July 2020

Dr. Braunecker is a Senior Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and his doctorate in polymer chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Braunecker has nearly two decades of experience in synthesis of advanced functional polymers. As Principal Investigator of the organic photovoltaic (OPV) thrust in the Solar Energy Research Institute of India and the United States (SERIIUS), he coordinated research between synthesis, characterization, and device groups among...Read more

Lucas D. Ellis received his B.S. from California Polytechnic State University, M.S. from Dartmouth College, and Ph.D. focusing on heterogeneous catalysis from the University of Colorado. He is currently a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). His research focuses on developing heterogeneous catalysts and chemical processes capable of enhancing our societies environmental sustainability. This focus on sustainability has been true early in his career as a Research Technician pursuing lignin valorization technologies...Read more

Dr. Nicholas (Nick) Thornburg is a Chemical Reaction Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he studies routes to renewably-sourced chemicals and transportation fuels as well as the fuel efficiency of modern engines. Nick has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, in addition to industrial R&D experience with the Dow Chemical Company and 3M.Read more

Ms. Sharona Mohammed is a Research Assistant under the Process Engineering Department at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. Having graduated with her Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Process Engineering from the University of Trinidad and Tobago, she is currently pursuing her Masters of Philosophy in the area of optimizing natural resource production. Her field of study is focused on investigating the impact of asphaltenes precipitation and deposition in the upstream and downstream sections of the oil industry in Trinidad and Tobago. In conjunction with this, Ms. Mohammed is...Read more