Hamarz Aryafar, PhD, is the Chief Technical Officer of Element 16 Technologies, Inc., and an assistant professor in the Electromechanical Engineering Technology Dept. at California State Polytechnic Univ., Pomona (Email: hamarz@ucla.edu). He received his PhD in aerospace engineering from the Univ. of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He previously served as lead engineer for Marvel Energy, Inc. — an LA-based energy storage start-up. As a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA, he investigated ammonia thermochemical energy storage technologies. He has secured over $3.1 million in grants and government funding related to his research, and has three pending patent applications for energy storage innovations.