Earth, Energy & Environmental Science

Staff Page • Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. Biography Matthew Lave is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the Resilient Energy and Distributed Systems Integration Group. He focuses on enabling the implementation of resilient energy systems. His work has included monitoring, analysis, and modeling of the grid integration of solar photovoltaics...

Staff Page • Mechanical Engineer. Biography Matthew Sandlin is a mechanical engineer working in the Concentrating Solar Technologies program. Prior to working at Sandia National Laboratories, Matthew performed experimental testing and numerical validation of falling particle receiver concepts at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During his post-doctoral appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,...

Staff Page • R&D Mechanical Engineer. Biography Megan Anderson is an R&D Mechanical Engineer in the Hydrodynamic Energy Systems Program at Sandia National Laboratories. She first joined Sandia in 2021 as a graduate student intern. Her research mainly focuses on stakeholder engagement, sociotechnical assessments of wave energy converters (WECs) for ocean-based economy applications,...

Staff Page • Postdoctoral Researcher. Biography Melissa Meyerson is a materials scientist and chemist at Sandia National Laboratories. She completed her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park and her PhD in chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin where she researched electrode materials to improve the energy...

Staff Page • R&D Mechanical Engineer. Biography Michael Devin joined Sandia National Laboratories in 2021 and is a member of the Wind Energy Computational Sciences Department. He supports platform design optimization and computational hydro-structural analysis for offshore vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs). His research interests include multidisciplinary design optimization, novel wake control strategies, and...

Staff Page • Electrical Engineer. Biography Michael Rios is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. He completed his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 2011 at the University of San Diego where he was a Ronald E McNair Scholar. He completed his masters and doctorate degrees at the...

Staff Page • Principal Member, Technical Staff. Biography Dr. Ropp has over twenty years of experience in research and education in power engineering, power electronics, and photovoltaics. He has authored over eighty technical publications and holds six patents. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and is active in standards creation, and...

Staff Page • Postdoctoral Appointee. Biography Michelle Bester is a Postdoctoral Appointee in the Electric Power Systems Research department at Sandia National Laboratories. Her primary research includes remote sensing analysis and modeling of fuel characteristics and vegetation treatments for wildfire grid resilience. She received her doctorate degree from West Virginia University and was...

Staff Page • Materials Research. Biography Michelle joined Sandia National Laboratories in July 2020 and is a senior member of the technical staff in the Wind Energy Design and Experimentation Department. Her research focuses on materials characterization supporting the DOE sponsored-Blade Reliability Project; specifically, lightning effects on wind blades and the NDI robotic...

Staff Page • R&D S&E, Systems Engineering. Biography Miguel D. Leyba joined Sandia National Laboratories in 2020, as a Senior R&D Electrical Engineer. He has been a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Sandia since 2023, as part of the National Solar Thermal Test Facility team, which is an extension of the Concentrating...

Staff Page • Senior Member of Technical Staff. Biography Miguel Jimenez Aparicio is a Senior Member of Technical Staff in the Electric Power Systems Research Department at Sandia National Laboratories. His research focuses on fast, signal-based protection for distribution systems under scenarios of high renewable energy penetration. Miguel is also involved on the...

Staff Page • R&D Mechanical Engineer. Biography Nathan Schroeder is an R&D Mechanical Engineer working at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF). Nathan is involved in Gen 3 particle- based acquisition and controls systems. He has conducted over 200 hours of falling particle receiver test operation as part of the Generation 3...

Staff Page • Postdoctoral Researcher. Biography Nathaniel deVelder is a postdoctoral researcher in the Wind Energy Computational Sciences Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. He holds a master’s of science and PhD from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he worked jointly in the Wind Energy Center and the Theoretical and Computational...

Staff Page • Postdoctoral Researcher. Biography Nhu (Jessica) Nguyen is a postdoctoral researcher in the Hydrodynamic Energy Systems Program at Sandia National Laboratories. Nhu investigates the performances of marine and hydrokinetic systems through theoretical and numerical modeling (CFD, BEM, and WEC-Sim). Her research area also includes river and coastal modeling for the optimization...

Staff Page • Senior Member of Technical Staff. Biography Nicholas Gurule began working with in the Distributed Energy Technologies Laboratory (DETL) at Sandia in 2016 as a student intern while finishing his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and became a member of staff after completing his master’s degree in 2019. In his time...

Staff Page • Wind Technology and Design Manager. Biography Nick Johnson is the manager of Sandia’s Wind Energy Design and Experimentation Department. Research under his portfolio includes maintaining the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility in Lubbock, Texas, which demonstrates and tests new rotor designs, improves understanding of turbine to turbine wake interference,...

Staff Page • Chemist. Biography Noah B. Schorr is a Postdoctoral Appointee at Sandia National Laboratories in the Photovoltaics & Materials Tech organization. He received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Western Washington University in 2015 and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019. His research...

Staff Page • Electrical Engineer. Biography Oindrilla Dutta is a Senior Member of Technical Staff with the Energy Storage Technology and Systems department. Prior to joining Sandia, she received BS from the West Bengal University of Technology, India, in 2014, and a Ph.D. from The City University of New York, New York, USA,...

Staff Page • Principal Member of Technical Staff. Biography Dr. Olga Hart is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. in Biological Design from Arizona State University in 2014 and 2019, respectively. She is a licensed Civil Engineer with experience in...

Staff Page • Senior Member of Technical Staff. Biography Pedro Barba is a Senior Member of Technical Staff in the Electric Power Systems Research Department at Sandia. His current research focuses on modeling traveling waves on transmission and distribution systems, and on optimization methods for energy storage systems. Before joining Sandia, he was...

Staff Page • Manager. Biography Peter H. Kobos has been a research economist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, since 2003, and is currently the Hydrodynamic Energy Systems Program manager. He has published in Contemporary Economic Policy, Energy Policy, Environmental Science and Technology, the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, the Journal...

Staff Page • Mechanical Engineer, Fire Science. Biography Randy has worked in the Fire Sciences and Technology Department at Sandia since 2016. His research interests include advancing understanding and predictive capabilities in areas relevant to fire safety, including thermal testing in fire scenarios and modeling of thermal runaway in lithium ion battery systems....