July - September 1999 Issue


News Items, July - September 1999

John B. Heywood, the Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory, is the 1999 winner of the Soichiro Honda Medal. The award is presented by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for outstanding achievement in improving the field of personal transportation. Professor Heywood was cited for his "pioneering research contributions in the field of internal combustion engines, particularly emissions control, and distinguished leadership at the largest university-based automotive laboratory in the United States." Professor Heywood leads Energy Laboratory research relating to automotive engines and future transportation technology. Much work focuses on the operation, combustion, and emissions characteristics of internal combustion engines and on their fuels requirements.

Subra Suresh, the R.P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named one of five new Fellows of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS). TMS has a worldwide membership of about 8,000 professionals and 2,000 students. Of those members, only about 100 are given the special title of Fellow of the Society. Dr. Suresh, the youngest of all the Fellows, was elected "for pioneering contributions to the understanding of mechanical behavior and mechanics of materials, and for leadership in materials education." Dr. Suresh leads Energy Laboratory research on new methods of measuring the mechanical properties of materials (see e-lab, April-June 1999).

Marija Ilic, senior research scientist in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an active Energy Laboratory researcher, has been appointed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as Program Director for Control, Networks, and Computational Intelligence in the Division of Electrical and Communications Systems. Her main responsibility in this half-time position is to help the NSF's Engineering Systems Research Program define its long-term education and research goals in the area of power and energy systems. Due to electric sector restructuring, transmission networks and the electric service sector in general are important new areas of research and education. Dr. Ilic's NSF activities coincide well with her current teaching and research activities at MIT, which focus on competitive power systems. She currently heads two Energy Laboratory programs: a multi-sponsored consortium entitled "New Concepts and Software for Competitive Power Systems: Operations and Management," started in fall of 1998, and a new initiative entitled "Distributed Power Industry of the Future," sponsored by ABB Power T&D Company and begun in September 1999. Both programs focus on technical, institutional, and regulatory aspects of a restructuring electric sector and seek to bridge the real-time operation aspects of the industry to longer-term technological and investment factors. Former and current graduate students supported through these programs are in high demand by many types of market participants, including technology companies, grid operators, power brokers, and consulting firms.

In June, Elisabeth M. Drake, associate director of the Energy Laboratory, served on a panel that was convened by the Under Secretary of the US Department of Energy (DOE)to analyze DOE's Energy Resources R&D Portfolio using a new strategic planning methodology. Specific objectives were to assess the adequacy of the energy R&D portfolio in addressing six national strategic goals and to identify any gaps or opportunities that exist. The panel included thirteen representatives from DOE, the DOE national laboratories and energy technology centers, and universities. The final report describing the methodology used and the conclusions reached has just been released.

The panel concluded that the R&D portfolio adequately addresses three strategic goals: to improve the economic efficiency of the energy supply and end-use systems to enhance the overall performance of the US economy; to reduce the vulnerability of the US economy to disruptions in oil supply; and to reduce pollutants. Two goals were deemed inadequately addressed: to ensure energy systems reliability, flexibility, emergency response capability, and risk management; and to enhance sustainable global economic development. The adequacy of the portfolio with respect to the last goal--reducing greenhouse gas emissions--was uncertain. The panel identified gaps in the R&D portfolio in the following areas: electric and natural gas infrastructure reliability, security, and integrity; advanced separations membranes; on-board hydrogen storage systems for vehicles; carbon sequestration; efficiency improvements in commercial buildings; maintenance of a viable nuclear energy option; sensors and controls for a variety of applications; methane hydrates; and international collaborative R&D on advanced energy technologies, particularly for developing countries. The panel also identified opportunities for improving the effectiveness of the R&D portfolio through better coordination of related R&D efforts. Copies of the final report (Energy Resources R&D Portfolio Analysis, August 1999) are available from Patricia Scharnberg, Sandia National Laboratories, PO Box 5800, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-0160 (telephone: 505-845-8086).

Jefferson W. Tester, director of the Energy Laboratory and Meissner Professor of Chemical Engineering, is now serving on several committees relevant to Energy Laboratory interests and activities. Last spring he began a two-year term as the first chairman of the newly formed National Advisory Council of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This 20-member committee was established to provide external, independent counsel to the director of NREL concerning the laboratory's R&D portfolio, including its relevance to the energy mission of the DOE, to national trends and goals, and to selected strategic directions of the laboratory. The council is expected to comment on the technical quality of the R&D effort; recommend new areas of research; identify opportunities for NREL participation in collaborative RD&D activities; and evaluate NREL's five-year plan and technology portfolio. Since spring of 1999, Professor Tester has also been a member of a National Research Council committee that is performing a broad review of the programs in DOE's Office of Power Technologies (OPT). OPT focuses on the development and adoption of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies for electric power production and use. The ten-member committee is considering the goals of OPT and its programs; processes for developing program plans, choosing R&D projects, and monitoring research progress; the appropriateness of the technical directions being pursued, including the balance of near-term and long-term R&D; and strategies for leveraging and coordinating activities within and outside OPT.

Professor Tester is now spending his second year as a member of the Plenary Research Committee of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the national research institution of Switzerland. This committee consists of eight internal and eight external members who support the directorate in matters concerning the institute's research, with special emphasis on assessing the quality of both existing and planned research activities. The committee helps to ensure that PSI is engaged in topical and relevant fields and identifies additional important areas in which the institute would be qualified to carry out research.