Oliver joined the third grade at THS in the fall of 2020. Paul enjoys tinkering in the basement lab with Oliver and creating interesting and somewhat safe science experiments.