Staff

Daniel Beckley

Laboratory Program Manager

B.A. Business Administration, Westminster College
M.A. International Environmental Policy, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Dan joined NREL in 2010. As the Buildings Technology Laboratory Program Manager, he fosters the relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy Buildings Technologies Office. In addition, he works with senior lab management to set the strategic agenda for NREL’s buildings portfolio, including all research, development, and deployment activities.

Prior to joining NREL, Dan was as a presidential management fellow in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy and Renewable Energy (EERE). As a fellow, he was detailed to the Global Environment Facility Secretariat to research alternative financing strategies for clean energy programs and the Export-Import Bank of the United States to analyze export crediting for renewable energy technologies. After his fellowship, Dan served as senior advisor to the EERE Deputy Assistant Secretary.

His previous work experience includes time spent as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador, Central America, setting up rural electric cooperatives and experience overseeing state, local, and tribal energy programs, policy analysis, and residential retrofit guidelines.

Daniel.Beckley@nrel.gov | 303-275-3671

Charles (Chuck) Kutscher

Director of the Buildings and Thermal Systems Center

B.S. Physics, State University of New York at Albany
M.S. Nuclear Engineering, University of Illinois
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Dr. Kutscher has led research in solar heating and cooling, building energy efficiency, solar industrial process heat, geothermal power, and concentrating solar power. He is an American Solar Energy Society (ASES) Fellow and served as the ASES Chair in 2000-2001. He is editor of the 200-page ASES report, Tackling Climate Change in the U.S., which details how energy efficiency and six renewable energy technologies can greatly reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 2030. He has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Colorado School of Mines.

Chuck.Kutscher@nrel.gov | 303-384-7521

William Livingood

Group Manager

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Irvine
M.S. Chemistry, University of Nevada-Reno
B.S. Chemistry, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

Bill is an expert in building energy analysis, computational thermal analysis, and data acquisition and an inventor on three patents for power generation technologies. As manager of the commercial buildings research team, he oversees the development of next generation simulation capabilities and guidance documents such as the Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDG) that provide building- and U.S. climate zone-specific design recommendations.

Bill comes to NREL from GE Global Research, where he performed thermodynamic, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer analyses to predict system performance of power generation technologies. He also conducted economic analyses to assess power generation system capital costs and developed energy systems computer models. Prior to GE, Bill was with FuelCell Energy where he was part of a team that ensured the success of the launch of large stationary fuel cell products and technologies.

Brian Ball

Engineer IV

Ph.D., M.S. Computational and Applied Mathematics, North Carolina State University
B.S. Physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute of Technology
B.S. Mathematics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute of Technology

Brian joined NREL in June 2010. His expertise is in modeling, control and simulation of physical systems as well as numerical analysis and numerical methods. His experience includes solving partial differential equations, nonlinear equations and optimization, multiscale modeling, and control of smart material systems. At NREL, Brian specializes in hardware in the loop simulation at the campus level for the Energy System Integration program, developing inverse modeling algorithms to calibrate building energy models, and is part of the OpenStudio development team. In addition, Brian has worked on several large-scale sector analysis projects, including DOE Asset Score, and helped developed the Cloud computing environment for OpenStudio. Prior to joining NREL, Brian was a simulation engineer for GE Energy modeling power plants and related equipment. This work included developing an engineering grade operator training simulator for an integrated coal gasification combined cycle power plant.

Kyle Benne

Software Developer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Kyle joined NREL in 2007, and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group as a software developer. He is a member of the OpenStudio development team, where he focuses on creating new simulation tools related to HVAC systems. Prior to joining NREL, Kyle was a graduate researcher and developed expertise in fluid mechanics and numerical simulation.

Willy Bernal

Engineer III

M.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
M.S. Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania
B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
B.S. Mechanical Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania

Willy joined NREL in 2015 with a focus on controls and on co-simulation tools for energy-efficient buildings. He has co-developed MLE+, a co-simulation toolbox for design and deployment of energy-efficient buildings controls. Willy was an intern at NREL, developing the framework to model whole-campus dynamics to coordinate and synchronize its multiple loads.

Prior to joining NREL, Willy was the lead controls engineer for Lit Motors where he focused on developing the controls for a self-balancing two-wheel electrical vehicle.

Eric Bonnema

Mechanical Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University

Eric has been at NREL since 2008 and contributes to the research efforts for commercial buildings. This effort is dedicated to studying the behavior of low-energy buildings both on the design side as well as the performance side. Eric is interested in energy modeling of buildings and software development for building optimization and modeling. He research focus includes sector-wide energy modeling, Advanced Energy Design Guides, and the 179D DOE Calculator. He specializes in software development for building optimization and modeling, commercial sector whole-building energy simulation, scientific computing, and software configuration and package management.

Prior to joining NREL, Eric was an applications engineer designing air-cooled steam condensers for coal and combined-cycle power plants. Eric holds a master's degree from Colorado State University specializing in energy and the environment. He is also a registered Engineering Intern in Colorado.

Larry Brackney

Manager

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
M.S.M.E., Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
B.S.M.E., Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Dr. Brackney joined NREL in 2009, and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group as a section manager for Sensors, Controls, and Analysis Tools. He specializes in control and embedded systems design, analysis-led design process, and leads the group's software efforts. Prior to joining NREL, Dr. Brackney taught electrical engineering at the University of Canterbury, and worked extensively in the automotive sector developing combustion and power train controls.

Michael Deru

Engineering Manager

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Wyoming
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University

Dr. Deru joined NREL in 2000 and manages the Systems Performance section in the Commercial Buildings Research Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He leads projects on the development and testing of novel HVAC systems, building performance simulations, performance metrics for sustainability, source energy and emissions factors, water, and the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database. Dr. Deru received an R&D 100 award in 2005 and is very active within ASHRAE. Prior to joining NREL, Michael worked as a nuclear plant engineer with Westinghouse Electric Corp. supporting the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power program.

Ramin Faramarzi

Principal Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, California State University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University

Ramin, who joined NREL in 2016, has extensive experience in building science, applied energy efficiency research, and building energy modeling. He manages research projects in support of NREL’s business partners to advance and improve their HVAC and refrigeration technologies through incubator programs. Ramin comes to NREL from Southern California Edison where he founded and managed SCE’s Refrigeration and Thermal Test Center (RTTC) for nearly 20 years. Ramin is the author of numerous technical articles and is a registered mechanical engineer in the state of California.

Kristin Field-Macumber

Mechanical Engineer

M.S. Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, Building Systems Program, University of Colorado at Boulder
B.S. Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
B.A. Sociology/Spanish, Rice University

Kristin joined NREL in January 2009. Her expertise is in collaborating with industry partners to identify feasible energy efficiency strategies and using EnergyPlus computer simulation to evaluate standard energy performance and improve design decisions concerning energy efficiency.

Prior to joining NREL, Kristin worked in consulting for Architectural Energy Corporation in Boulder, Colorado. At AEC, she analyzed a wide variety of commercial buildings types for sustainable design assistance work at each design phase of specific building projects.

Katherine Fleming

Engineer

Ph.D., M.S. Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
B.S. Computer Engineering, University of Evansville

Katherine joined NREL in 2009. She works on various aspects of database and web application development in the Commercial Buildings Research group. Her projects include the Building Component Library, Building Agent, and Technology Performance Exchange.

Prior to joining NREL, Katherine was pursuing a Ph.D. with a focus on robotics and working as a Web developer and Web accessibility consultant for several organizations.

Stephen Frank

Engineer

Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
M.S. Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
B.S. Engineering, Messiah College

Steve joined NREL in May 2013 and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group. Steve's areas of expertise are electric power distribution systems, DC power systems, linear and nonlinear optimization, and energy informatics.

Prior to joining NREL, he completed a Ph.D. at Colorado School of Mines. His dissertation research developed analysis and optimization techniques for maximizing the energy efficiency of electrical distribution systems in commercial buildings using a mixture of AC and DC distribution.

Luigi Gentile Polese

Senior Engineer

M.S. Electronic Engineering, University of Naples, Italy
B.S. Electronic Engineering, University of Naples, Italy

Luigi joined NREL in 2009. He oversees processes and software development of next-generation whole-building energy modeling, analysis, and simulation tools OpenStudio and EnergyPlus. Recently, he also led projects investigating occupancy sensing and controls, wireless sensors networks for plug load energy monitoring and management, and power distribution systems in buildings.

Luigi has more than 22 years of experience in telecommunications R&D programs with companies including AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Siemens, and Avaya, where he held senior technical positions in networking protocol specifications, call control software, and requirements engineering. Mr. Gentile Polese holds three U.S. patents and has two additional patents pending.

David Goldwasser

Software Developer

Master of Construction Management, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Master of Architecture, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

David has been a software developer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Buildings Technology Program since 2010. A software developer on the OpenStudio team, he focuses on development, support, testing, training, and creation of energy efficiency measures. He provides insight into architectural workflows related to energy modeling and high performance building design.

Prior to joining NREL, David worked in architectural design, 3D modeling, and interactive media. He consulted for Google on 3D modeling tools and worked in Colorado on sustainable architecture projects. Before moving to Colorado he worked in construction management, architectural design, and started his own interactive media company with a focus on panoramic photography.

Rob Guglielmetti

Engineer III

B.A. Theatre, Rowan University

Rob joined NREL in May of 2009. Rob's areas of expertise are daylighting, physically based lighting simulation, the integration of lighting simulation with whole-building energy simulations, and high dynamic range imaging. He has more than 20 years' experience in applying these talents toward designing pleasanter—and more energy-efficient—built environments

Previously, Rob was a daylighting analyst, designer, and group leader for Architectural Energy Corporation in Boulder, CO. Prior to that he spent many years working at major architectural lighting design firms in New York City, and is a regular lecturer on daylighting, lighting simulation, and high dynamic range imaging. Rob is a member of the board of directors of the International Building Performance Simulation Association, an advisory member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America's Daylight Metrics Committee, and an active member on the International Lighting Commission's Technical Committee on Climate-based Daylight Modeling.

Gregor Henze

Joint Professor

Ph.D. Civil Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
Dipl.Ing. Energy and Process Engineering, Technical University of Berlin
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University

Gregor has held a joint appointment at NREL since 2013. Outside of NREL, he is professor of architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where his teaching focuses on thermal sciences fundamentals, mechanical systems design, energy system modeling, building control and automation systems, advanced solar systems, data analysis for energy scientists and engineers, as well as sustainable building design. His research includes model predictive optimal control in buildings, control strategies for mixed-mode buildings, uncertainty quantification of occupant behavior as well as the integration of building energy system operations with the electric grid system. He is a professional mechanical engineer, certified high-performance building design professional (HBDP), member of ASHRAE, fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, as well as co-founder and chief scientist of QCoefficient, Inc.

Adam Hirsch

Engineer

Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
A.B., Harvard University

Adam joined NREL in 2009, and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group as an engineer. He is a working with large American corporations to design, build, and operate buildings that save energy as part of the DOE Commercial Building Partnership. In the past at NREL, he has worked on high-performance building design guide research and zero energy buildings.

Prior to joining NREL, Adam was an atmospheric scientist working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Colorado at Boulder studying the atmospheric budget of radiatively active trace gases.

Anoop Honnekeri

Mechanical Engineer

M.S. Building Science (Architecture), University of California, Berkeley
B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Jaipur

Since joining NREL in 2016, Anoop focuses on developing strategies and creating resource hub for central plants and large scale adoption of zero energy buildings. He also examines impact of emerging technologies on building energy consumption.

Prior to coming to NREL, Anoop was a mechanical design engineer at P2S Engineering, where his main responsibility was to design HVAC systems for educational and commercial buildings. As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, he worked at the Center for the Built Environment on Natural Ventilation and Mixed-Mode strategies for commercial buildings. Anoop also interned at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea, doing energy simulations for high-rise residential buildings.

Henry “Ry” Horsey

Software Developer

B.S. Engineering with Applied Mathematics, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Henry (Ry) Horsey joined NREL in 2015 as a member of the Sensors, Controls, and Analysis Tools section. Ry explores the use of modern analytical and computational approaches in the field of commercial building energy modeling. He is particularly interested in the increasing acceptance of aggregated demand response as a form of distributed energy resources. Ry develops software tools to support large-scale commercial building energy modeling. This work has led to contributions to DOE's Asset Score tool and SEED Platform. He is also a key contributor to DOE's OpenStudio building energy analysis ecosystem, focusing on server-based deployment and very large-scale analyses.

Eric Kozubal

Senior Researcher

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara

Eric joined NREL in 2002 and is a member of the Commercial Buildings Research Group. Eric researches new methods and technologies for energy-efficient air conditioning systems. He has tested more than 25 HVAC components and systems, including direct expansion, evaporative, and desiccant technologies. He improves manufacturers' products by providing detailed performance, analysis, and design recommendations. He uses tools such as CAD, Matlab, Engineer Equation Solver, Excel, and statistical software to design new HVAC systems, such as the desiccant enhanced evaporative cooling concept. He has also worked to optimize hybrid air- and water-cooled geothermal binary power cycles.

Before joining NREL, Eric developed new flow control products for Emerson Process Management and was a test and manufacturing engineer for a hard disc drive component manufacturer (Now Western Digital Corporation). He is an active member of ASHRAE's technical committees for desiccant and evaporative cooling and has co-authored test standards in these areas.

Feitau Kung

Engineer

M.A. Teaching, Cornell University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University

Feitau Kung joined NREL in 2009. His projects have included producing guidance for evaluating building system energy performance in commercial settings, such as office, healthcare, higher education, and retail facilities. He also examines the impacts of integrating building loads with energy storage and generation. Prior to joining NREL, Feitau worked for Princeton Energy Systems where he assessed the technical and economic feasibility of lighting, HVAC, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, and small wind system measures, and he assisted facility management staff with sustainable energy planning. He also worked for the U.S. General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service.

Rois Langner

Mechanical Engineer

M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
B.A. Physics, Colorado College

Rois Langner has worked as a mechanical engineer in the Commercial Buildings Research Group at NREL since 2010. Her research efforts have focused on building energy efficiency projects that utilize EnergyPlus and OpenStudio software to analyze and optimize building design and performance for military and large commercial buildings. She has also worked with organizations to develop, implement, and maintain energy management policies and systems for continual energy improvement, and more recently is working to support the small commercial building sector in improving building performance.

Edwin Lee

Engineer

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Oklahoma State University

Edwin Lee joined NREL in 2013 and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group. He manages technical development of EnergyPlus, including maintenance and implementing new features. He also supports NREL's Technology Portal project.

Prior to joining NREL, Edwin was a doctoral candidate at Oklahoma State University. His expertise is primarily in the fields of building simulation tool development and ground heat transfer modeling.

Nicholas Long

Senior Engineer

B.S. Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

Nicholas joined NREL in 2003 and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group. He is a technical lead on various projects including the Building Component Library and Building Agent. He is an expert in managing, mining, and analyzing building data. He is also an expert in building energy modeling with OpenStudio/EnergyPlus and using the engines for large-scale analyses using high-performance computing to evaluate commercial buildings.

Prior to joining NREL, Nicholas was an NREL intern and student.

Daniel Macumber

Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder

Daniel joined NREL in 2008 and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group. He is a core developer on the OpenStudio project focusing on geometry and interoperability.

Prior to joining NREL, Daniel worked as a software developer working on algorithms for tracking small targets.

Andrew Parker

Engineer

B.S. Textile Engineering, North Carolina State University

Andrew joined NREL in 2010, and his goal is to help make high-efficiency building design commonplace by making existing energy analysis tools more accessible. He works closely with the OpenStudio development team, focusing on product design and the needs of industry. He also works with utilities and third-party companies who are using the tools developed by the commercial buildings research group. Andrew is interested in the improvement of software for the energy auditing space, and was the project manager for a large Department of Defense ESTCP project, working with a third-party company to develop and demonstrate a mobile energy auditing tool.

Anya Petersen

Software Developer

M.S. Applied Mathematics, University of Arizona
B.A. Computer Science, New York University

Anya joined NREL in 2011 as a contractor and was hired by the Commercial Buildings Research Group in 2013. She specializes in Web application architecture and software design patterns. Anya has more than a decade of programming experience, working across many frameworks and languages.

Prior to coming to NREL, Anya developed custom business applications for a New York City-based technology firm.

Shanti Pless

Senior Research Engineer

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Alfred University

Shanti joined the Commercial Building Research Group at NREL in 1999 with a focus on applied research and design processes for commercial building energy efficiency and building integrated renewable energy. This work has included facilitating numerous integrated design processes and energy modeling teams needed to realize cost-effective zero-energy commercial buildings. He isleading the development of the next round of Advanced Energy Design Guides and managing the Whole Buildings Systems Integration section of the group.

Shanti has written more than 50 journal articles, industry publications, guidebooks, and technical reports related to energy efficiency and zero-energy buildings, with frequent national keynote speaking experience at industry conferences such as Greenbuild, AIA, and ASHRAE. He was awarded an ASHRAE Technology Award in 2013 for NREL's large-scale zero-energy Research Support Facility.

Jennifer Scheib

Engineer

M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder
B.S. Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder

Jennifer joined NREL in 2009 and works in the Commercial Buildings Research Group as a lighting engineer. She is working on daylighting application and occupant behavior research projects that help owners and operators realize zero energy in building operation.

Previously, she was part of the Daylighting Analysis Group at Architectural Energy Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, where she took part in the development of Sensor Placement + Optimization Tool, which won LightFair's Most Innovative Product of the Year in 2008.

Marjorie Schott

Project Leader

B.S. Biological Sciences, University of Northern Colorado

Marjorie began working at NREL in 2001. She has been a member of the Commercial Buildings Research Group since 2010. Her role involves workflow analysis, information visualization, and interface design for software tools and Web applications. Collaborating closely with the team and users, she helps to provide a vision for the evolution of software interfaces. Marjorie designs OpenStudio, ParametricAnalysisTool, and the Building Agent application interfaces. She also works on Web applications, including Technology Performance Exchange, Building Component Library, Model Maker, EDAPT, and building data visualization design for Building Agent and the Research Support Facility Dashboard.

Prior to joining NREL, Marjorie worked on scientific and technical design with companies including the University of Denver, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and several biotechnology companies.

Daniel Studer

Engineer III

M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Colorado
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, University of Arizona

Daniel joined NREL in 2009. As a member of the Commercial Buildings Research Group, he has focused on the development and novel execution of whole-building energy simulations using EnergyPlus to identify large-scale areas for reducing and optimizing commercial building energy consumption. Recently, Daniel led NREL's commercial building workforce development efforts and he is leading the development of NREL's Technology Performance Exchange.

Prior to joining NREL, Daniel developed and ran whole-building energy simulations for the Energy Analysis Group at Architectural Energy Corporation in Boulder, Colorado.

Alex Swindler

Engineer II

B.S. Computer Science, University of Virginia

Alex joined NREL in February 2011. His educational background includes distributed computing, Web information systems engineering, software engineering, computer graphics, and engineering business. At NREL, Alex worked to develop, build, and test the OpenStudio energy simulation suite, the Building Component Library, Image Processing Occupancy Sensor, Research Support Facility Energy Dashboard, NREL Energy Story visualization, Green Button data integration, as well as a large number of Web interfaces, dashboards, databases, and distributed simulations to support energy analysis for commercial buildings. Alex compiles and tests cross-platform iteration and release builds of OpenStudio, adds functionality, resolves bugs, and maintaining the continuous integration dashboard. Alex is also the recipient of an R&D 100 Award.

Prior to joining NREL, Alex worked as a system administrator, Web developer, and Unity developer for a full-service mechanical, electrical, structural, and energy-engineering firm.

Paul Torcellini

Principal Engineer

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Paul is the principal engineer for the Commercial Buildings Research Group and has been at the NREL for 19 years. Prior to this role, he was the group manager for the Commercial Buildings Research team. He also spent three years as a technical advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. Paul was an instrumental part creating the process to achieve the Zero Energy Building status for NREL's Research Support Facility.

Paul has authored or co-authored more than 50 papers and articles related to energy efficiency and zero-energy commercial buildings. Among his many awards, Paul has received two ASHRAE Technology Awards for his energy-efficient buildings work and two Energy User News magazine's Efficient Building Awards. Paul has been key in the development of the Advanced Energy Design Guide series from ASHRAE and has chaired two of the guides for K-12 schools and grocery stores.

He has also been an adjunct faculty member at Colorado School of Mines and the University of Denver. He is a registered professional engineer.

Kim Trenbath

Project and Research Quality Analyst

Ph.D. Atmospheric Science, University of Colorado
M.S. Industrial Engineering, West Virginia University
B.E. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Kim conducts project and program management for the Commercial Buildings Research Group. She manages the group's finances and leads business development efforts.

Prior to joining NREL, Kim worked as an analyst in global power strategic sourcing, risk management, and wind energy business development. Her prior research involves in-cabin air quality, science understanding, and break-in training.

Evan Weaver

Engineer III

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University

Evan joined NREL in 2010. As a member of the Commercial Buildings Research Group, he works as a software engineer developing whole-building energy modeling tools.

Prior to joining NREL, he worked in the biomedical industry as a software engineer, specializing in graphical user interface and algorithm development. He also worked as an engineer in power generation prime mover controls.

David Roberts

Group Manager and Senior Engineer

M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Colorado
B.S. Environmental Resources Engineering, Humboldt State University

David joined NREL in 2008. David is the Residential Buildings Research Group Manager. He supports DOE research activities including the Building America program.

David has been working in the area of energy efficiency in buildings since 1989 and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Colorado. He has expertise in building science, building energy simulation, and software development. Prior to joining NREL, David worked for Architectural Energy Corporation, where he led energy simulation and software development projects, and served as product manager for the REM/Rate™ home energy rating software.

Chuck Booten

Senior Engineer

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chuck joined NREL in 2010. His research is focused on heat transfer modeling, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system analysis and testing, and the study of grid-connected homes.

Prior to working at NREL, Chuck was a project manager at Protonex Technology, where he directed the development of kilowatt-scale solid-oxide fuel cell systems for both military and civilian customers. His background is in experimental heat transfer and fluid mechanics.

Craig Christensen

Principal Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Brigham Young University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Brigham Young University

Craig joined NREL in 1979. He currently leads the energy analysis efforts for the Building America Program and supports solar buildings research efforts at NREL that includes BEopt development, analysis for new and existing residential buildings, and modeling accuracy. Craig has also led many projects related to residential and commercial buildings, active solar systems, passive solar design, energy conservation, and computer modeling of buildings, systems, and components. He originated the concept of the unglazed transpired solar collector at NREL and participated in research that led to an R&D 100 Award and Popular Science "Best of What's New" Award in 1994.

Prior to joining NREL, Craig worked as a solar consultant, individually and at a small mechanical engineering firm. He also worked for three years for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a scientist and officer on oceanographic ships.

Dane Christensen

Senior Engineer

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of California-Berkeley
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Rice University

Dane joined NREL in 2008 with a background in equipment testing and integration. He manages the Residential Building Group’s laboratory work and coordinates research on advanced HVAC systems. This work addresses technology gaps for healthy, durable, and energy-efficient homes and provides data to improve high-performance building simulation. Dane supports technical efforts for the Building America Program and conducts finite element modeling for building energy simulation.

Prior to joining NREL, Dane worked at Atec, Inc. designing test and support equipment for turboshaft engines.

Lieko Earle

Senior Engineer

Ph.D. Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder
B.S. Physics, Brown University

Lieko joined NREL in 2009. She leads the field testing efforts for the Building America Program. Her research focuses on developing field testing and analysis methods to identify gaps and barriers for emerging and advanced retrofit systems to be implemented on a broad basis, as well as field evaluations of innovative building envelopes, water heating, and HVAC systems. She also conducts laboratory- and field-based investigations of automated home energy management (AHEM) devices, Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) techniques, and control strategies to develop cost-effective systems that integrate smoothly with home area networks and smart grids to maximize source energy savings.

Lieko's background is in astrophysics instrumentation and extragalactic spectroscopy. Prior to graduate school she taught physics as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, where she spent many happy hours devising laboratory experiments for students using locally available materials.

Mike Heaney

Research Analyst

Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
B.S. Chemical Engineering with Honors, Montana State University

Mike joined NREL in 2011. He currently supports projects in both the Residential Buildings Group and the Commercial Buildings Group where advanced statistical analysis is needed. Some recent projects required quantifying the impact of energy efficiency measures in retrofits, optimizing prediction models used for estimating total energy saved during demand response events, and developing models for classifying building HVAC equipment faults.

Prior to joining NREL, Mike worked at various positions requiring extensive use of advanced statistical methods applied to many technical problems. He first learned and applied a variety of statistical methods to improving laboratory measurements and chemical processes during his 11 years working for The Dow Chemical Company. Over the years, he has gained extensive knowledge and experience applying statistical methods such as classification methods, regression methods, hypothesis testing, multivariate statistical analysis (MSA), statistical process control (SPC), and statistical design of experiments (DOE).

Scott Horowitz

Senior Engineer

M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Rutgers University

Scott joined NREL in 2007 and manages the Residential Building Group's tools and analysis area, which includes work on whole building energy modeling, cost-based optimization, model accuracy/calibration, and technology assessments. He is the lead developer of BEopt, a residential building energy optimization tool used to provide support for the Building America program's teams and energy efficiency goals, and leads efforts to incorporate residential models and capabilities into DOE's EnergyPlus and OpenStudio platform.

Prior to joining NREL full time, Scott spent four years at NREL as a University of Colorado graduate student exploring enhancements to building optimization in terms of robustness and speed, and he was a member of the 1st place University of Colorado Solar Decathlon team.

Xin Jin

Controls Engineer

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
M.S. Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Xin Jin joined NREL in 2012. His research focuses on control systems, fault detection and diagnosis, load monitoring and disaggregation, and grid-integrated building systems. Xin's background is in sensors and controls, machine learning, and embedded systems.

Prior to his current position at NREL, Xin worked as a project engineer at A.O. Smith Corporate Technology Center creating innovative electronic control solutions for water heaters and was a postdoctoral researcher at NREL developing automated home energy management technologies.

Jeff Maguire

Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Jeff joined NREL in 2012 after working as a graduate student since 2010. His research focuses on the modeling and performance analysis of residential water heaters, analyzing data from field test studies of several water heaters, developing models of new water heating technologies, and performing simulations to determine the impact of use and climate on water heater efficiency. Jeff specializes in component modeling and performance analysis.

Noel Merket

Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Utah State University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Utah State University

Noel joined NREL in 2010. He leads the residential building development of the EnergyPlus building energy simulation software. He also develops and maintains the Home Performance XML data transfer standard and supports its adoption in the industry. His prior research experience was on two-phase liquid vapor heat transfer for thermal management of small satellites.

Tim Merrigan

Senior Project Leader

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Central Florida
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University
B.A. Physics, Rollins College

Tim joined NREL in 1999. His research focuses on building-integrated renewables, solar water heating technology development, PV/thermal system development, and integrated solar heating and cooling systems.

Prior to joining NREL, Tim was with the Florida Solar Energy Center for 20 years, conducting research in solar thermal systems and building energy efficiency. Tim served as the chair of the ASHRAE Technical Committee for Solar Energy Utilization, served as the chair of the Standards Committee for the Solar Rating & Certification Corporation (SRCC), and was on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA).

Lucas Phillips

Research Technician

M.S. Technology Management, Eastern Illinois University
B.S. Organizational and Professional Development, Eastern Illinois University
A.S. Electrical Science, Community College of the Air Force

Lucas joined NREL in 2014. His efforts are focused on performing testing of emerging technologies in building efficiencies. Lucas contributes to research efforts by designing, building, and implementing testing equipment as needed to support research.

Prior to joining NREL, Lucas was involved in the design and development of curriculum and research in sustainable technologies at Eastern Illinois University: School of Technology as a Presidential Graduate Assistant. In addition, he spent eight years in the United States Air Force where he worked in communication technologies. He also has a certificate in Fiber Optics and Communication Infrastructure Installation.

Ben Polly

Building Energy Research Engineer

M.S. Engineering Mechanics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Ben joined NREL in 2009. He specializes in the development, validation, and application of energy analysis approaches for individual buildings and collections of buildings. He has developed and applied software testing approaches for residential audit tools and associated utility bill calibration methods, methods for calculating life-cycle-cost-optimal retrofit packages, and approaches for analyzing measured energy consumption to estimate retrofit energy savings and improve software prediction accuracy. Ben's current research interests also include net zero buildings and neighborhoods, urban energy design and optimization, inverse design of buildings systems and materials, and smart grid-enabling building technologies (e.g., building energy storage).

In addition to his work at NREL, Ben serves on the Building Performance Institute (BPI) Data & Modeling Standards Technical Committee (STC) and several industry working groups for BPI and the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET).

Prior to joining NREL, Ben's graduate research focused on nanoscale material characterization, biomechanics, vibrations, and continuum mechanics.

Joseph Robertson

Engineer

M.S. Computational and Applied Mathematics, Colorado School of Mines
B.S. Mathematics/Spanish, Marquette University

Joe joined NREL in 2012. His research activities include automated building model calibration and the Field Data Repository. He specializes in building energy simulation, modeling and data analysis, and mathematical optimization.

Joe also worked at NREL for two years as an intern and graduate student from the Colorado School of Mines on projects involving numerical methods applied to uncertainty/sensitivity analysis and automated building model calibration.

Stacey Rothgeb

Senior Engineer/Section Manager

B.S. Architectural Engineering, Kansas State University

Stacey joined NREL in 2009. She has a diverse background in engineering design, construction project management, and energy consulting. Stacey provides technical leadership and research management for the Building America Program. Her research efforts include performance testing and analysis for both new and existing homes.

Prior to joining NREL, Stacey worked as the energy manager at the U.S. Air Force Academy. She also owned and operated her own residential energy consulting firm. Stacey is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) and a Certified Energy Manager (CEM).

Bethany Sparn

Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University
B.S. Physics and Mathematics, University of Puget Sound

Bethany joined NREL in 2010. Her research focuses on connected building loads, residential HVAC equipment, heat pump water heaters, automated home energy management devices, and whole-house performance field testing. She has supported the design and build-out of the Smart Power Laboratory in the Energy Systems Integration Facility which provides a test bed for evaluating home energy management systems, demand response strategies, distributed energy resources, smart appliances, and other innovative sensors and controllers.

Eric Wilson

Engineer

M.S. Civil Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado
B.S. General Engineering, University of Illinois

Eric joined NREL in 2010. His recent activities include developing multifamily modeling capabilities for the BEopt building energy optimization software, developing an analysis framework and data visualization for national residential building stock models, and leading updates of the Building America House Simulation Protocols.

Prior to joining NREL, Eric researched the energy implications of pressure drop in residential duct systems. He also performed energy audits and design assistance for a state energy program and conducted blower door tests on tribal housing across the country.

Jon Winkler

Senior Engineer

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland
B.S. Integrated Science and Technology, James Madison University

Jon joined NREL in 2009. His research focuses on residential HVAC systems, residential dehumidification control, energy modeling tools, and BEopt development.

Prior to working at NREL, Jon was a faculty research assistant in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Maryland, where he co-led the development effort of simulation and optimization software used by HVAC manufacturers.

Jason Woods

Senior Engineer

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University

Jason joined NREL in 2010 after working there as a doctoral student since 2007. Jason's expertise is heat and mass transfer, including the design, analysis, and testing of devices and processes. Some research areas include: (1) innovative HVAC technologies, using techniques such as liquid desiccant dehumidification, evaporative cooling, and membrane-based processes, (2) combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) systems, and (3) moisture storage and transport in building materials.

Marcia Fratello

Administrative Associate

Marcia joined NREL in 1999. She supports the group manager, engineers, and researchers in the Residential Buildings Research Group and Building America Program. Prior to joining NREL, Marcia worked as an administrative assistant for more than 25 years at various levels for both small and large companies including American Cyanamid and Johns Manville.