Research Staff Biographies

Matthew Aitken

Phone: 303-384-7148

Sheri Anstedt

Writer/Editor
B.S., English with a Professional Writing Emphasis, Carroll University, Waukesha, Wisconsin
303-275-3255

Sheri joined NREL and the NWTC in May 2012. Her primary responsibilities involve writing and editing a variety of documents and working closely with research staff on technical reports and proposals. Sheri has more than 15 years of experience as a professional writer and has written for a wide range of industries and organizations, including J.D. Edwards, IBM, Motorola, and Great-West. Prior to working for NREL, Sheri owned her own marketing writing business. Her career took a turn toward the scientific when she began writing and editing fire science briefs for the Joint Fire Science Program. Sheri then ventured into renewable energy by winning a subcontract from NREL. She is currently a member of the National Association of Science Writers and looks forward to learning more about—and communicating the importance of—innovative wind and water power technologies.

Don Baker

Senior Research Technician
Phone: 303-384-7074

Ian Baring-Gould

Wind & Water Technology Deployment Manager
National Wind Technology Center and Deployment & Industrial Partnerships
M.S., Mechanical Engineering with a focus on RE technologies, University of Massachusetts
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts
Phone: 303-384-7021

E. Ian Baring-Gould graduated with a MSME from the University of Massachusetts Renewable Energy Research Laboratory in 1995 and started working at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the United States. Ian's work at NREL has focused in three primary areas; applications engineering for Renewable Energy (RE) technologies, assistance in RE uses and educational outreach for renewable energy technologies, primarily wind. His applications work concentrates on innovative uses of RE, primarily the modeling, testing and monitoring of small power systems, end use applications and large diesel plant retrofit concepts. International technical assistance has focused in energy development for rural populations including the design, analysis, and implementation of remote power systems, primarily through NREL's Energy and Environmental, International Programs Office. Educational outreach, including field technical assistance, has focused in energy development for rural populations and school outreach programs such as the Wind for Schools program, both domestically and internationally. Ian also sits on the International Energy Agency research taskforce looking at wind turbine operation in cold climates and is an editor for Wind Engineering. Ian has authored or co-authored over 60 publications on wind energy and wind diesel power systems. Ian is currently the Wind Technology Deployment Manager at NREL, focusing on assisting organizations deploy wind technologies and addressing barriers to the implementation of wind energy through programs like DOE's Wind Powering America Project.

Ruth Baranowski

Communications Specialist
M.S., Technical Communications, University of Colorado at Denver
B.A., Mass Communications, Colorado State University — Pueblo
Phone: 303-384-6973

Ruth joined NREL in 2002, providing communications support for wind and solar research. In 2003 she relocated to the National Wind Technology Center to serve as the communications representative for the Wind Powering America initiative. As part of the program's technology acceptance activities, she is tasked with wind energy outreach to stakeholders such as state non-governmental groups, state energy offices, public power partners, Native American partners, and county commissioners. Ruth also supports Wind Powering America's workforce development efforts and the Wind for Schools project. She writes, edits, and manages communications projects including technical reports, conference papers, fact sheets, podcasts, and the biweekly Wind Powering America e-newsletter, as well as authoring content for the Wind Powering America website.

Prior to joining NREL, Ruth was a quality assurance editor for e-learning courses, the associate editor of a bi-weekly business journal, and a freelance writer, editor, and Web designer. She left NREL in 2008 and continues to support Wind Powering America as a contractor.

Derek Berry

Phone: 303-384-7096

Troy Boro

Phone: 303-384-7065

Tim Boyd

Phone: 303-384-7193

James Browning

Phone: 303-384-7148

Marshall Buhl

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida
Phone: 303-384-6914

Marshall joined NREL in 1979 as a programmer in the Scientific Applications Group, where he wrote programs and set up data-acquisition systems for many technology areas in the laboratory. In 1986, he transferred to the Wind Program. For the first five years, he managed the program's computer systems. In 1991, he started taking on more engineering duties as a user and developer of wind turbine aeroelastic codes. He developed, or helped to develop, commonly used codes such as WT_Perf, Crunch, FAST, AeroDyn, MCrunch, MExtremes, and TurbSim. Marshall performed code verification studies that resulted in a certificate of suitability for the FAST and ADAMS codes from one of the world's foremost wind turbine certifying bodies, Germanischer Lloyd.

Prior to joining NREL, Marshall worked at NASA-JSC (Houston), as an engineer analyzing the entry flight dynamics of the Space Shuttle Orbiter, and at Martin Marietta developing a real-time, man-in-the-loop simulator for a space tug.

Palmer Carlin

Senior Electrical Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
M.S., Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder
Phone: 303-384-6945

Palmer joined NREL in 1986. In the fall of 1977, he took a year and half leave of absence from his professorship in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Colorado to assist in the creation of what has become the Wind Energy Test Site in the buffer zone adjacent to the Rocky Flats Atomic Energy Installation. During the next decade he kept in touch through occasional consulting at the Test Site. In 1986, he took early retirement from the University and was hired as a full-time employee at the Test Site. Early duties included engineering tests of local turbines at the wind site as well as membership of a traveling Design Review team that oversaw wind turbine subcontractors. Later responsibilities included about 5 years as Associate Technical Editor for Wind Energy Conversion in the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering. Another later duty was that of Operating Agent for Annex 13 of the International Energy Association Executive Committee for the Cooperation in the Development of Large-Scale Wind Systems. Following this, his work with the NREL low-speed, direct-coupled wind turbine resulted in several reports and papers, including Analytic Expressions for Maximum Wind Turbine Average Power in Rayleigh Wind Regime, (Carlin, 1997 AIAA Proceedings) and Some Analysis of Energy Production from the NWTC Variable Speed Test Bed, (Carlin and Fingersh, 1999 AIAA Proceedings). The former was awarded Best Conference Paper at the annual 1997 ASME Wind Energy Symposium. He has recently worked with the Wind Powering America project at state workshops and with Alan Laxson and Eduard Muljadi on a soon-to-be-published history of Variable-Speed Operation of Wind Turbines.

Corrie Christol

Administrative Project Manager, National Wind Technology Center
A.A., Santa Rosa Junior College
B.A., University of Colorado at Boulder
Phone: 303-384-7110

Corrie joined NREL in 2002 as the receptionist for the NWTC. Since then, she has progressively moved into positions that require more responsibility, including supporting the Applied Research Team, the Water Power Program and the Wind Powering America Team. She has coordinated program conferences, tracked programmatic activities, assisted with funding opportunities as well as handled subcontracts, staff travel, budgets and projects. Most recently Corrie has moved into a project manager position, working with the Federal Wind, Integrated Deployment and Wind Powering America programs.

Matthew J. Churchfield

Postdoctoral Researcher
Phone: 303-384-7080

Matt began post-doctoral research work at NREL in August 2009. His work involves the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to study the physical interactions of wind turbine wakes with other turbine wakes and with the surrounding atmospheric boundary layer. This is of interest in a wind farm setting where there are many turbines in relatively close proximity to one another. The wakes created by upstream turbines contain less momentum and more turbulence than the ambient wind; if these wakes impinge upon downstream turbines, those turbines may create less power and be subject to higher mechanical loading than in the non-wake situation. Ultimately, that can lead to less revenue generated and higher maintenance costs. A better understanding of these physical phenomena could lead to improved engineering tools that wind farm developers may use to design more efficient, less maintenance-intensive wind farms. Prior to NREL, Matt earned his master's and doctorate degrees in Aeronautical Engineering at Purdue University and his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Beverly Cisneros

Administrative Assistant, National Wind Technology Center
Trinidad State Junior College
Phone: 303-384-6979

Beverly joined NREL in 2004 as the NWTC receptionist and a year later was hired as a full-time employee. Since then, she has progressively moved into positions that require more responsibility, including supporting the Research and Development group. Beverly provides conference support and logistical coordination for staff travel as well as organizing and overseeing day-to-day office needs. In 2010 Beverly took a position as the Administrative Assistant for Dr. Michael Robinson, Deputy Director for the NWTC. Prior to joining NREL, Beverly was employed by Oakridge Associated Universities, which worked on the decommissioning of Rocky Flats.

Kara Clark

M.S., Electric Power Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Kara joined NREL in 2011 as a Principal Engineer in the Transmission Grid Integration Group, working on issues related to the integration of significant levels of wind and solar generation into the bulk transmission system. She is leading the Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study, and NREL's transmission system integration work for DOE's solar program. Prior to joining NREL, Kara worked for GE where she was a principal contributor to many of the key U.S. wind integration studies and the development of dynamic models of wind and solar plants.

Andy Clifton

Research Associate
M.Eng., Engineering, University of Durham (UK)
Ph.D., Fluid Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Phone: 303-384-7141

Andy joined NREL in early 2011 as a research associate for meteorological tower data analysis. He plans to produce a detailed characterization of the wind conditions that NREL's megawatt-scale wind turbines endure using data from the new meteorological towers at the National Wind Technology Center.After graduation, Andy was an R&D engineer with Alstom gas turbines for several years before investigating wind fields over snow for his Ph.D. with the Swiss avalanche warning service. He has since worked on wind in complex terrain in Canada and Switzerland for wind energy, hydrology, and avalanche forecasting applications.

David Corbus

Lab Program Manager Electricity Systems
M.S., Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering), New York University
B.A., New York University

David Corbus is the Program Manager for Electricity Systems at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). At NREL, Mr. Corbus currently works on a host of projects in energy systems integration including both distribution level and bulk power projects. Mr. Corbus was the project manager for the Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS) and several wind and solar grid integration projects in Hawaii. These studies analyzed the operational grid impacts of high penetrations of variable wind and solar technologies as well as both AC and DC transmission expansion alternatives.

Previous to working in energy systems integration, Mr. Corbus worked at NREL as a test engineer, field engineer (from Alaska to Antarctica), and systems modeler at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) and conducted tests on a wide variety of generation and end use systems including hybrid power systems with various load controls, advanced inverter systems, and battery systems. Dave also conducted wind turbine certification tests and modeling for some of the first variable speed wind systems during this time of widespread commercialization of the wind industry. Before working at NREL, Mr. Corbus worked for 5 years at Parsons Brinckerhoff engineering firm in the field of environmental engineering and power systems. He holds a Masters degree in applied science/mechanical engineering from New York University.

Jason Cotrell

Senior Engineer and Manager of Wind Turbine Technology and Innovation,
National Wind Technology Center
B.S. & M.S., Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Phone: 303-384-7056

Jason Cotrell's current primary responsibilities are managing the Wind Turbine Technology and Innovation Group at the NWTC that includes activities in gearbox and generator research and testing, advanced controls, distributed wind turbines, and manufacturing supply chain issues. During his 15 years at NREL, he has researched and developed wind turbine drive trains, advanced wind turbine rotors, wind-to-hydrogen systems, wind turbine blade and drive train testing equipment and facilities, and marine and hydrokinetic testing facilities. Jason also has worked as a visiting professional at GE Wind Energy in Salzbergen, Germany, and as a technical liaison to the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.

Amy Curtis

Phone: 303-384-7101

Rick Damiani

Phone: 303-384-7115

Laura Davis

Phone: 303-384-6921

Elise DeGeorge

Wind and Water Power Program Integrator, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Environmental Engineering; University of Alaska
M.S., Business Administration; University of California at Berkeley
B.S., Engineering, BS Resource Management; University of Michigan
Phone: 303-384-7136

Elise joined the NWTC as a Wind and Water Power Program Integrator in January 2011. She is a professional engineer in the state of Colorado and is LEED accredited. Prior to that, Elise spent the past 16 years as a consultant with a global engineering company, MWH, working on operations and strategy for internal operations as well as for public and private clients. Her primary areas of interest include strategy development and sustainability with an emphasis on renewable energy and integrated resource management solutions. More broadly, her experience is in project management, business development, business process optimization, asset management, planning, design and construction, and federal government environmental clean-up. Elise has lived and worked in Anchorage, Alaska, Denver, Colorado, and Walnut Creek, California. She currently lives in Boulder, Colorado, and enjoys hiking the beautiful Colorado Mountains, reading, and spending time with her family.

Michael Desmond

Mechanical Engineer, Blade Testing
Phone: 303-384-7121

Frederick Driscoll

Phone: 303-384-7153

Frederick R. Driscoll ("Rick") is a Senior Engineer on the Offshore Wind and Ocean Power Systems Team at NREL. Rick leads several Marine Hydrokinetic project areas, including instrumentation systems, testing protocols, and software tool development. He also is the U.S. administrator for the International Electrotechnical Commission — Ocean Energy Systems technical standards development efforts (IEC TC 114) and serves as a technical expert in mooring standards. He participates in offshore wind instrumentation and field measurement projects and mooring code development. Before joining NREL, Rick was an Associate Professor of Ocean and Mechanical at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), where he focused on ocean energy and navy projects for more than 10 years. While at FAU, he established and led the Center for Ocean Energy Technology, now the Southeast National Marine Energy Center and served on the Florida Energy Commission. Prior to joining FAU, Rick was president and CEO of Deep Sea Technologies Ltd., which specialized in the design and operation of remotely-operated vehicle systems, buoys, and heavy lift systems. He also worked at Mobil Oil, Gulf Canada Resources, and the Canadian National Energy Board. He received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, with a business management option from the University of Victoria in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Physical Oceanography from the University of Victoria in 1999. His publications include more than 30 journal and conference papers and he has two patents.

Katherine Dykes

Graduate Intern
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.S., Electrical Engineering, MS AED Economics; The Ohio State University
B.S., Electrical Engineering, BS Economics; University of Pennsylvania
Phone: 303-384-7260

Katherine joined NREL in 2011 to support an NWTC initiative for systems engineering methods applied to wind energy. The project is undergoing initial development and involves integrating engineering and cost-based analysis tools to analyze overall wind energy system performance. Katherine's PhD work in systems engineering involves understanding innovation and diffusion of wind energy technology. Her background in wind energy began while working as a wind program analyst for Green Energy Ohio in 2005 and as a data analyst for The Renaissance Group. In addition to wind energy, Katherine has worked as a system dynamics consultant to IBM's Smarter Cities Marketing Insights 2.0 initiative, a data quality analyst at EnerNOC for their demand management program, and as a controls engineer for GM's Hybrid Vehicle Program.

Erik Ela

Phone: 303-384-7089

Erik joined the NWTC Systems Integration Team to work on different power system integration issues. Erik is currently researching the ancillary service impacts of variable generation, sophisticated scheduling programs, and steady-state power system modeling, frequency control, and topics related to the proper use of wind forecasts from a system operator point of view.

Erik came from the NY Independent System Operator, where he developed business rules for the energy management system and market management system, wind forecasting, and energy and ancillary services market tariff rules. He brings to the team experience in the operations of Independent System Operators (ISOs) and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and their importance to the integration of wind energy. Erik received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Binghamton University and an M.S. in Electric Power Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Dennis Elliott

Principal Scientist, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Meteorology — Florida State University 1974
B.S., Meteorology — Florida State University 1972
Phone: 303-384-6935

Dennis joined NREL in 1994 and is a lead researcher in wind resource characterization activities. He has led numerous regional and national-scale wind energy resource assessments in the United States and abroad, and has coordinated the development and validation of new high-resolution wind resource maps for more than 30 U.S. states for the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Powering America initiative. He has led the development of new wind resource maps for various countries of the world through projects supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, United Nations Environment Programme, and other clients. In addition, he has conducted studies in other areas of wind characterization such as offshore assessment, wind shear and tall-tower analyses at elevated heights to 100-m+, and refined methods for assessing wind potential. He has published many papers on wind resource, often with other team members in the wind resource group, including articles in the Encyclopedia of Energy and IEEE Power Engineering Review.

Prior to joining NREL, Dennis was employed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he worked primarily in the wind energy program. During his 20 years at PNNL, he conducted many studies on wind resource assessment and wind characterization research. He led the development of two landmark documents that became widely used by the U.S. wind energy industry: "Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States" and "An Assessment of the Available Windy Land Area and Wind Energy Potential in the Contiguous United States".

Fort Felker

Director, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
B.S., Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phone: 303-384-6905

Prior to becoming director of the NWTC in 2009, Fort Felker was the co-founder and vice president of Winglet Technology LLC, a company that commercialized his patented design of "elliptical winglets" for business aircraft. Elliptical winglets reduce drag and fuel consumption, improving the range and takeoff performance of aircraft. Before his six year stint as an entrepreneur, Felker was an engineering analyst at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he developed the underlying theory and computational modeling for the hypersonic flow about re-entry vehicles undergoing extreme maneuvers. From 1994-1996, Felker worked in senior engineering positions at Kenetech Windpower. As manager of engineering modeling, he was responsible for developing wind turbine engineering analysis tools. Later as director of engineering analysis and test, he played a key role in the development of the KVS-45 wind turbine, and led a team of engineers and technicians in the testing of large wind turbine systems. His early experience includes nine years with NASA Ames Research Center and six years with the U.S. Army Research and Technology Labs, working on rotorcraft analysis and testing.

Felker holds one patent and is the author of 29 publications.

Jason Fields

Phone: 303-384-7150

Lee Jay Fingersh

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado
B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado
Phone: 303-384-6929

Lee Jay joined NREL in 1993. For 7 years he was the test engineer on the Unsteady Aerodynamics Experiment turbine, culminating in the NASA Ames wind tunnel test. During that time Lee earned his Masters doing a dynamometer test on a permanent-magnet direct-drive generator. He has worked on the design and controls for the variable-speed test bed and administered many experiments as well as being an integral part of the team that designed the dynamometer that is currently in use at the NWTC. Lee has written papers on wind, hydrogen, and battery integration. Most recently, he is working on the CART turbine, including writing its control system specifications and developing the three-bladed CART turbine, which also includes writing new control system specifications. Lee has supported many industry projects including blade tests, dynamometer tests, and full-system developments for GE, the WindTurbine Company, Clipper, Southwest WindPower, and Windward.

Paul Fleming

Phone: 303-384-6918

Paul Fleming joined the NWTC in 2009. In his initial work, Paul completed the real-time control-system for the CART3 (Controls Advanced Research Turbine 3-bladed) to bring the turbine online. The CART3 is a 600kW variable-speed wind turbine, which is used for field-testing advanced control systems. Paul currently works on the development, analysis, and field-testing of advanced control systems for wind turbines to achieve power-capture maximization, load reduction, and grid frequency support through active power control. Additional research topics include system identification for wind turbines and wind plant control. Paul Fleming completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University in May of 2009. He also received his master's degree from Vanderbilt and his B.S. from SUNY Binghamton in 2003.

Anthony Florita

Engineer II
Ph.D. (ABD), Civil Engineering, University of Colorado
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Nebraska
B.S., Architectural Engineering, University of Wyoming
Phone: 303-384-4328

Anthony joined NREL in March of 2010. His primary research interests include holistic approaches to energy efficiency, model-based control and optimization, and measurement and verification with stochastic models/considerations. Anthony's recent research efforts have focused on Bayesian Inference as applied to Fault Detection and Diagnosis in commercial buildings. He spent a year and a half in Freiburg, Germany developing this topic at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems while completing research toward his Ph.D. Prior to this period, his research mainly focused on model predictive control: including weather/occupancy prediction and model-based optimal control of building thermal mass. Anthony has previous national laboratory experience at ORNL, where he researched ground heat transfer, hybrid ground-source heat pumps, and annual energy-flow optimization.

Bill Gage

Phone: 303-384-7071

Vahan Gevorgian

Senior Engineer
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, State Engineering University of Armenia
M.S., B.S., Electrical Engineering, Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, Armenia
Phone: 303-384-6940

Vahan joined NREL in October 1994 and has served many roles over the years. He is currently working with Transmission and Grid Integration group focused on renewable energy impacts on transmission and interconnection issues, and dynamic modeling of variable generation systems. He is involved with many different areas including dynamometer and field testing of large and small wind turbines, dynamometer testing of wind turbine drive train components, development of advanced data acquisition systems, and wind turbine power quality. Vahan provides technical support to NREL industry partners and major US wind turbine manufacturers. His involvement in modeling and testing efforts for various hybrid systems and small wind turbine applications includes battery charging, ice making, and water pumping. He is member of the IEC team for wind turbine power quality standard. His contributions to NREL research have been recognized through multiple Outstanding Individual and Team Staff Awards.

Robert Goldhor

Phone: 303-384-7076

Jim Green

Deputy Center Director (Acting), National Wind Technology Center
B.S., General Engineering, University of Illinois
Phone: 303-384-6913

Jim joined NREL (SERI) in 1978 and joined the NWTC in 1992. He has managed turbine development subcontracts with small wind turbine manufacturers since 1996. These subcontracts require an iterative process of design, critical review, fabrication, and testing to develop new, more cost-effective small wind turbines. He has represented the interests of the wind industry within the IEEE P1547 standards working group, addressing interconnection of distributed resources. He also contributes to the Wind Powering America Program as a workshop speaker and as a resource on small wind applications. He has also engaged in research on small wind applications, including development of the Hybrid2 model, a detailed simulation of the performance of off-grid hybrid power systems. Prior work at NREL included research on solar thermal central receivers, solar ponds, thermal storage, and industrial process heat technologies. Throughout the 1980s, he participated in research on open-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), including the engineering design of a successful net-power-producing experiment in Hawaii, a fully-functional and grid-connected OTEC power plant.

Rodd Hamann

Phone: 303-384-7007

Maureen Hand

Phone: 303-384-6933

Steve Haymes

Research Scientist, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Geology, University of Colorado
B.A., Anthropology, University of Colorado
Phone: 303-384-7012

Steve joined NREL in 1994 and is currently the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist for the Wind Resource Assessment Group. He provides geo-spatial analysis and data processing and mapping support for both domestic and international wind resource mapping projects. He has been involved in the validation and mapping of over 40 updated state resource maps in the United States for Wind Powering America. Steve also has been involved in the validation and mapping of the offshore wind resources for the Great Lakes, western Gulf Coast, and Atlantic Coast regions. He has produced the national and state land based and offshore wind speed maps on the Wind Powering America website. In addition, Steve has been involved in the validation and mapping of wind resources in over 20 countries for the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Environment Programme. In addition to his wind resource validation and mapping work, Steve's work has included research on domestic offshore boundary data and domestic and international remote sensed bathymetry, elevation, and land-cover data. Recently he has provided scientific programming and data-processing support to the Wind Resource Characterization Group.

Norman Hill

Phone: 303-384-7120

Susan Hinnen

Project Specialist
Phone: 303-384-6962
Susan joined NREL in 2009 as an Administrative Analyst for the Wind Powering America team. She is currently a Project Specialist tasked with managing SharePoint, organizing program conferences, and tracking programmatic activities, subcontracts, staff travel, and budgets for Wind Powering America and Wind for Schools.

Bri-Mathias Hodge

Research Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Purdue University
M.S., Chemical Engineering, Åbo Akademi, Turku, Finland
B.S., Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
Phone: 303-384-6981

Bri-Mathias works in the area of renewable energy integration into power systems, with a focus on operational issues. He has been involved in projects in a number of different areas including: wind and solar power forecasting, stochastic unit commitment, renewable integration costs, and residential demand response.

Billy Hoffman

Desktop Technician
Phone: 303-384-6938

Scott Hughes

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-7054

Jerry Hur

Senior Research Technician
Phone: 303-384-7076

Arlinda Huskey

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Denver
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Arizona State University
Phone: 303-384-6987

Arlinda joined NREL in1995. Her activities include field testing of small and large wind turbines. She is involved in noise, power performance, and loads testing of wind turbines as well as duration and safety and function for small wind turbines. She also is the secretary of the IEC maintenance team for the wind turbine noise standard. Arlinda was also involved in the accreditation of certification testing at the NWTC.

Eduardo Ibanez

Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Iowa State University
M.S., Statistics, Iowa State University
Diploma, Industrial Engineering, Universidad Pública de Navarra
Phone: 303-384-6926

Eduardo joined NREL in 2011. He is a member of the Transmission and Grid Group. He is currently involved in the development of the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study (WWSIS). He is studying the contribution from wind and solar power to long-term system resource adequacy and is a developer of NREL's Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS).

Prior to joining NREL, Eduardo was a graduate student at Iowa State University, where he developed the National Energy and Transportation Planning tool (NETPLAN), a multi-objective, long-term investment model that aims at understanding the interdependencies between the national energy and transportation sectors and the trade-offs between cost, sustainability, and resiliency.

David Jager

Lead Technician, National Wind Technology Center
Instructor in the Instrumentation Career Field
Instrumentation Technician and a Ground Radio Equipment Repairman, United States Air Force (1975–1985)
Phone: 303-384-6954

Dave joined NREL (SERI) in 1985. He specializes in data acquisition and instrumentation and has served as lead technician on several NREL projects. Dave has installed instrumentation on met towers and all classifications of wind turbines, and he has experience with SODAR and tall towers.

Dave joined the Independent Testing team by participating in Skystream 2 testing in 2006 and Mariah testing in early 2008. Dave worked under other staff members to become familiar and proficient in the testing requirements in accordance with IEC and MEASNET standards and in the procedures used in the NWTC's quality assurance system under its A2LA accreditation. Dave is a fully qualified member of the certification test team for power performance, loads, safety and function, and duration testing.

Mike Jenks

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-6994

Tony Jimenez

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
B.S. Engineering Physics, University of Colorado

Tony joined NREL in 1996. He currently works within the WindPowering America and Distributed Wind Technology programs. His current activities include leading DOE/NREL's small wind turbine Regional Test Center project, administering NREL's Native American Anemometer Loan Program, and wind project analysis work on behalf of various Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) clients. Past work includes development of wind farm and small wind project analysis tools, wind project economic impact analysis, and modeling of hybrid systems.

Tony is an Engineer Officer in the Army Reserve. He spent a year deployed in Iraq as a project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working on various reconstruction projects.

Tim Johansson

Site Operations
Phone: 303-384-6970

Garth Johnson

Phone: 303-384-7074

Kathryn Johnson

Joint Appointee Scientist / Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor Colorado School of Mines
Ph.D., M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
B.S., Electrical Engineering, Clarkson University
Phone: 303-273-3914

Professor Johnson has been a faculty member at the Colorado School of Mines since 2005 and jointly appointed with NREL since 2011. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher and held various student positions at NREL from 2001 to 2005. Dr. Johnson's research interests are centered on control systems and control applications, especially wind energy. Some of her current and recent wind energy control projects include a project to improve the energy capture of wind farms using coordinated turbine control, a study of LIDAR-based feed forward control strategies for load reduction on wind turbines, research in wind turbine fault detection and fault-tolerant control,and an analysis of the use of wind turbine control for grid support.

Jim Johnson

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-6989

Bonnie Jonkman

Senior Scientist, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Mathematics, Colorado State University
B.A., Computer Science and Mathematics, Dordt College
Phone: 303-384-6907

Bonnie joined NREL in 2003 and spent several years researching the effects of atmospheric turbulence on the dynamic response of wind turbines. She has been involved in processing and analyzing meteorological data collected from several experiments, including sonic anemometer, LIDAR, and SODAR measurements from the Lamar Low-Level Jet Project in southeastern Colorado. Bonnie is the lead developer of NREL's TurbSim computer-aided engineering tool, which numerically simulates stochastic, full-field, turbulent wind and coherent structures. She led the coding and interface redevelopment of NREL's aerodynamics simulation tool, AeroDyn; and she works on other NREL/NWTC software including FAST, FAST for Simulink, Adams2AeroDyn, and the NWTC Subroutine Library. Bonnie is responsible for developing software standards for the NWTC computer-aided engineering tools and leads the redevelopment of the interfaces between the tools.

Jason Jonkman

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
B.S.E., Mechanical Engineering, Dordt College
Phone: 303-384-7026

Jason joined NREL in 2000 and is the lead developer of the FAST and FAST-to-ADAMS preprocessor computer simulation software for modeling the dynamic response of land- and offshore-based wind turbines. He also provides technical support to designers, consultants, and researchers throughout the wind energy industry. He has performed studies to verify and validate the simulation software, has published many papers on wind turbine dynamics, and has assisted in the certification of wind turbine design loads.

Jason is currently leading the wind turbine dynamics model development activities at NREL. He is co-chairing an IEA research annex on developing and verifying simulation models for fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind energy concepts. He is the principle investigator for a DOE-funded project to improve the modeling of offshore floating wind system dynamics and is providing guidance to several projects aimed at validating these models. He also is a U.S. representative on the IEC working group to develop an international standard for the design of offshore floating wind turbines.

Prior to joining NREL, Jason worked as a researcher at DOE's Industrial Assessment Center at Colorado State University and as a tool design engineer at the commercial airplane division of Boeing.

Julie Jones

Phone: 303-384-7019

Jon Keller

Senior Engineer, Wind Innovation & Reliability Group
Ph.D., Penn State, 2001
M.S., Penn State, 1997
B.S., Penn State, 1995

Jon joined NREL in 2011 to manage for the NWTC Gearbox Reliability Collaborative, a consortium of government, industry, and university partners who are addressing reliability issues in wind turbine drive trains through focused testing, analysis, and modeling. Prior to joining NREL, Jon worked for the U.S. Army for 10 years at the Aviation Engineering Directorate in Redstone Arsenal, AL , developing condition monitoring systems and capabilities to reduce the cost and maintenance burdens, while increasing availability and safety, for the Apache, Blackhawk, Chinook, and Kiowa Warrior helicopters. His Ph.D. thesis at Penn State focused on the prediction of transient aeroelastic blade deflections and loads for rotorcraft during startup and shutdown operations on board naval ships.

Marguerite Kelly

Senior Project Manager, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Health and Medical Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
M.L.S. Library and Information Studies, University of California, Berkeley
A.B. Physiology and Zoology, University of California, Berkeley
Phone: 303-384-7441

Marguerite joined NREL (SERI) in 1979 and the Wind Powering America team in 2003. She has been responsible for developing and implementing a wide variety of large-scale projects and programs during her 28 years with NREL. She specialized in Information Technology, Geographic Information Systems, Internet, Communication and Outreach, Strategic Planning, and Deployment. Her strength is in line and project management, especially in pulling together collaborations that crosscut different technology programs and even government agencies to meet the needs of a specific group of people. In the past few years, she has worked on NREL's international projects funded through DOE, AID, and the United Nations. Her current emphasis is Wind Powering America's Priority State Outreach, Regional Wind Energy Institutes, Agricultural Outreach, Economic Development Impacts, and Wind for Schools projects.

Levi Kilcher

Phone: 303-384-7192

Bill Lacava

Phone: 303-384-7092

Scott Lambert

Phone: 303-384-6916

Michael Lawson

Phone: 303-384-7196

Noah Ledford

Phone: 303-384-7036

Sang Lee

Postdoctoral Researcher, Wind Farm Simulation Research and Development
Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
B.S., Yonsei University
Phone: 303-384-6944

Sang joined NREL in October 2010. His focus is on wind farm simulation to investigate blade loadings due to turbulence present in the atmospheric boundary layer and upstream turbine wakes. His research experience prior to joining NREL includes Large Eddy Simulation of shock boundary layer interaction control and Direct Numerical Simulation of isotropic turbulence.

Alexsandra Lemke

Communications Team Lead, Wind and Water Power Program
B.A., Journalism, Mass Communications, University of Northern Colorado
B.A., Speech Communication, Human Communication, University of Northern Colorado
Phone: 303-384-7018

Alex joined the NWTC as the Wind and Water Power Program Communications Team Lead in July 2011. Alex will serve as the primary interface to the Wind and Water Power Program management team to develop communication strategies and plans, implementing effective solutions and products to highlight the accomplishments and capabilities of the Wind and Water Power Program. Alex is an experienced sales manager and project manager with an expertise in publishing, communications, training, and public speaking. Prior to joining NREL, Alex spent two years as a senior account executive for Energy Central, a multimedia publisher for electric power professionals. Prior to that, Alex spent 15 years with Crain Communications' RCR Wireless News, a publishing firm providing wireless and mobile industry news, insights, and analysis to industry and enterprise professionals. During her tenure at RCR Wireless News, Alex was a senior sales manager and produced more than $20 million dollars in revenue selling across multiple advertising platforms including print, interactive and multi-media publishing, e-newsletters, websites, webcasts, events, and custom publishing. Alex is a Colorado native, enjoys traveling with her husband and son, and is an ambassador for the Colorado March of Dimes.

Dana Levine

Business Support III, National Wind Technology Center
B.A, Communications; University of South Florida
Minor in Photography and Technical Writing/Research, University of Ireland, Galway; University of Tel Aviv, Israel
Phone: 303-384-7023
Dana.Levine@nrel.gov

Dana joined NREL in January 2011. She is a member of the Wind and Water Program Team and works with Brian Smith on policy/procedure analysis. This includes evaluating alternative courses of action and making recommendations to management. Dana spent more than seven years working as a Business Analyst/Project Coordinator contractor to NASA, NATO, USDA, EPA, and the DoD, facilitating the development of partnerships between different agencies. Much of her work focused on operations including stakeholder analysis in an in-depth study of more than 30 governmental groups. She identified gaps at each agency and built a variety of Outreach and Instructional Systems Design documents.

Debra Lew

Senior Engineer, Electricity, Resources, and Building Systems Integration Center
Ph.D., Applied Physics, Stanford University
M.S., Applied Physics, Stanford University
B.S., Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.S., Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phone: 303-384-7037

Debbie joined NREL in 1995. She is a member of the Transmission and Grid Integration Group, working on integrating high penetrations of wind and solar into the power system. She is currently leading the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study, and won the 2009 Achievement Award from the Utility Wind Integration Group for this work. She also works with transmission planning groups in the West. In 2009–2010, she was seconded to the Hawaiian Electric Company to work on wind and solar integration in Hawaii. Prior to rejoining the NWTC, Debbie was the group manager for NREL's Environmental and International Group, which focuses on deployment of renewable energy technologies in developing countries, serving as the lead for NREL's China program.

Debbie also spent 2 years in Thailand at the International Institute for Energy Conservation and was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies.

Ye Li

Senior Scientist
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering (Ocean Engineering), University of British Columbia
MA.SC., Mechanical Engineering(Ocean Engineering), The University of British Columbia
B.E., Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University
Phone: 303-384-6988

Ye Li joined the NWTC staff in July 2009. As a senior engineer at NREL, Ye Li leads the ocean energy modeling work. Before coming to NREL, he was a research scientist in the Energy Technology Group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he focused on energy system modeling and offshore wind/tidal device analysis. As a graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, he received extensive training in theoretical and experimental fluid mechanics. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on hydrodynamic interaction between multiple tidal current turbines, and his master's thesis focused on free surface ship motion. Ye Li has many years of experience in developing numerical methods, computational programs, and conducting experimental tests to analyze ocean engineering applications, and has published many papers on these topics. He has received several international awards on oceanic engineering from governmental agencies and professional societies, e.g., Canadian NSERC, ASME, IEEE, and ISOPE.

Hal Link

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Phone: 303-384-6912

Hal joined NREL (SERI) in March 1984. Since 1996 he has been involved with certification testing of wind turbine systems and wind turbine drive trains at the NWTC. He works with a team of engineers and technicians who test in accordance with international (IEC/ISO) standards to help companies verify and certify their wind turbines. An important element of certification testing is the ISO requirement for quality of laboratory testing. Hal helped obtain accreditation of the NWTC's testing team and he continues to help maintain the quality assurance program that supports accreditation. In prior NREL/SERI activities, Hal was a Senior Technical Project Coordinator, responsible for oversight and technical management of three wind turbine development projects worth $8.4 million. He managed the solar detoxification project, a $4 million-per-year project for which NREL obtained an R&D 100 award. Hal also operated a $1 million test facility at DOE's Seacoast Test Facility in Hawaii, where he tested innovative heat exchangers for Open-cycle Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). Prior to joining NREL/SERI, Hal worked at the U.S. Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, where he developed innovative ship anchoring systems, and at Battelle Columbus Laboratory, where he developed underwater tools and diving equipment.

Albert LiVecchi

Program Integrator/Senior Project Leader
M.B.A. Cornell University
M.S. BioEngineering, Clemson University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Lehigh University
Phone: 303-384-7138

Al has been part of the Wind and Water Power Program Management Team at NREL since 2009. He helped establish NREL's new Water Power Program and built the technical team that focuses on marine and hydrokinetic technologies. He also facilitates business development and partnership activities at the National Wind Technology Center. Prior to joining NREL, Al managed Business Development and Operations while growing an early stage R&D informatics company and worked as a management consultant on a diverse set of engagements ranging from assessing market growth opportunities for a market leading diagnostic equipment manufacturer to optimizing information flows for critical decision making at a multi-national research and development organization. He was also a Senior Staff Scientist at Baxter CardioVascular Surgery, where he investigated the failure mechanisms of heart valve implants and worked on design modifications aimed to increase their operational lives.

Julie Lundquist

Joint Appointee Scientist / Assistant Professor at University of Colorado at Boulder
Ph.D., M.S., Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder
B.A., English and Physics, Trinity University
Phone: 303-384-7046

Professor Lundquist joined the faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder in January 2010, with an appointment in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. She also enjoys a joint appointment at the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Her research group uses both observational and computational approaches to explore the fundamental dynamics of the atmospheric boundary layer. Much of her work focuses on wind energy applications, particularly forecasting of wind resources, modeling wind turbine wakes, quantifying downwind impacts of wind turbines, and assessing climate change impacts on wind resources. Previously, Dr. Lundquist was a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area. She designed and led wind energy projects, as well as atmospheric transport and dispersion modeling and verification projects.

Ben Maples

Engineer
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder
Phone: 303-384-7137

Ben Maples joined NREL in 2009 as a member of the Technology Systems and Sustainability Analysis Group in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center. During his first year at NREL Ben earned his Masters performing analysis on the use of plug in hybrid electric vehicles for peak shaving. His main research areas focus on developing a comprehensive cost and scaling model for utility-scale wind turbines and assessing future wind technology cost and performance estimates. Prior to his career in wind energy, Ben worked for an energy services company and as an engineering design consultant for the robotics industry.

Adu-Darko MacGordon

Phone: 303-384-6305

Mark McDade

Phone: 303-384-6961

Mark McDade is a project manager with NREL's National Wind Technology Center. He is responsible for the NREL Grid Simulator program and the Gearbox Reliability Collaborative Database and is a member of the 5 MW dynamometer upgrade team. Mr. McDade has a Master's degree in information systems management and leadership experience in high-tech manufacturing. He has been with NREL and its predecessor, SERI, a total of more than 10 years over two different periods.

Vicki Marquette

Phone: 303-275-4542

Marco Masciola

Phone: 303-384-7159

Rebecca Meadows

Phone: 303-384-7095

Ismael Mendoza

Phone: 303-384-7158

Michael Milligan

Principal Analyst
Ph.D. Economics, University of Colorado, Boulder
M.A. Economics, University of Colorado, Denver
B.A. Mathematics, Philosophy, Albion College

Michael came to NREL's wind energy program in 1992 and is now principal researcher in the Transmission and Grid Integration Group at NREL. He has worked on numerous operational and planning issues related to the integration of wind and solar energy into the bulk power system. He has published more than 140 technical reports, journal articles, and book chapters. He participates on the leadership team for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's Variable Generation Task Force, co-chairing the probabilistic methods working group; the Variable Generation Subcommittee for the Western Electric Coordinating Council; and the International Energy Agency Task 25: Design and Operation of Power Systems with Large Amounts of Wind Energy. Michael has served on numerous technical review committees for wind integration studies, provided testimony at public utility commission hearings and workshop presentations, and served on the Wind Task Force for the Western Governors' Association Clean and Diverse Energy project. Among several current projects is an evaluation of the operating reserve impacts of the proposed Energy Imbalance Market in the Western Interconnection.

Paul Molta

M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester
B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester
Phone: 303-384-7480

Paul joined the NWTC in 2011 as an engineer for the Testing & Operations/Test Projects & Partnerships group and works on certifying turbines according to IEC standards, particularly power performance and power quality.

Pat Moriarty

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Aeronautical Engineering, Stanford University
M.S., Aeronautical Engineering, Stanford University
B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan
Phone: 303-384-7081

Dr. Moriarty is the lead of the Aero and System Dynamics group and has been at NREL since 2001. Dr. Moriarty's research focuses are wind turbine design and systems engineering, statistical loads extrapolation, aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of wind turbines. He has developed design techniques that enable industry to more reliably predict loads and produce cheaper designs. He is involved in the development of advanced turbine noise measurement instrumentation and has developed aerodynamic and noise prediction models used in wind turbine simulation tools. Currently, he is working on computational models for wind turbine wakes and array effects using computational fluid dynamics. He leads an International Energy Agency Task on wind turbine wake model validation. He has published over 30 papers related to wind energy and also served as Guest Editor for both the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering and Wind Energy.

Ed Muljadi

Senior Engineer
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.Sc., Electrical Engineering, Surabaya Institute of Technology
Phone: 303-384-6904

Ed was on the Faculty of Electrical Engineering Department at the California State University—Fresno from 1988–1992. Ed joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 1992. He is a member of the Transmission Grid Integration Group at NREL. His research projects are in the fields of electric machines, power electronics, and power systems with emphasis on renewable energy applications. He has been involved with many different projects for industry and utilities, including variable speed wind turbine development, electric machine design and optimization, isolated operations (battery charging, self-excitation, and water pumping), and wind power plant design (collector system equivalent), operation, dynamic model development, and system integration.He has written numerous publications (papers, reports, book chapters, IEEE, and IEA standard/recommended practice), and was the recipient of an IEEE-Prize paper. He holds two patents in renewable energy power conversion for a variable speed wind turbine generator and a peak power tracker for photovoltaic applications. He collaborates with the Utility Wind Integration Group, Western Electricity Coordinating Council, Midwest ISO, and ERCOT in the area of dynamic modeling and analysis.

Ed is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi, and a Fellow of the IEEE. He is involved in various committees of the IEEE Industry Application Society and IEEE Power and Energy Society, and he is currently an editor of the Transactions of Energy Conversion of the IEEE-PES.

Mark Murphy

Phone: 303-384-7161

S. Andrew Ning

Postdoctoral Research
Ph.D., Aeronautics & Astronautics, Stanford University
M.S., Aeronautics & Astronautics, Stanford University
B.S., Applied Physics, Brigham Young University
Phone: 303-384-7180

Andrew joined NREL in late 2011 to work on aeroelastic model development of wind turbines. He is currently working on developing parametric models of wind turbines for use in multi-disciplinary optimization studies, and in the area of complex flows. Prior to joining NREL, Andrew worked on a number of research topics in the Aircraft Aerodynamics and Design Group at Stanford. His dissertation focused on the aerodynamics of extended formation flight. This is a novel formation arrangement that allows for much of the induced drag savings of close formation flight, but at much safer separation distances. This research involved wake modeling, uncertainty analysis, CFD analysis for formations flying at transonic speeds, formation arrangement studies, and route optimization. While at Stanford, Andrew also was involved in research projects in wing aero/structural optimization, and in the development of gradient-based methods for multi-fidelity optimization.

Khanh Nguyen

Phone: 303-384-6991

Walt Musial

Principal Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts
Phone: 303-384-6956

Walt Musial has worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) since August 1988 serving in many roles over the years. Walt currently leads the offshore wind energy research activities at NREL. He also serves as the technical administrator for the U.S. technical advisory group to the International Electro-technical Commission's standards committee on marine renewable energy.

In 1989 he initiated the development of NREL's structural test facilities, which have tested more than 100 wind turbine blades. He expanded the facilities to keep up with the rapid growth in wind turbine size, including the conceptual design and implementation of the Industrial User Facility in 1996. The structural test facilities are the only facilities outside of Europe with these capabilities. Walt also was responsible for the design and implementation of the dynamometer test facility that was commissioned in 1999. This facility was the first one in the world capable of testing full-scale wind turbine drive trains.

Walt provides technical support to NREL's industry partners and is a founding member of the American Gear Manufacturers Association committee to develop design standards for wind turbine gearboxes. He began at NREL as test engineer on the unsteady aerodynamics experiment which has become the landmark research reference for understanding wind turbine performance in stalled conditions. Walt began his career in the 1980's working as a field test engineer in the commercial wind energy industry in California working for ESI Inc. and U.S. Windpower. His career interests were solidified in 1979 when he began studying renewable energy engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering.

Eric Nelson

Phone: 303-384-7155

Charles Newcomb

Phone: 303-646-7108

Kathleen O'Dell

Senior Communicator
Phone: 303-384-6957

Heidi Oliver

Phone: 303-275-3123

Kirsten Orwig

National Wind Technology Center
PhD, Wind Science and Engineering, Texas Tech University
M.S., Atmospheric Science, Texas Tech University

Kirsten joined NREL in 2009 to provide meteorological and statistical support for the Transmission Grid Integration Group. She is leading projects on determining the economic and non-economic value of wind forecasting to grid operators, new methods to quantify forecast error, and characterizing and modeling wind variability. She also is leading the Solar Resource Characterization Group at NREL, which focuses on measuring, characterizing, modeling, and forecasting solar irradiance.

Rich Osgood

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-6949

Frank Oteri

Phone: 303-384-6952

Ed Overly

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-7078

Brian Parsons

Group Manager
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin
B.S. Civil Engineering, University of Colorado

Brian Parsons is the Transmission and Grid Integration Group Manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. His team focuses on the electrical system integration challenges posed by large scale wind and solar power generation. Research areas include interconnection dynamics and reliability, grid operations, and transmission expansion planning. Brian and his team analyze efficiently accommodating increasing percentages of variable renewables, which requires evolution of grid practices, incorporating improved forecasting, and use of other mitigation measures like demand control, selective curtailment, and potentially electrical storage.

Brian works closely with the Utility Variable-Generation Integration Group and has served as co-editor of the IEEE Power and Energy Magazine on special topical issues of wind integration. He also contributes to the international collaborative work of the International Energy Agency Task 25 on Design and Operation of Power Systems with Large Amounts of Wind Power.

Lucy Pao

Phone: 303-384-6934

Nathan Post

Engineer, Blade Testing, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Engineering Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA
M.S., Engineering Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Phone: 617-315-9374

Nathan Post joined NREL in 2010. His focus is on full-scale structural testing of wind turbine blades and related components for certification and research. Nathan works as a technical project leader for full-scale blade tests at the Wind Technology Testing Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Michael Rhodes

Phone: 303-384-7148

Jason Roadman

Phone: 303-384-6992

Joseph Owen Roberts

Engineer, Wind Technology Deployment
National Wind Technology Center and Deployment & Market Transformations
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Phone: 303-384-7151

Owen graduated with an MSME from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2007 and started working on wind farm construction and development as a field engineer for an EPC contractor. In 2009, Owen started working at NREL where his work has focused on three primary areas: hybrid system modeling and optimization; project specific feasibility assistance for Federal clients for wind, solar, and hydropower technologies; and construction cost modeling and optimization. Owen often works with NREL's International Programs Office on hybrid system and renewable energy integration projects. These projects are in conjunction with international technical assistance work that focuses on energy development for rural populations including the design, analysis, and implementation of remote power systems. His federal project feasibility assistance typically spans resource assessment through project execution with clients in the DoD, DOS, EPA, DOI, and others.

Amy Robertson

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado
M.S., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado
B.S., Engineering Sciences, Trinity University
Phone: 303-384-7157

Amy joined NREL in April 2010. She is working with the offshore wind team, creating coupled wind/wave/structural dynamics models. Prior to joining NREL, Amy worked as an independent consultant for 3M in Boulder and as a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Her diverse work experience has included the analysis of medical CT data, data interrogation of mechanical responses, structural health monitoring, and finite-element and rigid-body modeling.

Robi Robichaud

Senior Engineer, Federal Wind, Deployment & Market Transformation Center
M.S., Building Systems Engineering, University of Colorado.
B.B.A., Business Administration / Accounting, University of Massachusetts
LEED AP
Phone: 303-384-6969

Robi currently leads federal wind activities in the Wind Powering America program. He conducts wind resource assessments, economic feasibility analyses, and provides technical advice for wind projects with federal agencies. He was the Project Manager for the installation of a 660kW wind turbine at Camp Williams, UT. He also conducts wind workshops for federal clients such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Federal Emergency Management Program (FEMP).
Robi has worked at NREL since 1999. Initially he worked in FEMP conducting renewable energy feasibility studies for federal agencies and was part of NREL's Solar Decathlon team during the first four events. Prior to joining NREL, Robi worked as a PV technician for Altair Energy installing PV systems at schools and residences throughout Colorado.

Tami Sandberg

NWTC Library
Phone: 303-384-6963

Scott Schreck

Principal Engineer
Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado
M.S. Aeronautical Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology
B.S. Engineering Sciences, United States Air Force Academy
Phone: 303-384-7102

Scott Schreck joined NREL's National Wind Technology Center in 1998, and since then has served in various roles within the center, ranging from basic and applied research to utility scale technology development. At present, he directs the DOE turbine dynamics and inflow research facility, aimed at understanding turbine aerodynamics and atmospheric physics that govern energy production and machine structural loads.

Early in his NREL career, Scott led the Aerodynamics and Aeroacoustics Team in applied research for discovering, characterizing, and modeling phenomena crucial to wind turbine efficiency and commercial viability. Major activities have included planning and analyses of experiments in the NASA Ames 80' x 120' wind tunnel, as well as establishment of International Energy Agency Annex 20, a multinational consortium of turbine aerodynamics researchers from Asia, Europe, and North America for developing and validating turbine aerodynamics models. Subsequently, Scott managed the Low Wind Speed Technologies program, DOE's $40M multiyear effort for utility scale wind energy technology development. This effort consisted of a portfolio of industry-NREL subcontracts for developing wind turbine prototypes and components, and for conceptualizing long range technologies.

Before coming to NREL, Scott was an Air Force officer and led a variety of defense science and engineering programs. These included the USAF Seiler Research Laboratory/Air Force Academy unsteady aerodynamics research program, a joint effort aimed at aircraft maneuverability enhancement. His final military assignment was with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Computational Mathematics Program, a multidisciplinary program that supported university, industry, and Air Force laboratory computational research efforts in fluid dynamics, combustion, structures, materials, nanotechnology, multidisciplinary design optimization, and parallelization.

George Scott

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-6903

Shuangwen (Shawn) Sheng

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst
M.S., Electrical Engineering, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
B.S., Electrical Engineering, Daqing Petroleum Institute
Phone: 303-384-7106

Shawn joined NREL in 2008, shortly after he got his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently, Shawn is mainly responsible for the condition monitoring work under the Gearbox Reliability Collaborative project, a consortium led by NREL for improving the reliability of wind turbine gearboxes. His jobs include condition monitoring data analysis and R&D, which spans the dynamometer test, field test, and modeling & analysis efforts.

Shawn has a broad range of experience: mechanical and electrical system modeling and analysis; data sensing and sensor placement; signal processing; machine defect classification and level evaluation; machine life prognosis; multi-scale modeling; and traditional & intelligent control. He has published his work in various journals, conference and workshop proceedings, and book chapters.

David Simms

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-6942

Karin Sinclair

Senior Project Leader II, National Wind Technology Center
M.A., Environmental Administration, University of California at Riverside
B.S., Economics, University of California at Riverside
Phone: 303-384-6946

Since joining NREL in 1992, Karin has primarily focused on two research areas: 1) wildlife issues related to wind technology and 2) distributed wind turbine projects (both small and midsize).

Karin has worked on wind-wildlife issues since 1996. The overall objectives have been to understand the causes of wind turbine impacts to wildlife (including birds, bats, and habitat) and to develop strategies to reduce the potential for impacts. Karin represents NREL on the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC), and the Wildlife Workgroup. She serves as the technical liaison for the Grassland Community Collaborative and the Sage Grouse Collaborative, and participates in the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative. As NREL's point-of-contact, she is actively engaged in land-based wind-wildlife projects as well as marine wind activities.

Working on Distributed Wind (DW) projects since 2000, Karin has served as the Technical Monitor for a number of DW-related projects including Regional Field Verification (a field study of small wind turbines installed in the Pacific Northwest), Independent Testing (testing small wind turbines at the NWTC), and the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (tasked with developing testing and certification for small wind turbine installers). Other DW projects Karin is involved with include Regional Test Centers and the Built Environment initiative. She also is the NREL lead for the Midsize Turbine Development initiative, which is focused on the development of turbines ranging in size between 100 kW and 1 MW. As an ASES member, Karin has served as the co-chair for the Small Wind Division and was recently elected as the chair.

Karin holds a B.S. in Economics and an M.A. in Environmental Administration, both from the University of California, Riverside.

Mohit Singh

Postdoctoral Researcher — Transmission & Grid Integration
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
MS.E., Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
B.e., Electrical Engineering, Delhi College of Engineering, New Delhi, India
Phone: 303-384-6931

Mohit joined the transmission and grid integration group at NREL in August 2011. His current research is focused on wind turbine generator modeling, dynamic modeling of the power system and renewable energy sources, real-time and hardware-in-the-loop modeling of power system components, and advanced control schemes for wind power plants and wind turbines. His other research interests include power quality effects of renewables, wide-area measurements and control, and power system protection.

Senu Sirnivas

Phone: 303-384-7250

Brian Smith

Lab Program Manager, Wind and Water Power Program
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
B.S., Manufacturing & Management Engineering, University of Vermont
Phone: 303-384-6911

Brian joined NREL (SERI) in 1988. He currently serves as Wind and Water Power Manager. He is responsible for managing the laboratory commitments to the DOE Wind & Hydropower Program Office and ensuring fulfillment of those commitments. He works directly with NREL's NWTC and with wind program staff at Sandia National Laboratories. Brian started at NREL as a test engineer for field testing of advanced blades and then became project leader for advanced wind technology development and field verification partnerships with industry. He has been involved with the DOE Turbine Research and DOE-EPRI Turbine Verification Program activities since their inception in the early 1990s and is well versed in many aspects of wind turbine research, design, product development, manufacturing, installation, testing, certification, operation, and maintenance. Before joining NREL, Brian worked as Chief Engineer and Operations & Maintenance Manager for several wind energy companies in California from 1984 to 1988 during the initial wind rush.

Joe Smith

Phone: 303-384-7115

David Snowberg

Phone: 303-384-6920

Humin Song

Phone: 303-384-6941

Heidi Crevison Souder

Postdoctoral Researcher, Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Research and Development
Ph.D., Marine Science, University of South Florida
M.S., Marine Science, University of South Florida
B.A., Art, Ohio Dominican College
Phone: 303-384-7087

Heidi joined NREL in 2010 as a postdoctoral researcher for the offshore wind and marine hydrokinetic energy research and development teams. She has an interdisciplinary background in biology, geology, and chemistry. During her tenure at the University of South Florida she worked at the Center for Ocean Technology, an engineering group that designs and builds novel scientific instruments for ocean research. Specifically, she worked on the Bottom Station Ocean Profiler (BSOP), a research platform that collected physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic data. She also has many years experience doing educational outreach teaching non-scientific audiences about environmental issues including stewardship, wildlife and climate change.

Dave Sprowls

Site Operations
Phone: 303-384-6908

Michael Stewart

Senior Safety Engineer
NWTC EHS Point of Contact
Phone: 303-384-6906

Cynthia Szydlek

Project Specialist Support, National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-7053

Cynthia supports the Center to ensure that all personnel understand increased safety expectations and comply with more comprehensive training requirements. She maintains NWTC's EHS training and safety management systems; ensures all critical on-site EHS documentation and training is kept up to date including coordinating training classes at the NWTC. She also is the main point-of-contact for the NWTC space planning and staff office coordination. She recently received a President's Award for her outstanding efforts in implementing a formal process to track and manage all aspects of NWTC project safety and Safe Operating Plans, and ensuring NWTC staff remain up-to-date on training and proficiency requirements Cynthia has received the Employee of the Month award several times and also received an NREL Outstanding Team award for ISO 17025 accreditation for the competence of testing and calibration of laboratories for the NWTC in 1999.

Suzanne Tegen

Phone: 303-384-6939

Teresa Thadison

Phone: 303-384-7028

Simon Thao

Phone: 303-384-7163

Bob Thresher

NREL Research Fellow, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Michigan Tech University
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Michigan Tech University
Phone: 303-384-6922

Bob Thresher joined NREL in 1984 and has provided leadership for the growth and development of wind energy and the formation of the National Wind Technology Center. He has been internationally recognized as a visionary, leader, and architect of the national wind energy agenda. For more than three decades, he has laid the foundation for wind technology advancement, nurtured its development, and remained a vigilant shepherd through deployment of those technologies. He has published extensively and is recognized internationally as one of the leading experts in research, development, and commercialization of wind technologies. Bob earned a tenured professorship in Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University where he taught courses in Applied Mechanics and initiated pioneering research in the mechanics of wind energy systems during the 1970s and early 1980s. Bob's career recognition and accomplishments include:

• Received an Honorary Doctor of Engineering from University of Glasgow July 2009
• Received the Pioneer Award from the World Renewable Energy Network at the World Renewable Energy Congress VIII, 2004
• Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Wind Energy Association in 2001
• Recognized as 1997 Person of the Year by the American Wind Energy Association
• Inducted into the Academy of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University, "in recognition of significant contributions to the engineering profession," October 1996.

Bob was appointed to the position of NREL Wind Energy Research Fellow in 2008. NREL Research Fellow appointments are reserved for outstanding scientists and engineers who have achieved exceptional internationally recognized positions of leadership in their fields, but who wish to devote the majority of their time and energy to scientific and technological endeavors. Most recently he has served as a strategist and spokesperson for the initiation of a national research program to develop offshore wind, wave, tidal, and ocean current energy technology.

Jeroen van Dam

Phone: 303-384-7009

Paul Veers

Chief Engineer
Phone: 303-384-7197

Paul Veers is the Chief Engineer at NREL's National Wind Technology Center, and was previously a distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories. He has worked in the area of wind energy technology for 30 years conducting research on various aspects of wind systems including atmospheric turbulence simulation, fatigue analysis, reliability, structural dynamics, aeroelastic tailoring of blades, and the evaluation of design requirements. Paul is currently the Chief Editor for Wind Energy, an international journal for progress and applications in wind power. He has a MS in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Robb Wallen

Phone: 303-384-7077
Cell: 303-775-1698

Yih-Huei Wan

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
M.S., Electrical Engineering, Southern Illinois University
B.S., Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University
Phone: 303-384-7025

Yih-huei joined NREL in 1991. His expertise is in electric power system engineering, planning, and operation. His work at NREL involves researching and analyzing issues related to integrating renewable energy technologies into the electric power grid. Subject topics include renewable energy capacity credit, operational impacts of intermittent energy sources on operations, distributed generation, and transmission constraints. He has also carried out analysis on distribution generation, renewable energy resource assessment, and renewable energy policy issues (such as net metering and green tariffs). He currently manages the Wind Farm Monitoring program that collects long-term, high-frequency wind power output data from several large commercial wind farms in the Midwest. The collected data are used to show how wind power actually behaves and provide the industry with meaningful statistics on fluctuations of wind power.

Before joining NREL, Yih-Huei worked as an electrical engineer for Western Farmer Electric Cooperative, a generation and transmission cooperative serving rural Oklahoma, for 10 years. He started in distribution substation design and progressed to transmission substation design, transmission system planning, and finally to system operations and bulk power transaction analysis. He represented his company in several Southwest Power Pool working groups on system modeling and regional system reliability.

Kelly Wang

Program Specialist
Phone: 303-384-6930

Qi Wang

Phone: 303-384-7261

Scott Wilde

National Wind Technology Center
Phone: 303-384-7074

Scott Wilde has worked as a supervisor in the wind business since 1988. He has experience with many different styles of wind turbines and has led large crews on hoisting and rigging activities, operations and maintenance activities and has installed over 500 wind turbines and complete wind farms in Palm Springs, CA, Altamont, CA, and Tehachapi, CA. He spent four years in Hawaii retrofitting the Westinghouse 600KW wind turbines on the North Shore of Oahu and brought the Mod 5 3.2 MW wind turbine back to life. The Mod 5 at the time was the largest running wind turbine and was featured in the Guinness Book of World records for size and production. Scott began his career at NREL in 1997 when NREL purchased two Westinghouse wind turbines to install and test at the National Wind Technology Center. He is now the Technical Operations Manager at the NWTC.

Arielle Wolfe

Administrative Assistant
B.S. Hotel Administration — Cornell University 2004
Phone: 303-384-6925

Alan Wright

Senior Engineer, National Wind Technology Center
Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University
B.S., Mathematics, Oregon State University
Phone: 303-384-6928

Alan joined NREL (SERI) in 1984. He has led the Wind Turbine Code development and validation team at NREL since 1992. The team's major project has been the development of simulation codes for predicting the dynamic response and loads of wind turbine systems. These codes are extensively used by wind industry members in the design of wind turbines to decrease structural loads and increase fatigue lifetimes. More recently, Alan has been involved with incorporating control schemes for load alleviation and power enhancement into these analytical codes. He is currently writing his Ph.D. thesis on the control of large flexible wind turbines to enhance energy capture and reduce structural dynamic loads and response. These control schemes will be used in future large wind turbines to alleviate loads due to atmospheric turbulence.

Prior to joining NREL, Alan spent 5 years at the wind turbine research program at Rocky Flats, operated by Rockwell International. He performed analytical modeling and structural dynamic studies of wind turbine rotor systems. His graduate school research at CU is being funded through NREL and allows him to incorporate modern control schemes into wind turbine analytical codes. These control schemes will be tested on the Controlled Advanced Research Turbine at the NWTC in the near future.

Yi-Hsiang Yu

Phone: 303-384-7143