Green Energy

Jim Witham’s career has focused on bringing new technology, like GaN Systems’ world’s best performing power transistors, to the Electronics market. Witham joined GaN Systems from Neoconix, a manufacturer of high density, miniature connectors. As CEO of Neoconix, he successfully implemented strategic changes which dramatically increased revenue and resulted in the company’s acquisition by Unimicron Technology. Prior to Neoconix, Witham was CEO of Fultec Semiconductor, where his team made circuit protection devices using high voltage silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) transistors. Fultec was acquired by circuit protection market leader Bourns. Witham has also held VP Sales & Marketing positions at Aegis Semiconductor, a tunable filter semiconductor manufacturer and Genoa, a semiconductor optical amplifier manufacturer. Other notable career highlights include senior executive positions at Raychem, including General Manager of the Raychem Interconnect Division and Director of Asia Sales & Marketing, based in Japan, for the Raychem Circuit Protection Division. As an Engineering Specialist at General Dynamics’ Space System Division during the eighties, Witham designed fluid systems for the Space Shuttle and was on Mission Control for interplanetary missions. Witham holds an MBA from Harvard and both M.S. and B.S. with distinction in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford.

renewable energy storage

Dr. Gabbar is a Professor in the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science, and cross appointed in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. He is the recipient of the Senior Research Excellence Aware for 2016, UOIT, for his scholarly research in the areas of smart energy grids, gas-power systems, resilient transportation infrastructures, and plasma-based waste-to-energy technologies. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in 1988 with first class of honor from Alexandria University. In 2001, he obtained his Ph.D. degree from Okayama University. In 2001, he joined Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan), and from 2004, he joined Okayama University. He has been successful in attracting national and international funds where his research is widely recognized and reflected to more than 220 publications, including patents, books, chapters, and journal and conference papers. He is the founder and chair of Smart Energy Grid Engineering Annual Conference (SEGE).

Micro Energy Grids, Gas-Power Grids, Waste-to-Energy, Transportation Infrastructures, Hybrid Fuel, Flywheel-Based Energy Storage

Dehua Zheng has completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from North China Electric Power University, Baoding, China in 1982 and 1987, respectively. He has also graduated another M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manitoba, Canada in 1995. His profesional experience includes the Manitoba Hydropower Company, University of Manitoba, China National Wind Power Engineering Technology Research center, Goldwind Science and Technology, and many others. Dehua Zheng is an IEEE Senior Member, registered senior electrical engineer of North America, deputy director of China National Wind Power Engineering Technology Research Center and IEC project leader for IEC/TS 62898-3-1: Microgrids – Technical Requirements - Protection. Currently, as the Chief Scientist and Engineer of Goldwind Science & Technology, he is leading the Microgrid Platform R&D Institute and devotes himself to research and development of Chinese and world microgrid technology

Renewable Energy, Micro Grids

Zhang Dao Hua received his MSc degree from Shandong University, and PhD degree from the University of New South Wales. He joined the School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technology, Singapore in 1991 and is currently a professor, Deputy Director of Centre of Excellence for Semiconductor Lighting and Displays, Program Director of Photonic Nano-Structures and Applications. Professor Zhang’s main research interests include semiconductor materials, devices and technology, photonic metamaterials and applications. He has successfully completed over 20 research projects including the first $10M Competitive Research Program (CRP) of NTU as Lead PI. He has published over 470 papers in international journals (including Nature Communications, Light: Science and Application, Advanced Materials, Small, Advanced Optical Materials, ACS Photonics, Nanoscale and Scientific Reports) and international conferences, 6 books/proceedings, and 3 book chapters. He is Fellow of Institute of Physics, and Fellow of Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Plasmonic structures, enhanced absorption, photocurrent.

Terry Cooke is founder of the China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (CPGP), a 501(c)3 non-profit platform fostering collaboration between the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and China in sustainable city infrastructure. Terry Cooke is a seasoned practitioner of Asian cross-border business and investment in clean energy and related high-tech fields. For the cleantech frontier in China, Terry brings broad context, unique insight, and an unparalleled range of contacts. Across the spectrum of technology innovation, Terry has decades of Asian in-country engagement at the ministerial level of government, with the private sector’s C-suite, and with the world’s premiere multi-stakeholder organization at Davos.

Clean Energy

Dr. Hector M. Guevara is the founder, chairman of the board, and president of various corporations, including NuEnergy Group, Inc., previously a public company trading on the OTC in OTC and now being held inactive (operations/trading stopped). Dr. Guevara has devoted the past 35 years to the research and development of renewable energy systems. Dr. Guevara’s companies designed and or produced many of the most notable solar, wind, and hydroelectric systems deployed throughout the world. The results of his research and development have been assigned to his new Florida Corporation; NuEnergy Technologies Corp. Dr. Guevara is a patent and co-patent holder in various sustainable energy and propulsion technologies. Dr. Guevara has also been the recipient of various grants from Federal Govt. Agencies, e.g., NASA/SATOP, DOE (SBIR), United Nation’s UNICEF, and others.

Sustainable Energy

Dr. Joseph graduated from IIT/Kanpur with B. Tech (Silver Medalist) in ChE and obtained his MS and Ph.D. in ChE from Case Western Reserve University. He then joined the Energy Lab at MIT where he worked on the development of ASPEN Simulator. He joined the faculty of Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis in 1978 where he became the Edward C. Dicke Professor in 2000. In 2002 he moved to become Chair of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at USF. He is the author of two books ( Real Time Personal Computing,1989 and Techniques of Model Based Control, 2002), one edited volume (Wavelet Applications,1996) and over 200 technical publications. During the year 1985-86 he was visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He is founder and VP for Research at T2C-Energy, LLC., a small business working on commercializing technology for converting landfill gas to diesel and jet fuel

Biomass, Solar Energy

Yulin Deng is a Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science, a member of ACS, AIChE and TAPPI. He is also an editorial board member for three journals.

Yulin Deng’s research interests are nanomaterial synthesis and self-assembling, biofuel and biomass materials, colloid and interface science and engineering, polymer synthesis, and papermaking and paper recycling.

Constantinos S. Psomopoulos is a Professor, Electrical Engineering Dept of TEI Piraeus,Greece. He also holds the position of Director of Electric Power Division and Vice President of WTERT – Greece & Research Associate in Earth Engineering Center Columbia University NY since 2011.

His research interests include Eco Design of EuPs and Energy Efficiency, RES, Materials & Energy Recovery from wastes, Electromechanical Installations and Apparatus, Electrical Measurements & High Field Effects, High Voltage Engineering & Power Systems.

Dr. Jagannadh Satyavolu works as Theme Leader, Biomass conversion and Biofuels, Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Dr. Satyavolu earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH and has 30 years of experience in commercial business leadership roles, operations and capital project management, intellectual asset development and management, product and process technology development, industrial application research, and academia. He holds 20 US and international patents and has steered multiple projects from concept to commercialization. Prior to joining Conn Center, he worked at Cargill, Georgia Institute of Technology, Battelle Labs, and the Ohio State University.

Biomass and Biofuels

Hong Sun has completed his PhD at the age of 29 years from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. He is the director of School of Transportation Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, China. He has published more than 160 papers in reputed journals.

Renewable Energy

Seoyong Shin received B.S. degree in 1987 from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in Control and Instrumentation Engineering. He received M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1989 from Florida Institute of Technology, Florida, USA. He received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1992 from Texas A&M University, Texas, USA. In 1994 he joined the faculty of the Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Myongji University, where he became a full professor in 2003. His research areas include solar daylighting system, photovoltaic system, and optical communication functional modules

solar daylighting system, photovoltaic system, and optical communication functional modules.

Mr. Garvin is the former Technology Transfer Specialist for the University of Iowa. He designed entrepreneurial studies courses in that position. He has developed seven start-up companies in the state of Iowa, Wisconsin and Texas. True to both definition of a paradigm shift specialist, Garvin has spent the last 20 years helping to effect changes in complex systems in the economy. In the 1990s, while working with the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and later at the University of Iowa, he helped research, design and introduce technical developments to the medical industry that resulted in an overhaul of safety practices and safety equipment used in hospitals and medical facilities nationwide. He has directed a number of research projects around electric transportation and fuel cells at Iowa State University and continues to direct technology and financial analysis projects for the energy sector with student groups at the University of Iowa.

Energy

Xinlei Wang is a professor in Bioenvironmental Engineering department at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Air quality and environmental control; diesel engine emission control; renewable energy systems and applications; building energy efficiency.

Gleb Yushin is a Professor of the School of Materials and Engineering at The Georgia Institute of Technology. He joined MSE in July 2007 and has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Roland B. Snow Award from the American Ceramic Society, NASA Nano 50 Award, various best poster awards from the Electrochemical Society, Materials Research Society, and North American Membrane Society meetings, and multiple awards at ceramographic competitions. His recent work was featured on the cover of Nano Letters and was covered by Nature, Science, Advanced Functional Materials, Innovation Philadelphia Newsletter, Philadelphia Business Journal, and Frost & Sullivan, among others.

Gleb Yushin's research interests include nanoporous carbide derived carbon - based materials and devices for energy, environment and bio-related applications.

Reza Nekovei is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Reza Nekovei has been conducting research in the field of Micro/Nano scale integrated circuit design for over 15 years, including modeling of circuits for nano-electronic devices.

Dr. T.T. Chow received his PhD from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. He is currently the Associated Professor and Director of the Building Energy and Environmental Technology Research Unit at the City University of Hong Kong. He has 400 academic publications, including over 130 SCI journal articles and with over 3,000 Scopus citations. He has been serving as members of many journal editorial boards, such as the Journal of Building Performance Simulation. He also contributes to many reputable international conferences as committee members and invited speakers. He holds fellow membership in many professional institutions, such as FASHRAE and FCIBSE.

Building Energy and Environment

Meilin Liu is a professor at the School of Materials Science & Engineering and Co-director for Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Meilin Liu's research interests include developing novel materials for energy storage and conversion, for chemical sensing, and for hydrogen production and separation. In addition, he is also interested in microscopic modeling of mass and charge transport in solid electrochemical systems and polarization at interfaces.

He has extended his valuable service as a Professor at the Amar Telidji University of Laghouat- Algeria and has been a recipient of many award and grants. His international experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study. His research interests as a Professor reflect in his wide range of publications in various national and international journals. He has published many papers in various journals and conference proceedings on renewable energy and has served as an editorial board for several journals and committee member for international conferences. He is a reviewer of many journals such as: Solar Energy, Conversion Energy and Management Journal, Electronics Journal, International Journal of Engineering Innovations and Research, Measurement, International Journal of Electronics, Energy and Buildings and Journal of Applied Electrochemistry I was the President of the Scientific Committee at the Electrical Engineering Department- Amar Telidji University of Laghouat, Algeria.

Photovoltaic Solar Energy

Sven Erik Jørgensen is professor emeritus in environmental chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. He has published 370 papers of which 256 were published in peer-reviewed international journals and he has edited or authored 79 books, of which several have been translated to other languages (Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese). He has authored a successful textbook in ecological modelling “Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling”, which was published as a fourth edition together with Brian Fath in 2011. He is the editorial board member of 20 international journals in the fields of ecology and environmental management. He is the president of ISEM and he has been elected member of the European Academy of Science’s, for which he is the chairman of the Section for Environmental Sciences. He has received the Einstein Professorship of the Chinese Academy of Science. He has in 1975 founded the journal Ecological Modelling and in 1978 ISEM (International Society of Ecological Modelling). He has received several awards, The Ruder Boskovic Medal, The Prigogine Prize, The Pascal Medal, The Einstein professorship at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, The Santa Chiara Prize for multidisciplinary teaching and the very prestigious Stockholm Water Prize. The Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, edited by Sven Erik Jørgensen, received in 2013 the outstanding publishing achievement, “this year’s Outstanding Academic Title”.

His expertise is in hydrology, biogeography and remote sensing.He has taught courses in ecological modelling and systems ecology in 33 different countries.