Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Community-engaged Research for Clean Energy Solutions (CERCES) Workshop

About the workshop

UC Irvine is hosting a workshop on Community-engaged Research for Clean Energy Solutions (CERCES), as part of the UC Laboratory Fees Research Program. Faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and research scientists are invited.

Where

UC Irvine's Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building
Room 1200

When

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Please RSVP by November 13th.

In person attendance is limited but encouraged. A remote participation option is available.

Program

8:30 AM
Registration and light breakfast available

9:00 AM
Welcome and land acknowledgement, Iryna Zenyuk, Professor, Director of National Fuel Cell Research Center, UC Irvine (Workshop Moderator)

Opening remarks from Pramod Khargonekar, Vice Chancellor of Research, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Irvine

9:10 AM
Recap of CERCES Workshop #1

Therese Peffer, Associate Director, CITRIS Climate and California Institute for Energy and the Environment (CIEE), UC Berkeley

9:25 AM
Community-engaged Research Project: Plenary session: Hydrogen

Angelina Galiteva, CEO, Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES)

Moderator: Plamen Atanassov, Chancellor’s Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UC Irvine

9:55 AM
Community-engaged Research Projects: Panel #1: Grid technologies

Robert Flores, Senior Scientist, Clean Energy Institute and Advanced Power and Energy Program, UC Irvine; and Claudia Locke, Senior Library Specialist, Oak View Branch Library

Ranjit Deshmukh, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies Department, UCSB

Jean-Paul Watson, Lab Senior Staff Scientist, Global Security / E-Program, LLNL

Moderator: Iryna Zenyuk, Professor, Director of National Fuel Cell Research Center, UC Irvine

10:40 AM
Coffee Break

11:00 AM
Community-engaged Research Projects: Panel #2: CO₂ capture and storage

Newsha Ajami, Chief Development Officer for Research, Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (via Zoom)

Jolante van Wijk, Program Manager, Applied Energy Program Office, Los Alamos National Laboratory (in person); and Craig Williams, Coordinator and Liaison, Industrial Relations and Training, San Juan College School of Energy (via Zoom)

Moderator: MJ Qomi, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Irvine

11:45 AM
Lunch Served

1:00 PM
Panel #3: National Laboratories research capabilities

Brandon Wood, Director, Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF); Associate Program Lead for Hydrogen; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Jolante van Wijk, Program Manager, Applied Energy Program Office, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Moderator: Camille Bibeau, PhD, Executive Director, Partnerships and Outreach, UC National Laboratories, UC Office of the President

1:45 PM
Equitable Community-University Research Partnerships: Tips and promising practices

Connie McGuire, PhD, MSW and Victoria Lowerson Bredow PhD, MPH from the Research Justice Shop, Newkirk Center for Science & Society, UC Irvine

Moderator: Holly Hapke, PhD, Director of Research Development, School of Social Sciences, UC Irvine

2:15 PM
Coffee Break

2:35 PM
Breakout group discussions

Discussion questions:

What clean energy options should be prioritized?
How would clean energy be stored?
How would clean energy be deployed?
What are the gaps in generation, storage, and deployment?

Moderators:

Pramod Khargonekar, Vice Chancellor of Research, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Irvine

Iryna Zenyuk, Professor, Director of National Fuel Cell Research Center, UC Irvine

3:20 PM
Reports from breakout group discussions, followed by full group discussion on the top three research priorities to advance CERCES, leveraging UC and National Lab capabilities.

Moderator: Pramod Khargonekar, Vice Chancellor of Research, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Irvine

4:00 PM
Close

Speakers & Moderators

Newsha K. Ajami

Newsha K. Ajami is the Chief Strategic Development Officer for Research in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. A leading expert in sustainable water resource management, smart cities, and water policy and finance, in her role at LBL, she is focused on developing and leading interdisciplinary and impact-focused research initiatives at the nexus of water, energy, and carbon.

Dr. Ajami was a mayoral appointee to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, serves on the National Academies Water Science and Technology Board, is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, and sits on several advisory boards. She received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Irvine.

Plamen Atanassov

Plamen Atanassov is a Chancellor’s Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of California Irvine, where his research focuses on development of non-platinum electrocatalysts, nano-structured platinum-based catalysts and advanced supports for fuel cells and electrolyzers, catalysts for CO₂ electroreduction and products valorization, ammonia, and urea electrosynthesis and other new materials and technologies for energy conversion and storage. He is a senior advisor for business development to California’s DOE hydrogen hub – the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) and interfacing with hydrogen technology demonstration and research efforts regionally and Nation-wide. Plamen Atanassov was inducted in the National Academy of Inventors, and he is a Fellow of both: The Electrochemical Society and the International Society of Electrochemistry, for which he is the current President-elect.

Camille Bibeau

Dr.Camille Bibeau is a member of the UCNL senior scientific staff at UCOP with over 38 years of combined service at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California. She currently serves as the Executive Director Partnerships and Outreach which focuses on the development and enhancement of strategic opportunities and collaborations between the UC campuses, medical centers, the agriculture and natural resources program and UC affiliated national laboratories. Prior to UCOP she worked within the LLNL Engineering, National Ignition Facility and Global Security Directorates, National Security Office, and Director's Office. She previously served as an Adjunct Associate Professor within the Department of Applied Science at University of California, Davis.

Victoria Lowerson Bredow

Victoria Lowerson Bredow (she/her) is a co-founder and the Director of Engaged Scholarship at the Research Justice Shop (RJS) at UC Irvine’s Newkirk Center for Science & Society. At RJS, Victoria works with academically and community-situated researchers and organizations to build long-term, relationship-centered, research partnerships to make research more inclusive and equitable. Victoria holds a Ph.D. in Planning, Policy, and Design from UC Irvine and a Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University. Victoria’ s commitment to and curiosity for research justice comes from personal experience as a first-generation college student and of power dynamics in health care, alongside learning professional training in community-based participatory action research.

Angelina Galiteva

Angelina Galiteva serves as CEO of California's ARCHES initiative, leading the state's renewable hydrogen ecosystem development. She is the Founder and Board Chair of Renewables 100 Policy Institute and became the first female Chair of the California Independent Systems Operator Board in 2020. A globally recognized expert in renewable energy and power systems, she founded NEOptions Inc. and previously served as Executive Director of Strategic Planning at LADWP

Ranjit Deshmukh

Ranjit Deshmukh is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies program and the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California Santa Barbara. Employing transdisciplinary methods from engineering, economics, and social sciences, Ranjit explores research questions around low-carbon energy transitions, clean energy access, and energy markets. Before joining UCSB, Ranjit was a Rosenfeld postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He holds a PhD in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley and master’s degrees in Engineering from CalPoly Humboldt University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Robert Flores

Robert Flores is a Senior Scientist at the Clean Energy Institute at the University of California, Irvine, where he earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2016. His research focuses on optimizing the deployment and control of clean energy systems to find cost-effective solutions for decarbonizing society. Recently, he has worked on low-cost, low-carbon cooling solutions for low-income communities in Southern California, the optimal use of hydro and hydrogen technologies in remote Alaskan communities, and understanding the social value of industrial decarbonization using green hydrogen.

Holly Hapke

Dr. Holly Hapke is a geographer and interdisciplinary social scientist based at UC-Irvine where she is the Director of Research Development for the School of Social Sciences. From 2014-2017 she served as a program director at NSF with responsibility for two interdisciplinary cross-directorate programs and an international interdisciplinary research funding initiative. Dr. Hapke earned her PhD at Syracuse University. From 1996-2018 she was a tenured faculty member in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at East Carolina University where she also served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Distance Education and Co-Director of International Studies.

Pramod Khargonekar

Pramod Khargonekar is the Vice Chancellor for Research & Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Irvine. Pramod was Chairman of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department from 1997 to 2001 and held the position of Claude Shannon Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Michigan. From 2001 to 2009, he was Dean of the College of Engineering and Eckis Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida till 2016. He served as the head of the Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation till June 2016.

Claudia Locke

Claudia Locke is a Senior Library Specialist at the Oak View Branch Library since 1995. Oak View Branch Library is one of the five library branches within the Huntington Beach Public Library System. Oak View Branch Library is in the heart of the low-income Oak View Community in the city of Huntington Beach. With nearly 30 years of experience, Claudia is passionate about public libraries as vital community hubs. Claudia loves working for libraries, believing they empower individuals to connect, learn, develop interests, and transform their lives. Claudia has a bachelor’s degree in Librarianship and Information Science from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Connie McGuire

Connie McGuire, PhD, MSW (she), is the co-founder of the Research Justice Shop (RJS) at UC Irvine and the Director of Community Relationships. Connie supports training in research justice and community-centered approaches to research. Connie is a cultural anthropologist and a Latin Americanist by training and is also trained in social work and several trauma-informed/wellness-centered approaches to group facilitation. Connie is a settler (4th and 5th generation Irish American) and grew up in Washington DC. Her commitments to anti-racist reflection and practice in research (and in life) emerged from the specificity of white supremacy in that context.

Therese Peffer

Therese Peffer, PhD, is a project manager and researcher at the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) within the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California, Berkeley. Therese manages and conducts research in smart building technologies, building-to-grid, demand response, demand flexibility, and smart grid research projects with the objective of creating comfortable and energy efficient livable spaces. She serves as an Associate Director for CIEE and for the CITRIS Climate initiative and is the co-Chair of the annual Behavior Energy and Climate Change conference. She is currently managing the Energy Commission funded EcoBlock and large commercial decarbonization projects and the Dept. of Energy-funded Brick project. Previous research includes energy consumption displays, thermostats, consumer behavior, and user interface usability research. Therese completed a Ph.D. in Architecture with an emphasis on building science at UC Berkeley. As an architect, she worked in San Francisco and Pismo Beach, CA. Therese earned a Master’s degree in Architecture at the University of Oregon. She lived on a solar and wind-powered homestead while working for Home Power magazine.

MJ Qomi

Dr. M.J. Qomi is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He received his Ph.D. from MIT, a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Tehran University, and a Master's degree from the Sharif University of Technology. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the DOE Early Career Award, Hellman and Schoettler Fellowships. Dr. Qomi’s research focuses on porous media in a broad sense with applications in energy geosystems and infrastructure systems. The group’s current research portfolio includes projects on geological carbon sequestration, carbon-negative concretes, enhanced geothermal systems, and statistical physics of cities.

Jolante van Wijk

Jolante van Wijk is Program Manager for the subsurface energy, carbon management, and geothermal energy portfolios at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Before joining Los Alamos National Laboratory, Jolante was Professor of Geophysics at University of Houston and New Mexico Tech, where she currently holds a Joint Appointment. She has taught courses in (reservoir) geophysics, petroleum geology, basin analysis, geodynamics, and various other topics. Her technical background is in computational geophysics, with research focus on sedimentary basins and reservoirs. She is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

Jean-Paul Watson

Dr. Jean-Paul Watson (“JP”) is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). At LLNL, he is the Associate Program Lead for Climate-Infrastructure Resilience in the Global Security Directorate. JP leads a diverse team of researchers focused on developing advanced analytics for critical infrastructure operations, planning, and resilience – emphasizing decision-making under uncertainty. He is co-inventor of the widely used Pyomo algebraic modeling language for mathematical optimization (www.pyomo.org), and has co-authored over 75 journal articles, 30 conference papers, and 3 books. JP has received the R&D 100 award, the INFORMS Computing Society Prize, and was an INFORMS Edelman finalist.

Craig Williams

Craig Williams has 45 years of experience working in the oil and gas industry, starting as a derrickhand, and advancing through field operations, technical services, account management, and field management roles for major companies including BJ Services and Baker Hughes. His experience spans over 10 U.S. basins and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2022, he joined San Juan College’s School of Energy as an Industrial Liaison, and now serves as the coordinator of the Industrial Safety Department. Craig holds an associate's degree in sociology and is completing a bachelor’s degree in Public Safety Leadership at New Mexico Highlands.

Brandon Wood

Dr. Brandon Wood is Director of the Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF) and Associate Program Lead for Hydrogen at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His primary research interests lie in the application of high-performance computing and multiscale simulations to materials for energy storage, conversion, and delivery. He leads crosscutting modeling and simulation activities for three U.S. Department of Energy multi-lab consortia focused on hydrogen energy: HyMARC (materials-based hydrogen storage and hydrogen carriers), HydroGEN (materials for renewable hydrogen production), and H2NEW (degradation challenges in next-generation electrolyzers).

Iryna Zenyuk

Professor Zenyuk holds a B.S. (2008) in mechanical engineering from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. She continued her studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned M.S. (2011) and Ph.D. (2013) in mechanical engineering. Zenyuk did her postdoctoral fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Electrochemical Technologies Group.

At UC Irvine, Zenyuk’s group works on enabling energy solutions by researching low-temperature hydrogen fuel-cells, Li-metal batteries and electrolyzers. Zenyuk works on design strategy encompassing novel materials, diagnostic tools and device-level testing.

She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award (2017), Interpore society Fraunhofer Award for Young Researchers (2017), Research Corporation for Science Advancement, Scialog Fellow in Advanced Energy Storage (2017-2019), Electrochemical Society (ECS) Toyota Young Investigator Award (2018), UCI Samueli School of Engineering Early Career Faculty Excellence in Research Award (2019) and ECS Energy Technology Division Srinivasan Young Investigator Award (2021), UCI Beal Applied Innovations Early Career Innovator of the Year (2021), UCI Samueli School of Engineering Mid Career Faculty Excellence in Research Award (2022). Prof. Zenyuk published over 100 journal publications and delivered more than 100 invited presentations on topics of energy conversion and storage.

Twitter handle: @muziolog

Webpage: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/zenyuklab/

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Community-engaged Research for Clean Energy Solutions (CERCES) Workshop

About the workshop​

Where

When

Please RSVP by November 13th.

Program

Speakers & Moderators

About the workshop