Welcoming New Energy Faculty
Jamie Phillips
Department Chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Doctorate
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Research Areas
Materials: Synthesis, Simulation, Devices
Research
Dr. Phillip’s interests are in optoelectronic materials and devices, including photovoltaics for solar energy generation and energy harvesting in millimeter scale systems.
Mark Blenner
Associate Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Doctorate
Columbia University, New York, NY
Research Areas
Robotics and Biological Transformations
Research
Dr. Blenner’s research addresses big problems in sustainability, human health,
national defense, and space exploration – using synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, genomics & systems biology, and protein engineering. His research group works mostly in eukaryotic systems (non-model yeast and mammalian cells) as well as bacteria, to make biopharmaceutical, natural products, oleochemicals, biomaterials and biosensors. Additionally his group is interested in valorizing lignocellulosic biomass, plastic waste, and food waste for bioenergy and biochemical production.
Matthew Mauriello
Assistant Professor of Computer & Information Sciences
Doctorate
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Research Areas
Economics and Policy
Research
From a Human-Computer Interaction perspective, Dr. Mauriello’s research explores how users interact with energy management and information systems toward improving energy literacy, enabling end-user decision making, and promoting environmental sustainability.
Ilya Safro
Associate Professor of Computer & Information Sciences
Doctorate
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Research Areas
Modeling
Research
Dr. Safro’s research interests include algorithms and models for AI, machine learning, NLP, network science and graphs, quantum computing and large-scale optimization.
Kevin Solomon
Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Doctorate
MIT, Cambridge, MA
Research Areas
Robotics and Biological Transformations
Research
Dr. Solomon’s research focuses on the development of novel biomolecular tools and microbial platforms to supply the energy, materials, and medicines of tomorrow.
Marianthi Ierapetritou
Bob and Jane Gore Centennial Chair of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Doctorate
Imperial College, London, UK
Research Areas
Materials: Synthesis, Simulation, Devices | Economics and Policy
Research
Dr. Ierapetritou’s research focuses on the following areas: 1) process operations; (2)
design and synthesis of flexible production systems with emphasis on pharmaceutical manufacturing; 3) energy and sustainability process modeling and operations; and 4) modeling of biopharmaceutical production.
Laure Kayser
Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Doctorate
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
Research Areas
Materials: Synthesis, Simulation, Devices | Robotics and Biological Transformations
Research
Dr. Kayser’s research focuses on sustainable synthetic strategies to convert biomass and plastic waste to organic electronics for energy and bioelectronics applications.
Sambeeta “Sam” Das
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Doctorate
Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
Research Areas
Robotics and Biological Transformations
Research
Dr. Das’ research is very interdisciplinary spanning multiple fields like robotics, autonomous systems, physics, organic chemistry, materials engineering, soft matter, and biomedical engineering. The goal of her lab is to seamlessly combine these disparate disciplines to address challenges in micro-bio-robots. Her research activities focus on developing microrobots capable of a variety of biomedical applications; such as tissue engineering, personalized therapeutics, drug delivery, and high throughput biotechnology research.
Martin Heintzelman
Department Chair and Professor of Applied Economics and Statistics
Doctorate
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Research Areas
Economics and Policy
Research
Dr. Heintzelman’s research focuses on the valuation of environmental amenities and disamenities, primarily using revealed preference methods. Topically, his work focuses on the property value impacts of water quality and ecosystem health, as well as on the impacts of wind turbines and other forms of energy infrastructure. He also studies land use and other local environmental policies, seeking to explain both their implementation and impacts, and is currently working on a number of projects related to energy infrastructure and its interface with local communities.
Christina McGranaghan
Assistant Professor of Applied Economics and Statistics
Doctorate
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Research Areas
Economics and Policy
Research
Dr. McGranaghan studies decision making in energy and environmental settings. Her research uses a combination of experimental and observational methods to gain insights into human behavior; to measure responsiveness to price and policy incentives; and to inform policy design.