Energy Conversations seminar: NREL’s R&D programmes & recent advances

Please note: This event is internal and open only to University of Strathclyde employees.

The Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) and the Energy Strategic Theme at the University of Strathclyde are delighted to host Dr William (Bill) Tumas, Associate Laboratory Director for Materials, Chemical, and Computational Science (MCCS) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) — the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory dedicated to energy systems.

Bill will present an overview of NREL’s mission to deliver an affordable and secure energy future through cutting-edge research, innovation, and strategic partnerships.

As an energy systems laboratory, NREL’s unique strength lies in developing and integrating a broad array of energy technologies into robust, resilient systems—bridging foundational research with practical applications spanning from new materials to systems to lower energy costs, drive economic growth, bolster national security, and deliver abundant and reliable energy.

An overview of research and development at NREL will be provided along with presentation of some recent key advances and challenges in a number of areas of power generation, energy conversion and storage, advanced manufacturing and materials discovery/design. NREL’s experience in international partnerships will also be discussed along with some potential opportunities to further collaborations.

About Bill Tumas

Bill Tumas is the Associate Laboratory Director for Materials, Chemical and Computational Science (MCCS, https://www.nrel.gov/research/mcst.html) at NREL where he oversees R&D programmes in solar, hydrogen, fuel cells, basic energy sciences, energy storage, ARPA-E, and advanced computing. He has been actively engaged in collaborative research and technical leadership positions for over 35 years in industry and at national laboratories.

He has helped create a number of multi-institution and international collaborations including the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), the RD20 collaboration led by Japan’s AIST (www.rd20.aist.go.jp), and Mission Innovation Sunlight to X global innovation community (http://mission-innovation.net/platform/innovation-community-on-sunlight-to-x/).

Bill was the director of two Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs, Center for Inverse Design and Center for Next Generation Materials Design). He is also on the leadership team for the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (www.liquidsunlightalliance.org, LiSA), a DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences solar fuels hub. He received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford and a B.A. Chemistry from Ithaca College. Prior to NREL, Bill was at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 17 years, where his last position was Programme Director for Applied Energy Programmes. He started his career at Dupont Central Research after postdoctoral research at Caltech.

His research activities include materials discovery, solar energy conversion, hydrogen storage, catalysis, supercritical fluids and alternate reaction media, green chemistry, and waste treatment technology development and assessment. He has over 65 peer-reviewed publications, 12 patents, and has given over 125 invited presentations. Bill received a B.A in Chemistry from Ithaca College and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University (https://www.nrel.gov/about/bill-tumas).

About the Centre for Energy Policy (CEP)

The Centre for Energy Policy, established in 2015, works within the energy landscape to achieve mid-century goals whilst ensuring an equitable and prosperous transition. CEP provides high-quality and world-leading evidence-based research that informs energy policy to reach net zero targets. CEP sits within the Department of Government & Public Policy, University of Strathclyde. Read about our projects.

Agenda

15:00-15:30 Welcome teas & coffees

15:30-16:30 Seminar by Dr Tumas

16:30-17:00 Drinks reception