Senior Research Fellows
Our senior research fellows advise on the strategic direction of science and technology research at NREL and ensure our work meets the highest standards for quality and objectivity.
Find all research staff by visiting our research program areas.
Senior Research Fellow
After 35 years as an industrial polymer chemist and research leader at IBM, Bob Allen joined NREL to focus on sustainable polymers and composites for the future circular economy.
Senior Research Fellow
Matt Beard serves as the director of the Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy, an Energy Frontier Research Center.
Senior Research Fellow
Gregg Beckham's research at NREL focuses on conversion of biomass to fuels, chemicals, and materials, including the areas of metabolic engineering, fermentation, separations, chemical catalysis, biopolymer production, cellulase enzyme improvements, renewable carbon fiber production, theory and simulation to design biological and chemical catalysts, and lignin valorization.
Senior Research Fellow
Joe Berry is the perovskite and hybrid solar cells team lead and principal scientist on oxide semiconductor systems, with a focus on basic materials physics and device applications of these materials.
Senior Research Fellow
Paul Denholm is a member of the transmission group in the Grid Planning and Analysis Center and is a leading researcher in grid applications for energy storage and solar energy.
Senior Research Fellow
Vahan joined NREL in October 1994 and has served in many roles over the years. He is currently focused on renewable energy impacts on transmission and interconnection issues and dynamic modeling of variable generation systems.
Senior Research Fellow
David S. Ginley's current activities are in the general class of defective transition metal oxides, including high-temperature superconductors, LiTMO2 rechargeable Li battery materials, ferroelectric materials, transparent conducting oxides, and electrochromic materials.
Senior Research Fellow
Michael Himmel is a biochemist whose work on cellulase greatly simplified and lowered the cost of converting biomass to fuel. Himmel manages the award-winning cellulase enzyme technology effort.
Senior Research Fellow
Joseph Luther is a senior scientist in the chemical materials and nanoscience team at NREL.
Senior Research Fellow
Seth Marder is the director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, which is a joint institute between the University of Colorado Boulder and NREL.
Senior Research Fellow
Maureen McCann's research has contributed to advancements in the molecular basis of biomass recalcitrance—the cell wall's natural resistance to being broken down by microbes and enzymes—and uses biochemical, genetic, and molecular biology approaches to understand how the plant cell wall influences the final form and stature of plants.
Senior Research Fellow
Bob McCormick's research is focused on end-use issues and fuel-engine interactions with alternative fuels, primarily biofuels—including ethanol and biodiesel as well as next-generation and futuristic fuels.
Senior Research Fellow
Bryan Pivovar is the fuel cell group manager in the Chemistry and Nanosciences Center at NREL. He oversees NREL's electrolysis and fuel cell research and development activities.
Senior Research Fellow
Ingrid Repins is a principal scientist in the reliability group at NREL. She has worked for more than 20 years in state-of-the-art device and module characterization, process research, and manufacture.
Senior Research Fellow
Paul Veers is the chief engineer of the National Wind Technology Center at NREL's Flatirons Campus and manager of the wind energy science group.
Senior Research Fellow
Andy Walker develops new methods for engineering and economic analysis of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and has a patent on the Renewable Energy Optimization method of planning renewable energy projects across a portfolio of properties.
Research Fellows Emeriti
Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
Richard Ahrenkiel's area of specialization is the measurement and characterization of PV cells and materials. He is one of the world experts in the area of carrier recombination and carrier lifetime.
Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
Mowafak Al-Jassim worked at NREL for more than 30 years and has contributed greatly to world-record efficiencies in PV technologies.
Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
Sarah Kurtz is a world-renowned expert in the fields of multijunction PVs, concentrator PV, and PV reliability.
Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
Arthur Nozik's work focuses on photoelectrochemistry, solid state physics, semiconductor nanoscience, hot carrier effects, third-generation solar photon conversion, and related interdisciplinary science.
Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
Garry Rumbles is widely recognized for his research in photochemistry and photophysics of conjugated molecular systems, energy conversion in organic light-emitting diodes and organic photovoltaic (PV) devices, and nanoscale morphology.
Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
Michael Seibert's research interests include primary processes of and water-oxidation in oxygenic photosynthesis, structure and function of [Fe]-hydrogenases, molecular engineering of hydrogenases, expression profiling in green algae, and photobiological hydrogen production.
Senior Research Fellow Emeritus
Robert Thresher has more than 40 years of research, development, engineering, and management experience in wind technology, plant engineering, and aerospace systems. He has been a strategist for the initiation of a national research program to develop offshore wind, wave, tidal, and current energy technology.
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Last Updated March 20, 2025