Thomas McKenney’s career has spanned the globe, but his roots have always been at the University of Michigan. McKenney earned all his degrees from U-M, and after a decade in industry, returned in 2023 as an Associate Professor of Engineering Practice.

“My career has been defined by strengthening the collaborative bridge between academia and the maritime industry,” McKenney explains. “At the University of Michigan, I am fully immersed in shaping the future of naval architecture, leveraging over a decade of industry experience to educate and inspire the next generation of engineers.”

After earning his PhD, McKenney spent over seven years with the Royal Caribbean Group, in multiple roles including Senior Manager of Technical Projects & Newbuild Development. He managed first-in-class cruise ship design and construction projects and was an integral part of teams in Miami, Florida, and Saint-Nazaire, France. Notably, he played a significant role in the development of the Celebrity Edge Class and Silver Nova Class ships, managing technical design, project integration and financial oversight.

Following this, McKenney served as Head of Ship Design at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping in Copenhagen. In this role, he managed ship design activities within a portfolio of over 50 projects focused on maritime sustainability and decarbonization. His projects included alternative fuel pathways and ship technologies. The role provided him with a deep understanding of the complexities involved in sustainable ship design.

Today, McKenney is an Associate Professor of Engineering Practice in the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, teaching introductory and advanced ship design courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. His research interests are concentrated on maritime decarbonization and passenger vessel design and operation. In his early tenure, his career included a substantial research and development contribution, where he created a mathematical framework to aid early-stage design decision-making. More recently, McKenney has been awarded two hydrogen related grants. This first is $200,000 from the State of Michigan to develop its maritime decarbonization strategy. The second is to support a $3 million Wayne County Port Authority grant, awarded by the EPA Clean Ports Program. He is also in the process of developing online course offerings on Maritime Decarbonization.

“My goal is to help build a collaborative bridge between academia and the maritime industry to maximize global impact,” McKenney notes. “This includes highlighting research and studies with immediate relevance to the broader maritime industry and providing relevant use cases from industry to academia.”

Through his efforts, he continues to drive advancements in ship design while fostering a connection between industry and academia.

Topical Areas of Interest: Maritime Decarbonization, Ship Design

André Boehman joined the University of Michigan Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2012, after serving for 18 years at the Pennsylvania State University. He also currently serves as the director of the renowned Walter E. Lay Automotive Engineering Laboratory, conducting automotive research centered around engine, battery, powertrain and vehicle autonomy.

In 2023, Boehman was appointed the Vennema Professor of Engineering, an endowed professorship supporting scholars whose work will impact the technologies of tomorrow. With over 26 years of experience in hydrogen research, Boehman has been lending his expertise to the MI Hydrogen initiative since its inception.

Boehman’s interest in automotive emissions control began in childhood while helping his father (a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Dayton) to do tailpipe exhaust measurements as a public service in the early 1970’s. As a graduate student at Stanford University and postdoc at SRI International, Boehman studied heat and mass transfer issues in automotive catalytic converters. In 1994, he joined the Fuel Science Program at Penn State, focusing on fuel processing catalysis, coal-based jet fuel formulation, diesel combustion, diesel emissions, diesel emissions control and alternative fuels.

Early in his career at Penn State, he began collaborating with Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., prominent for its work in the widespread generation and distribution of hydrogen. Air Products’ interest in the production of synthetic fuels led to multiple collaborations with Boehman, including the conversion of a Penn State campus shuttle bus to operate on dimethyl ether.  In addition, the collaboration with Air Products led to research on the application of hydrogen in internal combustion engines.

Throughout his career, his work has maintained a consistent theme of alternative and reformulated fuels, and combustion and pollution control. When the MI Hydrogen initiative launched, Boehman was eager to get involved.

Key objectives of MI Hydrogen include determining how to generate hydrogen and how to best use it. Boehman’s group concentrates on uncovering the most impactful ways to use hydrogen to produce fuel, as well as to determine how hydrogen can work in concert with other fuels to operate an engine. The innovative work led by Boehman greatly contributes to the MI Hydrogen initiative and the U-M research community.

Topical Areas of Interest: combustion, emissions, emissions control, renewable fuels, alternative fuels

Daniel Cooper joined the University of Michigan in 2017 as an assistant professor in mechanical engineering. Now a tenured associate professor, Cooper’s research focuses on sustainable manufacturing and material flows aiming for deep decarbonization in industries that are traditionally challenging to decarbonize. Recognizing the potential role of hydrogen in this effort, Cooper was motivated to get involved in the MI Hydrogen initiative.

Heavily invested in manufacturing education, Cooper serves as chair of the manufacturing concentration in mechanical engineering, a program not exclusive to mechanical engineering majors. He is also the director of the Resourceful Manufacturing and Design (ReMaDe) group, which seeks to empower US manufacturers to achieve sustainability through design, process and supply chain innovations. ReMaDE also promotes an innovative and diverse design and manufacturing workforce.

Cooper’s research examines greenhouse gas emissions during material production and processing. His work with MI Hydrogen involves exploring hydrogen’s role in specific industries. His latest project aims to examine how to achieve deep decarbonization in the US automotive aluminum and steel industries.

During his first year with MI Hydrogen, Cooper contributed to a comprehensive review paper exploring hydrogen’s role in industry. This work has laid a firm foundation for directing resources appropriately.

“We are trying to understand the potential for hydrogen to decarbonize US industry at that macro level,” Cooper explains. “From there, we are trying to understand those challenges in a bit more detail, so that we can direct research to the most fruitful potential areas.”

In his research, Cooper has identified several decarbonization strategies. First, circular economy emphasizes material efficiency, reuse and recycling to reduce emissions. However, this alone is not sufficient to achieve deep decarbonization.

Increased electrification, provided it is based on renewable energy, offers another effective solution for reducing emissions. Nevertheless, certain industries that require high-temperature processes, such as iron making, cement manufacturing and metal heat treatments are difficult to electrify due to temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius.

In these high-temperature processes, hydrogen’s high specific energy per unit mass enables it to burn extremely hot, providing it with the potential to replace natural gas currently used in furnaces.  

Another potential avenue for the use of hydrogen is its replacement in chemical reactions that explicitly produce carbon dioxide. For example, in the production of iron, separating iron from oxygen produces CO2. By replacing carbon with hydrogen in steelmaking, the hydrogen can remove the oxygen from the iron, with water as the main byproduct.

Despite its potential, the generation and transportation of hydrogen continues to present significant challenges. Current production methods such as steam methane reforming, emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Additionally, hydrogen can cause steel to become brittle, complicating pipeline transportation. MI Hydrogen aims to address these challenges, developing sustainable solutions.

“The greenhouse gas emissions released from making materials and then processing them into products have to be reduced if we’re going to avoid the worst consequences of climate change,” Cooper warns. “My research focuses on how we can do that.”

Topical Areas of Interest: industrial decarbonization, metals processing, decarbonization

Mirko Gamba joined the University of Michigan’s Aerospace Engineering Department as an assistant professor in 2012, following a three-year postdoctoral position at Stanford University. In 2018, he advanced to associate professor and currently leads the Gas Dynamics Imaging Laboratory. Gamba has served as chair of the graduate department and in 2019, joined the University of Michigan Space Institute executive committee where he focuses on coordinating outward-facing events with external partners. 

Gamba’s research focuses on energy conversion and propulsion systems, specifically for sustainable aviation. “The MI hydrogen program is connected to the broad topic of sustainability,” Gamba explains. “The initiative and the research areas span every step of the hydrogen process, from production to utilization, including storing, transporting and managing. My research focuses on the end of this chain.”

His research spans two main areas. The first involves developing and applying new or adapted measurement techniques for reacting flow. These optical-based techniques use lasers and cameras to measure the state of the system, which typically involves a gas undergoing flow evolution or a chemical reaction inside a combustion engine or gas turbine.

The second area examines fundamental aspects of novel energy conversion technologies. Typically, these conversions involve chemical reactions to produce useful energy for power generation or propulsion in aviation. Gamba’s group exploits specific processes to increase system output, thereby improving overall performance and efficiency, resulting in more compact systems. 

Hydrogen is of particular interest due to its energy density, which is sufficient to propel a vehicle in flight. However, it also presents challenges. While its energy density is high per unit mass, hydrogen’s energy density is lower per unit volume, making storage an obstacle. Efficient storage typically requires hydrogen to be compressed or cryogenically cooled, complicating its integration into existing systems designed for denser liquid fuels. Consequently, current aircraft designs using liquid fuels, such as kerosene, must be redesigned to accommodate the use of hydrogen. 

Moreover, reacting flow systems can exhibit instabilities that prevent processes from occurring, causing combustors to shut down. There are also concerns related to safety, flashback instabilities and high flame speeds that limit their application in standard configurations and necessitate recalibration of devices. 

“Even though we are at the end of the chain, we have to integrate our work with everything that happens upstream of it,” said Gamba. “It’s not just about burning hydrogen. It is about managing the hydrogen from the time you load it onto the aircraft to the way you consume it. Even ground operations will need to change.” 

Through his research, Gamba aims to address these challenges and unlock the potential of hydrogen use in aviation, contributing to a more sustainable and efficient future for the industry.

Topical Areas of Interest: Combustion Science, Safety, Sensing and Diagnostics, Energy Conversion Systems, Emissions

A native of the Azores, Portugal, Joaquim R. R. A. Martins has always had an interest in aircraft. It was this interest that led him to pursue a degree in aeronautics at the Imperial College in London. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University where he developed a more specialized interest in aircraft design optimization.

“Aviation makes the world go around,” said Martins. “It is the only way to move something or someone across the world in a day or less. It connects people, and it plays a crucial role in the economy.” 

In 2002 Martins joined the University of Toronto as an associate professor. It was there that he founded the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Laboratory (MDO Lab) research group, specializing in optimizing complex engineering systems across various disciplines to advance the design process of aerospace vehicles and other high-performance structures. Since then, he has directed his aircraft design optimization efforts toward reducing the greenhouse gas emissions caused by aviation.

Martins began his appointment at the University of Michigan in 2009, serving as a Pauline M. Sherman Collegiate Professor of Aerospace Engineering with a courtesy appointment in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering. He also continues to lead the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Laboratory. 

Today, Martins is a leading researcher in computational methods for the design optimization of engineering systems. His innovative methods have been applied to the design of aircraft, wind turbines, hydrofoils, cars and satellites.

For over a decade, he has collaborated on projects with NASA, including in the development of OpenMDAO, an open-source platform for high-performance systems analysis and multidisciplinary optimization. The system can quickly improve the design of complex engineering systems, including aircraft and their systems.

As hydrogen research gained momentum with increased interest, Martins teamed up with his students to write a review on hydrogen-powered aircraft, exploring a range of concepts, technologies and their environmental impacts. In place of conventional fuels like kerosene, they have redesigned engines to use hydrogen and are exploring ways to use hydrogen in fuel cells for electrification. 

Martins notes that since the 1960s, great strides have been made to decrease the fuel burn in aircraft. However, after exhausting the incremental  improvements, the rate of progress has plateaued. “Now,” he submits, “it’s time for something else. And I think that something else is hydrogen.”

Topical Areas of Interest: aircraft fuel burn​

Zetian Mi joined the University of Michigan as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science in 2016 after nearly ten years as a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Mi’s research focuses on semiconductor nanotechnology and its applications in electronic, photonic, clean energy and quantum devices and systems. 

A key milestone in Mi’s career occurred when he took part as a scientific director in the ERA Grand Challenge Award. Using artificial photosynthesis and solar hydrogen technology, Mi’s team won both the first and second rounds of the $35-million global competition. The competition’s aim was to develop innovative carbon reducing solutions, and strategies to transform carbon dioxide from a liability to an asset. Mi’s achievement laid the groundwork for his work with MI Hydrogen. 

Building on his use of artificial photosynthesis and solar hydrogen technology, Mi has developed a semiconductor that not only resists high-temperature degradation but is also orders of magnitude smaller and significantly less costly than some previous options. Using this technology in solar panels allows Mi’s team to extract hydrogen from water more efficiently than natural photosynthesis. The process employs a catalyst made of indium gallium nitride nanostructures that, when exposed to sunlight and heat, speeds up the water-splitting process and encourages the hydrogen and oxygen to remain separate. This technology allows the team to harvest hydrogen more economically and with greater efficiency. 

Mi was the director of the Blue Sky Initiative, established by the College of Engineering to support high-risk, high-reward ideas such as hydrogen generation. To bring his discoveries to market, Mi co-founded NS Nanotech, Inc. and NX Fuels, Inc. Notably, NS Nanotech launched the world’s first solid-state far-UVC chip, which emits short-wavelength UV light to neutralize Coronavirus. This product was named as one of the top ten in 2020 by Electronic Products. 

Reflecting on the significance of the MI Hydrogen initiative, Mi said, “This is a great investment by the university and by the community because this is a very important area not only today, but in the next several decades. It will continue to provide a great platform for our university colleagues to work together and is a vehicle to reimagine the industry.” 

Topical Areas of Interest: semiconductors, hydrogen production

Tim Wallington joined the University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS) in the School for Environment and Sustainability in 2023 after 35 years at the Ford Motor Company, where he led the Environmental Science Group. 

Wallington’s research interests at CSS focus on the use of life cycle assessments to examine the sustainability of global transportation, including energy use and emissions, air quality and climate change impacts, and material availability and flows. His work within MI Hydrogen is aimed at addressing the question of where hydrogen might be used to power future sustainable ground, water and air transportation either directly, or indirectly in synthetic fuels.  

“This is a complex question which needs a systems thinking approach,” said Wallington. “We must ask where the hydrogen comes from and what environmental and social impacts and financial costs are associated with obtaining it, distributing it and using it in transportation.  At the point of use in a fuel cell, hydrogen only emits water and so it has zero impact. However there may be substantial impacts upstream of the point of use.”

In his research, Wallington stresses the importance of each of the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic.  For hydrogen to play a future role in transportation it will need to be not only environmentally and socially acceptable, but also economically viable.  

“It is hard to overstate the importance of the recent economic policy support for hydrogen”, he noted.  New policies have been enacted in the U.S. and EU to incentivize the production of clean hydrogen, providing generous financial support for clean hydrogen production over the next decade and an opportunity for the decarbonization of transportation sectors such as heavy-duty road, marine and aviation that are hard to electrify.  

Originally from Northampton, England, Wallington came to the United States to conduct postgraduate research at the University of California-Riverside Statewide Air Pollution Research Center in 1984. 

In 1986, he moved to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Washington, D.C. before joining the Scientific Research Laboratories at Ford Motor Company in 1987. Wallington’s early experiences with environmental sciences opened his eyes to the opportunities in the field.

“Given its benefits in terms of lower emissions and the generous financial policy support available there’s a lot of interest in the use of hydrogen as a future transportation fuel,” said Wallington. “The MI Hydrogen team is working to understand just how that future might evolve.”

Topical Areas of Interest: Life cycle assessments, hydrogen, electric vehicles, climate change, atmospheric chemistry

Growing Production Capacity in PEM Electrolysis: Learnings and Technical Accomplishments

Co-sponsored with the ECS University of Michigan Student Chapter

Date and Time : Wednesday, September 25, 2024  |  3:00 pm – 4:00pm
Location: Michigan Phoenix Project, Room 2000A

Virtual Option: https://myumi.ch/1bp2V

Development of hydrogen production capacity with low carbon intensity (low carbon dioxide emissions) is an essential part of reaching global sustainability targets and mitigating long term climate change.  While electrolysis has been commercial for decades, many applications have been smaller scale, and only a small fraction of the total hydrogen production is made from water rather than methane.  It is therefore essential that PEM developers scale manufacturing capacity of cell stacks significantly in the next few years.  This talk will discuss Nel’s stack scale up journey, and the fundamental technology challenges in transitioning research and development into manufacturing at scale.

Bio:
Dr. Kathy Ayers is Vice President of R&D for Nel Hydrogen US, with responsibility for developing and executing Nel’s technology strategy in proton exchange membrane electrolysis.  She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry at Caltech, and spent several years in the battery industry before joining Nel in 2007.  Dr. Ayers manages a broad portfolio of internally and externally funded research projects, across a range of collaborators in academia, industry, and National Labs.  She is also the lead principal investigator for low temperature water splitting on the US Department of Energy benchmarking program, with the goal of providing protocols and standards for consistency in water splitting research.  

Dr. Ayers has served on multiple scientific advisory boards for Energy Frontier Research Centers and similar consortia, as well as two Federal level advisory committees for DOE: HTAC (Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technical Advisory Committee), and BESAC (Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee).  She received R&D Awards at the 2012 and 2021 DOE Merit Reviews from the HFTO Production Team, and an American Chemical Society Rising Stars Award in 2014 from the Women Chemists Committee.  She became a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society in 2020 and received the inaugural Walter van Schalkwijk award in 2022.

Building Foundations for the Hydrogen Economy

 Presentation

On 13 May 2024, MI Hydrogen hosted the “State of Michigan Workshop: Building Foundations for the Hydrogen Economy” to gather interested parties from across the state to identify and further advance potential near- and long-term hydrogen deployment opportunities and recommend key enabling actions. Learn More!

EVENT AGENDA

9:00 am – 9:10 am: Welcome and Logistics (Gregory Keoleian and Todd Allen, Co-Directors of MI Hydrogen)

9:10 am – 9:20 am: Opening Remarks (House Representative Haley Stevens)

9:20 am – 9:30 am: State of Michigan Update (Zach Kolodin, Chief Infrastructure Officer of the State of Michigan Infrastructure Office)

9:30 am – 9:50 am:  Role of Hydrogen in Sustainable Transportation: Ground, Air, and Marine (Timothy Wallington/Joaquim Martins, University of Michigan)

9:50 am – 10:05 am: Moderated Discussion with Panelists (Joe Mercurio, GM; Tim Slusser, City of Detroit)

10:05 am – 10:15 am:  Open Discussion with Audience Inputs

10:15 am – 10:30 am:  Break

10:30 am – 10:50 am:  Role of Hydrogen in Decarbonizing the U.S. Industrial Sector (Daniel Cooper/Yongxian Zhu, University of Michigan)

10:50 am – 11:05 am:  Moderated Discussion with Industry Panelists (David Ingram, Fortescue)

11:05 am – 11:15 am:  Open Discussion with Audience Inputs

11:15-am – 11:35 am:  State of Michigan Hydrogen Demand Analysis: Current (2022), Near-term (2030), and Long-term (2050) (Stephen Lipshaw/Sara Murphy, University of Michigan)

11:35 am – 11:45 am:  Open Discussion with Audience Inputs

11:45 am – 12:00 pm: Open Discussion with Audience Inputs on the Entire Morning

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm:  Lunch with 30-minute MachH2 Hub update (Michigan Projects) (Charlie Tyson/Kevin Mehren, Michigan Infrastructure Office; Corwin Matthews, Flint Mass Transportation Authority; Reuben Sarkar, American Center for Mobility)

1:00 pm – 1:45 pm:  5-minute Industrial Perspective Lightning

• • Neal Dreisig, Consumers Energy
  • David Ingram, Fortescue
  • Chris Kondogiani, Noble Gas Systems
  • Christopher Mosser, Bennett Pump Company
  • Mohammad Fatouraie, Bosch
  • Invited: Plastic Omnium

1:45 pm – 2:00 pm: Closing Comments

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Additional Networking for growing the hydrogen ecosystem in MI

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm:  Lab Tours (Optional)

Midwest Alliance For Clean Hydrogen (MachH2) Overview

Short Abstract:

Investment in Clean Hydrogen has reached an unprecedented scale in the United States.  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the Department of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) has formulated a Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program which includes up to $7 billion to establish seven regional clean hydrogen hubs across America.  As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the H2Hubs will form the foundation of a national clean hydrogen network that will contribute substantially to decarbonizing multiple sectors of the economy including heavy industries and heavy-duty transportation.  The Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen (MachH2) with proposed activities in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois is one of the seven hubs invited to enter negotiations with the DOE.  This presentation will give an overview of the H2 Hubs program and envisioned activities of MachH2.

Bio:

Neil Banwart, CFA
Chief Integration Officer, MachH2

As Chief Integration Officer, Neil Banwart’s responsibilities include ensuring MachH2 maximizes all sources of funding and also working to continually expand the reach and impact of MachH2. In conjunction with the CEO, he also represents MachH2 in public facing matters such as media interviews, on panels, and at tradeshows.

Neil also serves as Managing Director-Hydrogen at Energy Systems Network (ESN). Prior to ESN, he spent nearly a decade at Cummins Inc. He has held several M&A, Treasury, and finance roles in his career, including service as the CFO of a small private equity fund. Neil earned a Bachelor’s in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Bradley University. He is a CFA Charterholder and serves on the Board of Directors of the CFA Society of Indianapolis as the immediate past president.

First Competition: Michigan Hydrogen Horizon

The Hydrogen Grand Challenge is a series of prize competitions organized by MI Hydrogen to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen as a clean and sustainable energy carrier, particularly in areas such as transportation and industrial applications, in order to facilitate an equitable, affordable, clean, and secure energy transition.

The first competition, Michigan Hydrogen Horizon, asked University of Michigan students to develop a business case for a Michigan-centered, regional deployment of hydrogen. The business case should demonstrate where clean hydrogen can add value to specific sectors and technology applications.

First Pitch was April 11, 2024

Learn more about the MI Hydrogen Grand Challenge

Planning Hydrogen Ecosystem in Michigan: Truck Stop of the Future

Recent federal investments in hydrogen are intended to significantly accelerate timelines for the deployment of hydrogen technologies. States, in response, are working to align with stakeholders, establish individual strategies, and determine what this rapidly developing industry means for their residents and economies. Michigan, as a selectee for a Regional Clean Hydrogen hub, a leading member of the 7-state Midwest Hydrogen Coalition, and having recently secured significant investments from leading companies in the hydrogen supply chain, is well positioned to be a leader in the development of a national hydrogen economy. In this session, representatives from the Michigan Infrastructure Office will discuss the broad vision for hydrogen in Michigan, key projects and investments underway, and the challenges and opportunities facing the Great Lakes State.

 Zachary Kolodin serves as Chief Infrastructure Officer and Director of the Michigan Infrastructure Office. He previously served as Governor Whitmer’s Public Policy Counsel. Before joining the Executive Office, he was an associate at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP and served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman. Kolodin also worked in the Office of Grants Policy and Operations at Americorps, and as a program administrator at the Roosevelt Institute, a New York City-based think tank. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and New York University School of Law.

Kevin Mehren serves as the Deputy Infrastructure Officer for Clean Energy and the Environment within the Michigan Infrastructure Office. Prior to joining the office, Kevin held the role of Program Director with the Washington, D.C. based OurEnergyPolicy Foundation, which provides resources to support the creation of substantive and responsible energy policies. He is a graduate of Michigan State University and George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration.

Tim Wallington, Research Specialist, Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan
Matt Collette, Professor, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, University of Michigan
Joaquim R. R. A. Martins, Pauline M. Sherman Collegiate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan

Abstract: Hydrogen produced by electrolysis using low-carbon electricity is widely viewed as an important future energy carrier in a decarbonized economy. There is strong federal policy support for increased hydrogen use. Hydrogen can be used directly or indirectly (via the production of e-fuels) in road, rail, air, and water transportation. In this seminar we will discuss the critical factors which will determine the future role of hydrogen in sustainable transportation.

Tim Wallington is a Research Specialist in the Center for Sustainable Systems and an Adjunct Professor in Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Tim has BA, MA, DPhil and DSc degrees from the University of Oxford, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Copenhagen University. His research
focus is transportation sustainability (vehicle energy use and emissions, air quality and climate change impacts, vehicle and fuel technoeconomic analyses and lifecycle assessments, material availability and flows, alternative fuels, social sustainability). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a member of the EPA Board of Scientific Counselors and the EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee.

Dr. Collette joined the University of Michigan in 2009, founding the Marine Structures Design Lab in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. His team focuses on two major themes: how to construct human-machine systems to sense, understand, and reason about vessels’ current health and capabilities and how to use numerical approaches to increase human understanding of design problems. His group focuses on structural systems, autonomous decision-making, and decarbonization's impact on ship design. He is the SNAME Functional Vice President for Education and past Chair of the International Ship Structures Congress Committee IV.1 on Design Principles and Criteria. He is a 1999 graduate of the Webb Institute with a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and received his Ph.D. in Marine Technology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2005.  

Joaquim R. R. A. Martins is the Pauline M. Sherman Collegiate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he heads the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Laboratory. His research group develops MDO methods and applies them to the design of aircraft and other engineering systems. He is a co-author of "Engineering Design Optimization", a textbook published by Cambridge University Press. Prof. Martins is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Before joining the University of Michigan faculty in 2009, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies. From 2002, he held a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Multidisciplinary Optimization. He received his undergraduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College, London, with a British Aerospace Award. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, where he was awarded the Ballhaus prize for best thesis in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has received the Best Paper Award at AIAA Conferences five times. He has served as Associate Editor for the AIAA Journal, Optimization and Engineering, and Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization. He is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Aircraft.

 Ugi Otgonbaatar is Director, Technology Strategy, Grants & Partnerships, Constellation

Alex Maranville is a Research Associate at the Energy Futures Initiative.

Dr. Vivek Sujan is a Distinguished Research Staff in the National Transportation Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Dr. Richard Boardman is the Laboratory Relationship Manager in the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technology office at Idaho National Laboratory

Dr. Joaquim Martins is the Pauline M. Sherman Collegiate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan

Dr. Amgad Elgowainy is a senior scientist and distinguished fellow at Argonne National Laboratory

Marc W. Melaina, Ph.D.
Senior Analyst
U.S. Department of Energy, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office
Boston Government Services (contractor)
Note: Dr. Melaina is one of the primary authors of the DOE National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap report.

Dr. Fatemeh Salehi is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, Macquarie University, Australia.