Fueling the Future:
Lab's R&D Strengthens U.S. Leadership, Delivers Economic Impact
At the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), our transportation research is all about solving big challenges. Whether it's building better batteries to move vehicles and store energy; de-risking new domestic and synthetic jet fuels to power future flights; leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing techniques to enhance the low-cost, reliable movement of goods and services; or securing domestic supply chains and transportation networks—the goal is the same: to deliver practical, science-based solutions that make transportation cheaper, more reliable, and better overall for America's economy.
Together, these efforts chart a course toward an energy and mobility system that powers not just our economy but our future. Along the way, it's also important to highlight the journey.
Earning titles such as "world's first," "NASA Invention of the Year," and "R&D 100 Award Finalist," while achieving breakthroughs like "95% cost savings" and a "400% increase in power density," the NLR team has accomplished remarkable feats over the past year. These are markers of momentum.
With a clear focus on innovation and impact in mobility and energy systems, at NLR, we are just getting started.
Alex Schroeder
Laboratory Program Manager, Vehicle Technologies
National Laboratory of the Rockies at a Glance
4 campuses
4,000+ employees
World-class expertise in:
- Energy systems integration
- Transportation and fuels
- Buildings and industry
1,100+ partnerships with:
- Industry
- Academia
- Government
Our FY 2025 Vehicles Programs by the Numbers
Equivalent of 130 full-time staff spanning every NLR research organization supporting U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) projects.
100+ projects with private industry, academia, and state and local governments that leverage and enhance VTO outcomes.
40 active licensing agreements, 31 records of invention, 2 patents granted, and 10 patent applications initiated.
$60.38 million in vehicles-related industry and research partnership agreements with 91 unique organizations.
243 peer-reviewed publications produced, including 75 journal articles (up 8.7% from 2024). Of these, 17 articles published in journals with an impact factor above 10.
More than a quarter of all NLR's high-performance computing utilization accounted for by VTO, the largest single user, enabling large-scale computing and AI-informed research.
Leadership and Collaboration
Get a brief overview of NLR's leadership and collaborative accomplishments, ranging from solutions and strategies to institutional investments that serve America’s evolving energy landscape. For more details on these and other efforts, download the full report.
Solutions and Strategies
Lab Expertise Bolsters Cost-Effectiveness of Advanced Mobility Technologies
Port and Freight Optimization Drives U.S. Economy Forward
Planes, Trains, and Off-Road Vehicles Reach New Performance Heights at Lower Costs
Strategic Transportation Partnerships Lend World-Class Expertise to Today's Technology Challenges
Institutional Investments
State-of-the-Art Facilities Power Progress, Capabilities Expansion
Laboratory Directed Research and Development Projects
Cybersecurity Strategist Specializes in Secure, Interoperable Infrastructure for Energy and Mobility Systems
Research Highlights
Dive deeper into the impact of NLR's research. Read about these featured projects, representing only a small sample of our R&D accomplishments. For more details on these and other highlights, download the full report.
Awards and Recognition
Many NLR researchers received awards and recognition for contributing to solutions for today’s transportation and mobility challenges. For more details, download the full report.
Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award
The U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office gave Margo Melendez a Lifetime Distinguished
Achievement Award, recognizing 20+ years of leadership guiding NLR's technical assistance for Clean Cities and Communities.
2025 Fellow of the Combustion Institute
The Combustion Institute named Marc Day a 2025 fellow for leading the development of the low-Mach-number adaptive
mesh code PeleLMeX, which is used to model synthetic aviation turbine fuel combustors on bio-derived jet fuels.
IEEE Senior Member Recognition, Outstanding Performance Award
For pioneering thermal management and materials research in power electronics and electric machines, Xuhui Feng received an elevation to a senior member by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and an Outstanding Performance Award at NLR's 2025 Staff Awards.
IEEE Best Associate Editor Award
Sreekant Narumanchi received the Best Associate Editor Award from the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology journal for his exceptional commitment to upholding the journal's high standards.
SAE Task Force Vice Chair Appointment
SAE International appointed Yukihiro Hatagishi vice chair of the SAE Hybrid Communications and Interoperability
Task Force, which establishes use cases, communication protocols, and security and interoperability standards for EV technologies.
IEEE Senior Member Elevation Recognition
IEEE elevated Rajneesh Chaudhary to a senior member for significant contributions to advanced power
electronics, including novel thermal fluids and multiphysics solutions for electric machines and electric-drive systems.
ASME Fellow and IEEE Senior Member Recognition
Bidzina Kekelia was named an American Society of Mechanical Engineers fellow and elevated as an
IEEE senior member for innovative research in developing novel cooling solutions for power electronic and other applications.
Leadership in Commercial Transportation Analysis Award
Alicia Birky received an Outstanding Performance Award at NLR's 2025 Staff Awards ceremony
for her leadership and expertise in applying large-scale data and techno-economic analysis to commercial transportation challenges.
NASA 2025 Invention of the Year Award
NASA presented Matt Keyser and Ahmad Pesaran with a 2025 Invention of the Year Award for developing an internal short-circuit device used to make batteries safer. Manufacturers can implant the device, designed by NLR and NASA, in a battery cell to investigate the thermal behavior under
abuse conditions.
RouteE and FASTSim Development Team Award
For developing the RouteE: Route Energy Prediction tool and FASTSim™: Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator, the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office
recognized the following team of researchers: Chad Baker,
Robin Steuteville, Nick Reinicke, Jeff Gonder,
Shashi Peddireddy, Balashanmuga Priyan Rajamohan, Ananta Shrestha, Kyle Carow, Jacob Holden, Rob Fitzgerald,
and Joshua Hoshiko.
Multilab Cooperative Driving Automation Research Team Award
Along with collaborators from other national labs, Nick Reinicke and Qichao Wang received a team award from the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office for advancing the understanding and implementation of cooperative driving automation, which will help enhance safety and improve traffic flow.
William W. Millar Award: Best Paper in Public Transportation
The Transportation Research Board presented Bonnie Powell, Alejandro Henao,
Stanley Young, and Sailesh Acharya—along with former colleagues Rick Grahn and Ruqayya Zakaria—with
the William W. Millar Award for the best paper in transportation: "Mobility Energy Productivity Evaluation of On-Demand Transit: A Case Study in Arlington, Texas."
Characterizing Long-Life Lithium-Ion Cells With Earth-Abundant Cathodes
Nikita Dutta made significant contributions to the Earth-Abundant Cathode
Active Materials project, applying advanced nanoscale mapping techniques to study manganese dissolution in lithium- and manganese-rich cathodes.
Providing Technical Support for EV Infrastructure and Battery Safety
Allie Danner played a key role in technical assistance projects, leading technical case study reviews, contributing to Alternative Fuels Data Center
strategy, and supporting battery safety efforts for micromobility applications.
Leading High-Impact Projects and Mentoring Interns for Success
As the technical lead for the National Impacts of Community-Level Strategies to Improve Convenience of Mobility project, Sailesh Acharya oversees the TEMPO: Transportation Energy & Mobility Pathway Options modeling and more.
Steering Strategic Data Collection and Platform Expansion
Cemal Akcicek has delivered exceptional performance on the Travel Demand Management and National Impacts projects while also effectively managing the Transportation Secure Data Center, including transit-focused research efforts.
Driving Efficiency in Transportation Electrification
Polina Alexeenko has led pioneering efforts to apply grid data to energy use timing and
charging optimization strategies combined with in-use duty cycle data—advancing solutions that improve system-level efficiency.
Elevating Impact of Sociotechnical Transportation Projects
As a bilingual researcher, Francisco Trejo Morales made meaningful contributions to several sociotechnical transportation engagement projects under Clean
Cities and Communities, translating materials from English to Spanish.
Advancing High-Performance Power Modules With ULIS Technology
Shuofeng Zhao played a key role in the design of NLR's patent-pending Ultra-Low Inductance Smart (ULIS) power module engineered for high-frequency switching applications—one of the lab's top technological advancements of the year.
Leading Innovation in Machine Learning and Open-Source Tools
Nina Prakash played
a pivotal role in the development of impactful machine-learning tools for microscopy and diagnostics, contributed to major research projects, and published open-source software supporting scientific research.
Technical Team
Meet our multidisciplinary team of researchers and leaders across NLR, transforming vehicle technologies for the future. See additional details on the NLR Research Hub.
Robert McCormick
Advanced Biofuels and Combustion
Alicia Birky
Commercial Vehicle Technologies
Monte Lunacek
Data Sciences
Jesse Bennet and John Kisacikoglu
Electric Vehicle Grid Integration
Peter Weddle
Energy Storage – Systems Data Science and Modeling
Rob Tenent
Energy Storage – Advanced Cathode Material Development
Andrew Colclasure
Energy Storage – Materials Development and Modeling
Erin Andrews-Sharer
Legislative/Regulatory Support
Nicholas Rorrer
Lightweight Composite Materials
Andrew Duvall
Mobility Systems
Gilbert Moreno
Power Electronics and Electric Machines
Emmy Feldman
Technology Integration/ Data and Tools
Abby Brown
Technology Integration/Technical Assistance
Brennan Borlaug and Eric Wood
Vehicle Modeling and Analysis
Tony Burrell
Chief Technologist, Energy Storage
Sarah Cardinali
Group Manager, Transportation Technical Assistance
Mark Chung
Group Manager, Mobility Infrastructure and Impacts Analysis
Marc Day
Group Manager, High-Performance Algorithms and Complex Fluids
Gina Fioroni
Group Manager, Fuels and Combustion Science
Venu Garikapati
Group Manager, Behavior and Advanced Mobility
Jeff Gonder
Group Manager, Transportation Energy Transition Analysis
Katie Harrison
Group Manager, Battery Materials
Cabell Hodge
Group Manager, Analysis of Vehicles and Infrastructure Deployment
Wesley Jones
Group Manager, Complex Systems Simulation and Optimization
Matt Keyser
Group Manager, Electrochemical Energy Storage
Faisal Khan
Principal Researcher, Power Electronics
Jason Lustbader
Group Manager, Commercial Vehicle Technologies
Andrew Meintz
Chief Engineer for EV Charging and Grid Integration
Margo Melendez
Chief Transportation Technology Deployment and Integration Engineer; Group Manager (Acting), Electric Vehicle Charging
Juliane Mueller
Group Manager, AI, Learning, and Intelligent Systems
Sreekant Narumanchi
Group Manager, Advanced Power Electronics and Electric Machines
Nate Neale
Group Manager, Interfacial Materials Chemistry
Kristi Potter
Group Manager, Data, Analysis and Visualization
Jibo Sanyal
Group Manager, Hybrid Energy Systems
Lauren Spath Luhring
Group Manager, Transportation Applications and Data Analysis
Liz Weber
Group Manager, Partnerships and Research for Transportation Innovation
Stan Young
Advanced Mobility Technical Lead
Maureen McCann
Associate Lab Director (Acting), BioEconomy and Sustainable Transportation
Alex Schroeder
Laboratory Program Manager, Vehicle Technologies Office
Margo Melendez
Laboratory Program Manager (Acting), Joint Office of Energy and Transportation
Kirstin Alberi
Director, Materials Science
Chris Gearhart
Director, Integrated Mobility Science
Ray Grout
Director, Computational Science
Matt Thornton
Director, Energy Conversion and Storage Systems
Jao Van de Lagemaat
Director, Chemistry and Nanoscience
Jaquelin Cochran
Associate Lab Director, Strategic Energy Analysis and Decision Sciences
John Farrell
Associate Lab Director, Mechanical and Thermal Engineering Sciences
Juan Torres
Associate Lab Director, Energy Security, Resilience, and Integration
Bill Tumas
Associate Lab Director, Materials, Chemical, and Computational Sciences
Download Full Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report
The full report features details about all the National Laboratory of the Rockies' leadership and collaboration efforts, R&D highlights, awards, and much more.
Share
Last Updated Jan. 26, 2026