Lab Partnering Service Discovery

A senior research fellow in the Biosciences Center, Dr. Michael Himmel has more than 35 years of experience in conducting, supervising, and planning research in: protein biochemistry, recombinant technology, enzyme engineering, new micro-organism discovery, and physicochemistry of macromolecules.

Dr. Himmel has supervised research that targets the application of site-directed mutagenesis and rational protein design to the stabilization and improvement of important industrial enzymes, especially glycosyl hydrolases. He has functioned as PI for the DOE EERE Office of the Biomass Program (OBP) since 1992, and his responsibilities have included: research to improve cellulase performance; reducing biomass pretreatment costs; and improving yields of fermentable sugars. Dr. Himmel also developed new facilities at NREL for biomass conversion research, including a Cellulase Biochemistry Laboratory, a Biomass Surface Characterization Laboratory, a Protein Crystallography Laboratory, and a new Computational Science Team.

During the past three decades, Dr. Himmel contributed 345 peer reviewed journal articles to the literature. In addition, he has edited eight books and been awarded 25 patents. He has organized or co-organized 15 international conferences on aspects of biotechnology and biomass conversion. In 2008, Dr. Himmel edited a new book for Blackwell Publishers entitled "Biomass Recalcitrance," which is listed as a top selling book in science and has now been translated into Chinese. He served as chair for the new Gordon Research Conference on cellulases and cellulosomes in 2003 and continues to support the conference. Dr. Himmel currently works closely with the biomass conversion industry, as demonstrated by the numerous CRADAs currently underway in his NREL laboratory.

Michael Guarnieri

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Areas of Expertise

Sensors

Discovery Research

Diagnostics

Decontamination

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Dr. Guarnieri is a research scientist with experience in biochemistry and molecular genetics, biophysics, and structural biology. Dr. Guarnieri's prior research included examining viral secretions and virus-host interactions.

At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Dr. Guarnieri uses a systems biology approach—utilizing functional genomic, molecular, and biophysical techniques to identify, analyze, and engineer pathways involved in algal, bacterial, and fungal hydrocarbon and biochemical production. His current research interests include:

Biocatalysis of methane to liquid fuels and chemicals,
Biological upgrading of sugars to value-added chemicals in yeast and bacterial systems,
Algal omics, protein engineering, and signal transduction,
Biological deconstruction and upgrading of lignin, and
Metabolic and protein engineering for enhanced hydrocarbon production.

For more information about Dr. Guarnieri's research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, please see his summary here.

Lieve Laurens

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Areas of Expertise

Sensors

Diagnostics

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Dr. Laurens is a research scientist with experience in diagnostics and sensor development, specifically high-throughput ESI MS looking for molecular markers from COVID-19 patients. Dr. Laurens is currently implementing computational tools for multivariate statistics on MS data, which could be applied to discern any virus-specific markers, or even patient-specific response markers. This MALDI-MS capability can be used for high-throughput 384-well robot compatible screening of samples, which then can enter into the same molecular computational data analysis tools as for the ESI data.

Additional research interests at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory include

Dynamic biochemical composition of bioenergy-relevant biomass,
Coproduct development from primary algal biomass components,
Biofuel precursor behavior during biomass conversion processes,
Algae-derived green crude valorization,
High-throughput screening technologies for compositional analysis of microbial biomass,
Standardization of algal biomass compositional analysis, and
Technical standards for the algae industry.

To learn more about Dr. Laurens's research interests at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, please see Dr. Laurens's summary here.

Daniel Friedman

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Areas of Expertise

Semiconductor and/or Fabrication

Optics

Thin Films

Semiconductors/PV

Modeling

Materials Characterization

Simulation

Solar

Energy Analysis

Advanced Materials

Solar Energy

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He is the manager of the High Efficiency Crystalline Photovoltaics Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). His interests at NREL have been in the development of next-generation multi-junction high-efficiency solar cells for concentrator systems and the transfer of this technology to industry. One of his early focuses after joining the group was to adapt the GaInP/GaAs multi-junction cell technology for concentrator operation, developing the first monolithic two-terminal solar cell to have a verified efficiency with more than 30%. More recently, he has studied novel semiconductor materials for photovoltaics, such as GaInNAs for potential application in a 1-eV-bandgap device on conventional GaAs or Ge substrates, as well as developing concepts for junctions suitable for fabrication on Si. His current work centers on development of future generations of lattice-mismatched multi-junction cell structures for ultrahigh-efficiency operation under concentration. He received his bachelor’s in physics from Princeton University and his doctorate in applied physics from Stanford University. He joined NREL in 1990.

Roman Brunecky

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Areas of Expertise

Pharmaceuticals (Therapeutics) Chemical

Pharmaceuticals (Therapeutics) Biologics

Sensors

Discovery Research

Diagnostics

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Dr. Brunecky is a research scientist with a background in pharmacology, drug discovery, diagnostics, and sensor development.

At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Dr. Brunecky's interests include the novel mechanisms by which newly discovered multimodular cellulase enzymes such as CelA interact with and degrade crystalline cellulose as well as whole biomass with an aim to design and optimize enhanced cellulase systems for overcoming biomass recalcitrance as well as the possible uses of glycoside hydrolase enzymes expressed in-planta to reduce plant cell wall recalcitrance.

For more information about Dr. Brunecky's research interests at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, please find a summary here.

Robert Tenent

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Areas of Expertise

Advanced Materials

Building Technologies

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He came to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in late 2007 after spending 5 years with ZettaCore, Inc., a venture-backed company focused on integrating electrochemical charge storage into memory devices. He was the company's initial technical hire and successfully led several efforts that moved company technologies from academic laboratories into large-scale semiconductor fabrication facilities. While he maintains solid industry/business relationships, he also has a strong interest in fundamental issues regarding new materials for improved electrochemical devices, in particular electrochromic windows and lithium-ion batteries. At NREL, his research focuses on development of cost-effective, manufacturing friendly methods for the production of materials for both energy generation (photovoltaic) and efficiency (smart windows). He received his doctorate in chemistry with a specialization in electrochemistry from Mississippi State University in 2000 under the direction of Dr. David Wipf. His doctoral work focused on modification and characterization of carbon electrode surfaces using electrochemical microscopy techniques.

Judith Vidal

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Areas of Expertise

Thin Films

Nanomaterials

Coating Materials

High Temp Conditions

Insulation

Corrosion

Water Splitting

Fuel Cells

Electrochemical

Damage Resistance

Diffraction

Materials Characterization

Structural Materials

Synthesis

Solar

Advanced Materials

Energy Storage

Diagnostics

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She is a materials engineer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in charge of determining new fluid formulations (molten salts, liquid metals, supercritical) for thermal applications. She is researching in corrosion mitigation to control degradation at high temperature under extreme conditions (mechanical, chemical, and thermal). She has become a material’s expert in solar thermal applications. She successfully managed complex, multimillion dollar projects, including coordinating multiple partners and professional scientists and engineers. Her understanding of the interaction of materials with the surrounding environment is key for selecting the appropriate materials used in thermal energy storage and heat transfer fluid systems. She has a patent, multiple publications in molten-salt utilization and characterization with applications as sensible heat fluid and phase-change materials, and other publications on corrosion evaluation of ceramics, alloys and surface treatments for high-temperature applications in harsh environments. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s in materials engineering from Simon Bolivar University and a doctorate from Colorado School of Mines in metallurgical and materials engineering. She also holds a research assistant professor appointment in the Metallurgical & Materials Engineering Department at the Colorado School of Mines. She has accumulated over 25 years of experience in materials science and engineering.

Robert M. Baldwin

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Areas of Expertise

Reactor Kinetics

Gasification

Catalysts

Energy Conversion

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Robert Baldwin is a Principal Scientist in the National Bioenergy Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado; he has worked at NREL since 2008. Dr. Baldwin holds the degrees Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University (USA) and the PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. Prior to joining NREL Bob spent 30 years as a faculty member at the Colorado School of Mines including 10 years as Head of the Chemical Engineering department and retired as Professor Emeritus in 2005. Bob is a member of the project team that founded the Petroleum Institute (PI) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and served as Program Director in Chemical Engineering

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