International Colloquia on Thermal Innovations

Dr. Bob Low is the Technology Director at Koura Global, UK. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1990 from the University of Edinburgh, and is a chartered member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK). Dr. Low's specialties include: mathematical modeling, refrigeration and reaction engineering. .

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Dr. Schwede is the founder and CEO of Spark Thermionics Inc. He received his B.S. and PhD in Physics in 2007 and 2014 from Yale University and Stanford University, respectively. He was a Project Lead at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. In 2016, Dr. Schwede founded Spark Thermionics that develops a "powerplant on a chip," a thermionic energy conversion device that can turn any fuel into electricity very efficiently and with no moving parts.

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Prof. Alejandro Datas received his PhD in 2011 from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, in Photovoltaic Solar Energy. Before joining Universidad Politécnica de Madrid as a faculty member in 2019, he was a research scientist in the same university. His research interests include photovoltaic and thermo-photovoltaic power generation technologies for solar, solar-thermal, and thermal storage applications.

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Dr. Guillermo Zaragoza is a senior scientist at the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA). He has a degree in astrophysics and a PhD in applied physics. Dr. Zaragoza has worked at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía of the Spanish Research Council and the Atmospheric Physics department of the University of Oxford but with the new millennium moved to sunnier climates to work on solar energy. He has participated in several European R&D projects on solar thermal energy and desalination. His lecturing activities include a master course on solar energy at the University of Almería and an international course on desalination with solar energy organized by the European Desalination Society.

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Dr. Fred Morsefirst became involved in renewable energy issues in the late 1960s when he served as Executive Director of the White House Assessment of Solar Energy as a National Energy Resource. In his work at the US Department of Energy he played a significant role in defining and managing major solar energy R&D programs. Dr. Morse was the Chairman of the Western Governors’ Association Solar Task Force, was a member of the New Mexico CSP Task Force, and is the Chairman of the USP Division of the US Solar Energy Industries Association. Dr. Morse is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Dr. Julian Blanco (Engineer by Seville Univ., PhD by Almeria University; Research Professor of Spanish Ministry of Research and Innovation) is currently the Director of Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA), Spanish alternate member of Executive Committee of IEA-SolarPACES Program and coordinator of Joint Program on CSP of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA). He has 30 years of experience working at Plataforma Solar de Almeria (CIEMAT) on CSP related topics.

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Elise Strobach received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in early 2020 and is a research fellow at the Activate. Elise co-founded the AeroShield and serves as the CEO.

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Jürgen Wertenbach was Senior Engineer with more than 40 years of sound experience in the fields of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning of Passenger cars. Profound knowledge on natural and HFC-refrigerants for the automotive industry. Special skills in safety assessment of A/C systems. Expertise in Thermal Management of EV. Intensive engagement in industry working groups and standardization committees.

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Aydin Nabovati is a Principal Thermal Engineer at Tesla. Before joining Tesla, he was a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Advanced Micro Devices, Canada. Aydin Received his PhD in 2009 from the University of New Brunswick in Mechanical Engineering. He was a post doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto in Prof. Cristina Amon's group.

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Prof. Alejandro Datas received his PhD in 2011 from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, in Photovoltaic Solar Energy. Before joining Universidad Politécnica de Madrid as a faculty member in 2019, he was a research scientist in the same university. His research interests include photovoltaic and thermo-photovoltaic power generation technologies for solar, solar-thermal, and thermal storage applications.

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Mr. Andrew Ponec is the Co-Founder and CEO at the Antora Energy, CA. He received his B.S. in 2017 from Stanford University in the Energy Systems Engineering.

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Dr. Mahesh Venkataraman received his PhD in 2013 from Monash University in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He is the Materials Research Leader at the 1414 Degrees Ltd, Australia. His research interests high temperature electro- and thermo-chemical systems including fuel cells (SOFCs), solar-fuels and thermal energy storage. My current research focusses on utilization of solar energy and other renewable energy resources for power generation, production of H2 and liquid fuels, materials compatibility in concentrated solar power systems and solar metallurgy, with the potential to provide major technological boost to the commercialization of renewable technologies in Australia.

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Ronggui Yang is currently a Professor in the School of Energy and Power Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He received his PhD from MIT in 2006 and was a faculty member at the University of Colorado Boulder between 2006-2019. Ronggui Yang’s research focuses at the intersection of the fundamentals of thermal transport and micro/nano-structured materials, for solving thermal grand challenges. The radiative cooling technology he co-invented was named top 10 breakthrough in 2017 by the PhysicsWorld. He co-founded Radi-Cool Inc. to commercialize the technology.

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Arun Majumdar is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, a faculty member of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering and co-Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy. He was founding director of the US Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), and served as Vice President for Energy at Google. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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