Earth, Energy & Environmental Science

Staff Page • Materials Scientist, Battery Materials Lead. Biography Erik D. Spoerke, Ph.D. is the Energy Storage Materials Thrust Lead in Sandia National Laboratories’ Grid Energy Storage Program, a Principal R&D Materials Scientist in the Electronic, Optical, and Nano Materials Department at Sandia, and a Research Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering...

Staff Page • Research & Development Aeronautical Engineer. Biography Ernesto Camarena obtained his PhD in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University in 2019. There he developed multiscale structural mechanics methodology for piezoelectric composites. That same year, he joined the Wind Energy Design and Experimentation department, where he now leads the micromechanical modeling effort...

Staff Page • Research & Development Mechanical Engineer. Biography Evan Anderson is a postdoctoral researcher in the Wind Energy Design and Experimentation Department at Sandia National Laboratories. He grew up in Wyoming and received his master’s degree and PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Wyoming in 2010 and 2019. His research...

Staff Page • R&D Mechanical Engineer. Biography Evan Sproul is a mechanical engineer in the Wind Energy Computational Sciences Department at Sandia National Laboratories. He performs techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment to characterize the costs and environmental impacts of renewable energy systems. His current research focuses on improving the efficiency, reliability, and...

Staff Page • Department Manager. Biography Geoff Klise currently leads the Sandia Wind Energy Computational Data Sciences Department, which focuses on research and development (R&D) to better understand wind turbine and wind farm flow regimes, including turbine to turbine wake interference, model validation, and uncertainty quantification for multi-fidelity simulations. The department also carries...

Staff Page • Principal Member, Technical Staff. Biography Dr. Georgios Fragkos is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff on the Resilient Energy and Distributed Systems Integration program. He obtained his 5-year joint diploma degree in Computer Science from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 2018. He received his M.S. and...

Staff Page • Dynamics & Control Engineer. Biography Giorgio Bacelli is a research engineer in Sandia’s Water Power Technologies Program. Giorgio is working on the development and implementation of control strategies for Wave Energy Converters (WECs). He received his Master of Science in electronic engineering from Universita’ Politecnica delle Marche and his doctorate...

Staff Page • Postdoctoral Researcher. Biography Dr. Gopal R. Yalla joined Sandia in 2023 as a member of the Wind Energy Computational Science Department. Prior to joining Sandia, Gopal earned his PhD in Computational Science, Engineering, and Mathematics with a concentration in Teaching and Mentoring from the Oden Institute at The University of...

Staff Page • R&D, S&E Systems Engineering. Biography Dr. H. Evan Bush is an R&D, S&E Mechanical Engineer and Senior Member of the Technical Staff in the Concentrating Solar Technologies group. Evan’s research focuses on solar thermochemical cycles, materials, and reactors for thermal energy storage, H2 generation, and the production of chemical commodities...

Staff Page • R&D, Mechanical Engineering. Biography Henk Laubscher is a young and creative mechanical engineer with a strong practical background and a passion for sustainability. His field of expertise is solar thermal energy and he holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering (thermal energy storage) that he obtained at Stellenbosch University, South...

Staff Page • Electrical Engineer. Biography Henry Guan is an Electrical Engineer in the Energy Storage Technologies and Systems department at Sandia National Laboratories. He is a member of the Demonstration Projects team and focuses on energy storage system applications and system deployments. Henry received a B.S and M.S in Electrical Engineering from...

Staff Page • Electrical Engineer. Biography Hyungjin Choi received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Minnesota in 2017 focusing on convex optimization approaches for transient stability and uncertainty propagation in power systems. Before joining Sandia, he worked as a software engineer at Siemens Digital Grid on developing transmission network applications...

Staff Page • Senior Member of Technical Staff. Biography Ifeoma Onunkwo is a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. She has led efforts in network intrusion detection to prevent the spread of malware. She also leads efforts in the delivery of robust Distributed Energy Resource (DER) systems for DOE, Sandia,...

Staff Page • Principal Member of Technical Staff. Biography Jack is currently a Principle Member of the Technical Staff and joined Sandia as a postdoctoral appointee in 2006. His research focuses on all aspects of power electronics and power conversion systems ranging from incorporation of new materials and devices in power conversion systems...

Staff Page • Electrical Engineer. Biography Jacob A. Mueller is a Senior Member of Technical Staff with the Energy Storage Technology and Systems Department at Sandia National Laboratories. Before joining Sandia, he attended Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, and received the BS, MS, and PhD degrees in 2012, 2014, and...

Staff Page • Mechanical Engineer. Biography James Hartley is a mechanical engineer working with the Photovoltaics (PV) and Materials Technology Program at Sandia National Laboratories. His research interests include computational analysis using finite element methods in applications ranging from thermal analysis of complex systems to structural analysis of mechanically loaded assemblies. His current...

Staff Page • Senior Member of Technical Staff. Biography Javier Hernández-Alvídrez was born in Delicias Chihuahua, México. He received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering and telecommunications from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies at Monterrey NL, México; where he graduated with honors. He also holds a M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in...

Staff Page • Photovoltaic Energy Systems Scientist. Biography Jennifer L. Braid is a member of the Photovoltaics and Materials Technology Program at Sandia National Laboratories and a research assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science at Case Western Reserve University. Her current research efforts include PV performance modeling and simulation, automated image...

Staff Page • Environmental Analysis Lead. Biography Jesse Roberts has led Sandia National Laboratories’ Marine and Hydrokinetic Market (MHK) Acceleration and Deployment efforts within the Water Power Technologies Program since its inception in 2009. This research is focused on developing and applying numerical modeling tools to assess potential changes to the physical and...

Staff Page • Senior Member of Technical Staff. Biography Jimmy Quiroz is a Senior Member of Technical Staff in the Resilient Energy and Distributed Systems Integration department. His work includes a diverse portfolio of project-level work in topics including grid resilience, distribution system power flow analysis, transmission electromagnetic pulse impacts, and other grid...

Staff Page • Principal Member of Technical Staff. Biography John Eddy, Ph.D. is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff in the Math Analysis and Decision Science Department at Sandia National Labs. His research areas include operations research and System of Systems modeling, simulation, and optimization for civilian and military energy systems. He...

Staff Page • Mechanical Engineer. Biography John Hewson is the technical lead of physics model development for reacting thermal-fluid applications at Sandia. As the technical lead, he manages relations with internal and external customers to ensure predictive modeling capabilities meet customer and program needs. Along with his technical priorities, he regularly mentors users...