Scientific Advisory Council

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  Doon Gibbs

  • Laboratory Director | Brookhaven National Laboratory
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Co-Chairperson: Doon Gibbs



• Laboratory Director

  Brookhaven National Laboratory

Dr. Doon Gibbs is the laboratory director for the Brookhaven National Laboratory and president of Brookhaven Science Associates, the limited liability company that manages the laboratory on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. Work at Brookhaven encompasses energy science and technology, nuclear and particle physics, data science, biological/environmental science, and national security.

Dr. Gibbs joined Brookhaven in 1983 as an assistant physicist and progressed through the ranks to become a senior physicist in 2000. Dr. Gibbs has served as group leader of X-ray scattering, head of condensed matter physics, associate laboratory director for basic energy sciences, and deputy laboratory director for science and technology.

He was the 1991 E.P. Wohlfarth Lecturer in Physics at the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom, and has been recognized with the 1985 Department of Energy Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment in Solid State Physics and by the 2003 Advanced Photon Source Arthur H. Compton Award. Dr. Gibbs is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.

He currently serves as a member of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, the Long Island Association Board and the State University of New York Research Council, among others. He is credited with 136 publications.

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  Richard Reeder

  • Vice President | Research/Operations Manager for the Research Foundation
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Co-Chairperson: Richard Reeder



• Vice President

  Research/Operations Manager for the Research Foundation

Dr. Richard Reeder is the vice president for research and the operations manager for the State University of New York Research Foundation. Dr. Reeder also serves as associate vice president for Brookhaven National Laboratory Affairs, acting as Stony Brook University’s liaison to the nearby laboratory co-managed by Stony Brook and Battelle Memorial Institute.

Prior to these roles, Dr. Reeder participated in the Stony Brook-Battelle team that successfully re-competed the management contract for Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is currently a member of the Brookhaven Science Associates Board of Directors.

He retains the position of professor of geochemistry in the Department of Geosciences, where he served as chair for 2008-2013. Dr. Reeder’s research interests span several areas in geochemistry, including the structure and properties of disordered and amorphous solids, chemical behavior of heavy metals in the environment, and bioavailability of contaminants in environmental and remediation settings. He has focused particularly on applications of X-ray scattering and spectroscopy to natural and engineered materials of environmental relevance, making extensive use of synchrotron X-ray facilities at Brookhaven and other national laboratories.

Dr. Reeder served as director of the Center for Environmental Molecular Sciences, supported by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Reeder is author of more than 120 peer-reviewed articles. He has been a member of the Stony Brook faculty since 1980.

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  Esther Takeuchi

  • Distinguished Professor | State University of New York | Stony Brook University
  • Chair | Interdisciplinary Science Department | Brookhaven National Laboratory
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Esther Takeuchi



• Distinguished Professor

  State University of New York | Stony Brook University

• Chair

  Interdisciplinary Science Department | Brookhaven National Laboratory

Dr. Esther Takeuchi is a State University of New York distinguished professor and the William and Jane Knapp Chair in Energy and the Environment at Stony Brook University. Dr. Takeuchi holds a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory as chair of the Interdisciplinary Science Department. She is a faculty member of Stony Brook’s Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering as well as the Department of Chemistry.

Dr. Takeuchi’s work includes design of electroactive materials and the concomitant engineering associated with battery design as well as mechanistic studies involving the complex interplay among redox processes, ion transport, and electrode precipitation/dissolution.

She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and is a charter member of the National Academy of Innovation. Dr. Takeuchi received an E.V. Murphree Award from the American Chemical Society, an Astellas USA Foundation Award and a Battery Division Technology Award from the Electrochemical Society. She is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Takeuchi is inventor with over 150 patents, and has received the European Inventor Award in the category of non-EPO countries in 2018 and the Walston Chubb Award for Innovation from Sigma Xi in 2019.

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  Jon Longtin

  • Interim Dean | College of Engineering and Applied Sciences | Stony Brook University
  • Professor | Mechanical Engineering | Stony Brook University
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Jon Longtin



• Interim Dean

  College of Engineering and Applied Sciences | Stony Brook University

• Professor

  Mechanical Engineering | Stony Brook University

Dr. Jon Longtin is Interim Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University. He also holds a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

He most recently served as the Associate Dean for Research and Entrepreneurship — a new strategic role designed to grow and support faculty research and innovation, and expand entrepreneurship within CEAS. He joined Stony Brook in 1996 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and rose through the ranks to Professor in 2012. He served as the Undergraduate Program Director for Mechanical Engineering from 2006 to 2011.

Dr. Longtin’s research spans a broad range of topics including thermal and energy sciences, with an emphasis on energy efficiency, novel heat transfer technologies, and alternatives to traditional vapor-cycles for refrigeration and space cooling. He has secured nearly $9 million in federal, state, and industrial funding from NSF, DOE, ARPA-E, DoD, NASA, NYSERDA, and industry sources. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications and several book chapters. He holds eight U.S. patents with several patents pending.

Among his many honors and accolades, Dr. Longtin is the recipient of the NSF CAREER and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) awards, several Stony Brook Excellence in Teaching awards and Licensed Innovation awards, two Brookhaven Inventors awards, and the R&D 100 award. He is a member of the National Academy of Inventors, a Fellow of the American Society of Thermal and Fluid Engineers, and a Registered Professional Engineer in New York State.

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  Kathleen Araújo

  • Director | Energy Policy Institute | Center for Advanced Energy Studies
  • Associate Professor | Energy Innovation Systems and Policy | Boise State University
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Kathleen Araújo



• Director

  Energy Policy Institute | Center for Advanced Energy Studies

• Associate Professor

  Energy Innovation Systems and Policy | Boise State University

Dr. Kathleen Araújo is the director of the Energy Policy Institute and an associate professor of energy innovation systems and policy at Boise State University.

Dr. Araújo is responsible for the strategic direction and executive decision-making for the Institute, which is the policy body for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, a consortium of four Western public universities plus the Idaho National Laboratory. Dr. Araújo works to advance critical decision-making on energy systems change in line with priorities that include sustainability, security, and industrial development.

Her teaching and research interests include strategic planning and management in energy transitions; sustainable energy; energy environmental systems; comparative policy, innovation, and better practices in sustainability and resilience; international nuclear safety and cyber security; and science and technology policy. Dr. Araújo’s specialization centers on advancing priorities that include sustainability, industrial development, and resilience.

She has presented or led discussions in international fora with the University of Cambridge, Arctic Circle Conference, and Fukushima Medical University. Dr. Araújo is the book series editor for Routledge’s Studies in Energy Transitions. She also consults for intergovernmental organizations, among them the World Bank and the International Renewable Energy Agency, as well as industry.

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  Kurt Becker

  • Vice Dean | Research, Innovationand Entrepreneurship | NYU
  • Professor | Applied Physics and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | NYU
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Kurt Becker



• Vice Dean

  Research, Innovationand Entrepreneurship | NYU

• Professor

  Applied Physics and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | NYU

Dr. Kurt Becker is vice dean for research, innovation and entrepreneurship at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering and a professor of applied physics and mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Dr. Becker’s responsibilities include the growth of the research portfolio of the Tandon faculty, the promotion of cross-school research collaborations and the development of an academic innovation and entrepreneurship environment at Tandon. Dr. Becker oversees the Tandon Future Labs, which aim to accelerate the commercialization and market entry of new products and processes based on science and engineering breakthroughs.

As a physicist, he pioneered the field of microplasmas and holds numerous patents on the stabilization of atmospheric-pressure plasma and its technological applications for environmental remediation and biomedicine. He was involved in two startup companies that commercialized this technology. Additional areas of interest include atomic, molecular and chemical physics, the development of new experimental techniques and processes, technology transfer, and IP commercialization.

Dr. Becker is a recipient of the Dr.-Eduard-Martin-Prize for Excellence in Research and the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award (with Erich Kunhardt), and was an American Physical Society Fellow. He has written over 200 articles in refereed journals and books, and made 375 conference presentations and abstracts. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals.

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  Lian Shen

  • Professor | Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Director | St. Anthony Falls Laboratory University of Minnesota
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Lian Shen



• Professor

  Department of Mechanical Engineering

• Director

  St. Anthony Falls Laboratory University of Minnesota

Dr. Lian Shen is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shen also serves as the director of the St. Anthony Falls Lab, a multidisciplinary fluid mechanics institute consisting of nearly 50 faculty and staff members and over 100 postdocs and students.

In the area of wind energy research, Dr. Shen currently serves as a co-chair of the Research and Development Advisory Group of the National Offshore Wind Energy Research and Development Consortium. He is also the director of the Eolos Wind Energy Research facilities at University of Minnesota, which has a 2.5 MW wind turbine, a start-of-the-art atmospheric wind tunnel and high-performance cluster computers.

Dr. Shen earned his doctoral degree in fluid mechanics from MIT in 2001. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics, water waves, turbulence and renewable energy, and he has published extensively in top journals in fluid mechanics.

He has led or participated in many projects in wind energy research sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Xcel Energy Renewable Energy Fund, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

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  Michael Thurston

  • Technical Director & Research Faculty | Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology
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Michael Thurston



• Technical Director & Research Faculty

  Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology

Dr. Michael Thurston is the Technical Director and Research Faculty at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology and has been at RIT. He is also Director of the New York State Center of Excellence in Advanced and Sustainable Manufacturing located at RIT that works with companies across the state. Prior to RIT, he worked on air conditioning system development at General Motors and Delphi.

His areas of research interests include sustainable design, product remanufacturing, advanced manufacturing, smart products and systems, life cycle engineering, and asset health monitoring. Funded research work includes collaborations in product and process design with many companies across the U.S., and in technology development and deployment in support of U.S. Department of Energy sustainable manufacturing initiatives and U.S. Department of Defense sustainment programs.

Dr Thurston is involved with several national advanced manufacturing institutes. He is the remanufacturing technology lead for the Department of Energy-sponsored REMADE Institute, and also serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the Department of Defense-sponsored Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute.

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  Rajit Gadh

  • Founding Director | Smart Grid Energy Research Center | UCLA
  • Founding Director | Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium | UCLA
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Rajit Gadh



• Founding Director

  Smart Grid Energy Research Center | UCLA

• Founding Director

  Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium | UCLA

Dr. Rajit Gadh is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the founding director of both the UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center and the Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium. The Center supports the development of the next generation of the electric utility grid. The Consortium is a university, industry, and government collaboration that supports technological and business research and education.

Dr. Gadh has taught as a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley, has been a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and did his sabbatical as a visiting researcher at Stanford University. Dr. Gadh is on the editorial board of Computers in Entertainment and the CAD Journal.

His research includes smart grids, microgrids, electric vehicle to grid integration, electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, smart transportation, AI and machine learning in electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle management.

Dr. Gadh has won several awards from the National Science Foundation (Faculty Early Career Development Program, or CAREER, award, Research Initiation Award, etc.), the Society of Automotive Engineers (Ralph Teetor educational award), IEEE (Wireless Telecommunications Symposium student paper award), ASME (Kodak Best Technical Paper award), AT&T (Industrial Ecology Fellow award), Engineering Education Foundation (Research Initiation award), and a William Wong Fellowship award from the University of Hong Kong.

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  Serpil Guran

  • Director | EcoComplex Clean Energy Innovation Center | Rutgers University
  • Director | RutgersX EcoIgnite Clean Technology Proof of Concept Center and Accelerator Program | Rutgers University
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Serpil Guran



• Director

  EcoComplex Clean Energy Innovation Center | Rutgers University

• Director

  RutgersX EcoIgnite Clean Technology Proof of Concept Center and Accelerator Program | Rutgers University

Dr. Serpil Guran is the director of the EcoComplex Clean Energy Innovation Center at Rutgers University. The center promotes the commercialization of environmental and alternative energy technologies. Dr. Guran is also the director of the RutgersX EcoIgnite Clean Technology Proof of Concept Center and Accelerator Program. RutgersX is the university’s first business-accelerator program.

In addition to managing EcoComplex operations, programs, business incubator and facilities, Dr. Guran also serves as a courtesy associate teaching professor, a role in which she teaches courses in sustainability and bioenergy. She also has a courtesy teaching affiliation with the university’s Plant Biology program.

She is a chemical engineer trained in thermochemical conversion (pyrolysis and gasification) of biomass and waste materials for production of fuels and chemicals. Dr. Guran specializes in research, development and assessment of sustainable biofuel production and waste recycling technologies, and life cycle analysis of clean energy systems and alternative fuel production systems.

Currently, she is working on circular carbon systems, the food-energy-water nexus and waste synergy by promoting integration of organic and plastic waste into development of a circular carbon economy with the goal of mitigating climate change and promoting economic sustainability and social justice.