Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment 2022/2023 Annual Report

toward a new energy horizon

annual report for the academic year 2022-2023

This past year has marked incredible progress toward a sustainable future. From the landmark passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a most ambitious piece of climate policy for the U.S., to global efforts surrounding hydrogen infrastructure development, the world is increasingly mobilizing around energy and environmental solutions to form a united front against the existential threat of the climate crisis. As climate action finally begins to enjoy mainstream support, the question we are answering at the Andlinger Center is no longer how to create momentum around clean energy development, but instead revolves around how best to direct that momentum for maximum impact.

Since taking on the role of the Andlinger Center’s interim director in 2021, I have had the privilege to see, firsthand, the breakthrough research that its faculty are pursuing across disciplines. The energy systems models developed by Jesse Jenkins are routinely cited by White House officials, who are using them to shape national climate policies. The cutting-edge energy materials research led by Kelsey Hatzell has unlocked critical advances for technologies, such as solid-state batteries, that could play a central role in future energy systems. And collaborative work led by Z. Jason Ren is providing crucial information for updating greenhouse gas inventories in the wastewater treatment sector, to name only a few highlights.

This year, I was also fortunate enough to foster the Andlinger Center’s growth as we recruited two new assistant professors, Ryan Kingsbury and Wei Peng. Professor Kingsbury will work to engineer better ion-selective membranes, complementing and deepening the Andlinger Center’s expertise in industrial decarbonization. Professor Peng will unite Princeton’s dynamic ecosystem of political and social scientists, engineers, and biologists to develop energy systems models that are informed by sociopolitical insights.

And yet, breakthrough research alone will not solve the climate crisis. Cutting global carbon emissions at the rate and scale we need to minimize climate warming will require unprecedented levels of coordination between researchers, policymakers, and industry experts. As such, our E-ffiliates program has grown this year to include important players and promising startups working in the clean energy technology and policy space, the transportation sector, and the burgeoning fusion industry. In addition, Princeton has made a bold investment in a sustainable future through the establishment of the Energy Research Fund, which is catalyzing collaborations between innovative researchers across Princeton and the Andlinger Center and the industry partners who can put our energy and environmental solutions into practice.

As we strive to develop technological breakthroughs, inform critical climate policies, and forge long-lasting partnerships, it is imperative that we never lose sight of our end goal. Everything we accomplish at the Andlinger Center is in the pursuit of a sustainable shared future, one in which we are not merely working to repair previous energy and environmental harm, but in which people and the planet are able to thrive together. In 2023, we welcomed 31 summer interns — our largest group to date. Hand-in-hand with Princeton’s incredibly gifted network of faculty, researchers, and students, they have tackled timely energy and environmental challenges to build a healthy planet that they and future generations will inherit.

As an ever-growing center, we continue to build momentum and make meaningful progress toward improving the world and the situations of the people who inhabit it. I am thankful for the opportunity I have had to serve as interim director of the Andlinger Center for these past two years, and I consider myself exceedingly lucky to have seen the power of brilliant minds coming together to solve the interdisciplinary energy and environmental challenges facing our planet.

Claire F. Gmachl Interim Director Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering, Head of Whitman College

After leading a rigorous international search, I am pleased to announce that Iain McCulloch, Professor of Polymer Chemistry at the University of Oxford, will take over as the new director of the Andlinger Center beginning in January 2024. He will also join the faculty at Princeton as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Professor McCulloch has revolutionized the field of solar cell research and has made key advances in the field of photocatalysis. I am eager to see the strides that the Andlinger Center will take with Professor McCulloch at the helm, and I end my time as interim director of the Andlinger Center knowing that I am leaving it in most capable hands.

As an ever-growing center, we continue to build momentum and make meaningful progress toward improving the world and the situations of the people who inhabit it. ”

–Claire F. Gmachl

our mission is to develop solutions for our energy and environmental future

+ accelerate innovation through funding, infrastructure, and intellectual discourse

+ foster a vibrant and interdisciplinary community

+ partner with industry, not-for-profit, government, and peer institutions

+ train the next generation of leaders

+ be the leading center for information and guidance

built environment, transportation, and infrastructure

Smart infrastructure, resilient cities, building efficiency systems and retrofits involving faculty from the School of Architecture; microgrids and networks, green cements, cleaner burning combustion engines, electric vehicles, and water desalination technologies

electricity production, transmission, and storage

Emerging technologies to harvest wind and solar power, nuclear fusion, power electronics and superconducting materials that enable more power transmission, grid-scale electricity storage, and modeling of power grids with high renewables penetration

fuels and chemicals

Advanced fuels and chemicals from engineered microorganisms and artificial photosynthesis, development of catalysts with abundant elements, and techno-economic and lifecycle assessments of advanced biofuel production systems

environmental sensing and remediation

Sensors to detect emissions of carbon and nitrogen cycle gases to the atmosphere from the energy, water and food sectors; carbon capture and storage; and wastewater treatment and soil remediation technologies using nanoparticles and microorganisms

decision and behavioral science, policy, and economics

In partnership with faculty and researchers at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, individual and collective decision-making and economic analysis related to energy and environmental policy

environmental and climate science

In partnership with faculty and researchers at the High Meadows Environmental Institute, environmental monitoring and modeling of Arctic sea ice, carbon dioxide absorption by oceans, extreme weather, and coastal impacts

six interacting research areas form the heart of the center’s focus.

andlinger center timeline

The timeline represents select highlights of the events and activities of the past year and does not reflect all milestones.

Christos Maravelias, an expert in the optimization of large, complex systems, including renewable energy systems, is named the tenth chair of Princeton’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

The U.S. Department of Energy awards another four years of funding to the Energy Frontier Research Center, Bio-Inspired LightEscalated Chemistry (BioLEC), helmed by Greg Scholes in the Department of Chemistry.

NASA awards Kelsey Hatzell an early career grant to help develop new rechargeable batteries for solar powered orbital missions and missions to the surface of Mars.

The Andlinger Center holds the 2022 Annual Meeting focusing on the geopolitical challenges of climate change and the energy transition with keynote speakers Amanda Lacaze of Lynas Rare Earths and Jigar Shah of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Paul Chirik is named a 2022 Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Deloitte holds a two-day leadership roundtable at the Andlinger Center focusing on transforming chemicals and advanced materials.

Paul Chirik, who is among the first chemists in the nation to receive funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s new “exploration phase” grants, receives $1M in support of green chemistry and will focus on iron catalysis.

Aniruddh Mohan and Lara Tomholt join as Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellows to work on leveraging new technology to achieve net-zero and develop energy smart ceramics, respectively.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awards Marcus Hultmark, an expert in fluid mechanics, an Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative award.

Princeton University establishes the Energy Research Fund to support fundamental and applied energy solutions research and foster collaboration with corporate partners.

The National Academies committee chaired by Emily A. Carter delivers recommendations to Congress to address challenges in recycling carbon emissions.

The Andlinger Center drives impact in three key areas: research in excel, external partnerships in engage, and educational offerings in inform.

The Andlinger Center welcomes NT-Tao, a fusion startup, and Breakthrough Energy, a global climate organization, to Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership.

Forrest Meggers offers tours of the Andlinger Center’s sustainable features and of the campus energy transition infrastructure during Wintersession.

Michael Mueller, a combustion and propulsion expert, is elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Barry Rand, an expert on thin film materials, is promoted to professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Aneesha Manocha, an electrical and computer engineering student, is awarded the Kanders Churchill Scholarship

José Avalos and Christos Maravelias receive renewed funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for their research into sustainable bioproducts and bioenergy within the Bioenergy Research Centers.

The Andlinger Center joins the New Jersey Wind Institute Fellowship Program to offer a new opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to pursue research or projects focused on the offshore wind industry.

Elke Weber is awarded the Patrick Suppes Prize in Psychology from the American Philosophical Society for her research in understanding how people make important decisions in real-world environments.

The Maeder Graduate Fellowship is awarded to Francisco Sàenz of mechanical and aerospace engineering to study liquid metals and their applications to fusion energy.

Claire White is recognized with the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University’s Commencement ceremonies.

Katie Kruse, an economics student, is awarded the Andlinger Center Senior Thesis Prize for her research and investigation into Russia’s exports of natural gas in the lead-up to its invasion of Ukraine.

Emily Carter gives a talk entitled “Seizing the Climate Mitigation Window: New Initiatives at PPPL and Princeton” to alumni during Princeton Reunions.

Kelsey Hatzell wins the Alfred Rheinstein Faculty Award from the School of Engineering and Applied Science

The tenth annual E-ffiliates Retreat, hosted by Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership, spotlights the role of the built environment in the transition towards a decarbonized future.

Minjie Chen receives the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award from the IEEE Power Electronics Society.

Ryan Kingsbury joins the Princeton faculty as an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Wei Peng joins the Princeton faculty as an assistant professor of public and international affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Wabtec, a railway technology manufacturer, joins Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership.

At the Andlinger Center, researchers cut across disciplinary boundaries to power innovative and informative solutions to today’s energy and environmental challenges. The Center’s research focuses on developing technologies and informing policies to accelerate the global energy transition, from developing new ways to extract and recycle critical materials such as lithium to modeling system-wide impacts of proposed federal tax credits and identifying priorities for deploying carbon utilization infrastructure. The collaborative and creative approach of the researchers at the Andlinger Center enables new discoveries for emerging energy issues and new perspectives on age-old challenges.

By fostering interdisciplinary research collaborations across the clean energy transition, the Andlinger Center is at the vanguard of the global energy transition. The Center brings brilliant minds together to access novel energy and environmental solutions that accelerate global decarbonization efforts and ensure a sustainable shared future for all.

The unprecedented energy and environmental challenges of today require technological innovation, policy solutions, and research collaborations at a speed and scale the world has never before seen.

Z. Jason Ren, Associate Director for Research at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

(Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Photo: Meiqi Yang, graduate student in civil and environmental engineering, works on a string-based technology that extracts lithium salts from a brine solution to meet the world’s growing lithium demand.

(Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

59 Research Projects Supported by the Andlinger Center

139 Publications Resulting from Andlinger Center Seed Fund Support

646 Graduate Students and Postdocs Supported

118 External Grants Awarded to the Andlinger Center

Andlinger Center Research Areas Built

Leadership

Iain McCulloch Named New Andlinger Center Director

In January 2024, Iain McCulloch will join the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment as its new director. McCulloch will also join the Princeton faculty as a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. He comes to Princeton from the University of Oxford, where he is a professor of polymer chemistry in the Department of Chemistry.

As an applied materials chemist, McCulloch’s translational research has unlocked new insights across multiple fields, and he has expanded his research focus multiple times during his career, moving from optical materials to electronics to energy and biological sensing applications. His work on active materials for solar cells and photocatalysis has led to significant advancements for alternative solar technologies and innovative ways to use solar energy to generate valuable products such as hydrogen. He previously served as the director of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Solar Center from 2016 to 2021 and was a co-director of the Centre for Plastic Electronics at Imperial College London from 2010 to 2014. In addition to his expansive academic career, McCulloch also brings over a decade of experience working in industry to design, develop, and commercialize functional polymers for a range of applications, including in electronics and drug delivery. This combined academic and industry experience provides him with a broad perspective on the translation of innovative research into real-world solutions, a key tenet of the Andlinger Center’s mission.

McCulloch was recognized in 2011 as one of the top materials scientists from 2000-2010. Among other achievements, McCulloch is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the European Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Updates

Barry Rand, an expert on thin film materials, was promoted to full professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, effective January 1, 2023. Rand joined the Princeton faculty in 2013 and has served as the associate director for external partnerships at the Andlinger Center since July 2019. Rand also holds associated faculty affiliations with the Princeton Materials Institute and the High Meadows Environmental Institute.

Peter Schiffer, a professor of applied physics and physics at Yale University and the director for strategic projects at Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was named Princeton’s next dean for research, effective August 28, 2023. President Christopher L. Eisgruber noted that Schiffer brings “... a rare combination of administrative skill, deep knowledge of research policy, and a steadfast commitment to the scholarly values that define this University.”

Iain McCulloch (Photo by Hannah Pye)

New Faculty

Engineering Better Ion-selective Membranes

Ryan Kingsbury joined Princeton as an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, effective July 1, 2023, strengthening the Andlinger Center’s research expertise in water purification and industrial decarbonization.

Kingsbury is an expert in environmental separations and brings with him a decade of experience spanning academia, industry, a national laboratory, and startups. His research focuses on understanding ion-selective membranes, which act like high-tech filters to separate charged particles such as minerals or metals out of water mixtures. These membranes have wideranging energy and environmental applications, from groundwater and chemical purification to uses in energy devices such as batteries, fuel cells, and electrolyzers.

Kingsbury hopes to develop what he refers to as a “recipe book” to tailor ion-selective materials for specific separation tasks. Today, making membranes to filter common minerals like table salt is relatively straightforward, but that technology cannot be easily adapted to new tasks, such as filtering valuable lithium out of industrial waste during battery recycling. By identifying the fundamental, molecular-scale principles that underpin their performance, Kingsbury plans to make it easier and faster to fine-tune new membranes for any separation problem, thereby accelerating development of the technologies that depend on them.

Crafting Human-centered Decarbonization Strategies

Wei Peng joined Princeton as an assistant professor of public and international affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, effective July 1, 2023, adding depth to the University’s policy-facing energy systems modeling efforts. Peng joined Princeton from Pennsylvania State University, where she had been an assistant professor of international affairs and civil and environmental engineering.

Peng’s research focuses on quantifying the social, political, and environmental tradeoffs of different climate policies. She works to better represent institutional and political systems in energy systems models to develop climate policies and decarbonization strategies that are realistically implementable and politically durable. Such socio-political systems play a critical role in shaping not only the development of decarbonization strategies, but also in driving human responses after policies are implemented. Unfortunately, those important institutional, social, and political factors are often left outside the code of many energy systems models, leading to models that do not fully capture the human dimensions of clean energy solutions.

At Princeton, Peng plans to complement and connect an existing ecosystem of political and social scientists, engineers, and climate modelers to inform pragmatic climate policies. She aims to expand upon previous work to understand the human health impacts of deep decarbonization strategies and incorporate political and economic insights into integrated assessment models. She also hopes to participate in ongoing stakeholder engagement efforts to ensure her research informs real-world solutions.

Ryan Kingsbury

(Photo by David Kelly Crow)

Wei Peng

(Photo by David Kelly Crow)

the andlinger community thrives

And the Honor Goes to...

Elke Weber, the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and professor of psychology and public affairs, received the Patrick Suppes Prize in Psychology from the American Philosophical Society in recognition of her significant scholarly contributions to the understanding of how people make important decisions in real-world settings. She was praised for her commitment to helping society by enabling people to make informed decisions under uncertainty. Weber’s accomplished research career has uncovered valuable insight into the full range of human decision-making processes, and she has used those findings to help design decision-making environments that encourage just and sustainable outcomes.

“Dr. Weber is one of the world’s most respected decision scientists,” said Richard Shiffrin, the chair of the selection committee for the prize and the Luther Dana Waterman Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. “Her research aligns perfectly with the American Philosophical Society of promoting useful knowledge.”

Kelsey Hatzell, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, received multiple awards during the 2022-2023 academic year. She was recognized with the Alfred Rheinstein Faculty Award from Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science for her outstanding research and teaching. Additionally, she received a Young Investigator Program Award from the Office of Naval Research, which recognizes early-career researchers with the potential to make significant scientific breakthroughs. She also won an early-career faculty award from NASA to explore the science behind the temperature tolerance of lithium-ion batteries.

Claire White, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, was recognized with the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton’s Commencement ceremonies. White was honored for her excellence in teaching and mentorship and for providing a supportive and collaborative learning environment in her courses.

Minjie Chen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, received the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award from the IEEE Power Electronics Society. The award is given each year to an engineer under 35 years of age who has made significant contributions to the modeling, design, and application of power electronic systems.

Michael Mueller, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in recognition of outstanding engineering achievements and his long-standing contributions as an ASME member. Mueller is an expert in computational modeling of multi-physics turbulent reacting flows.

Paul Chirik, chair of the Department of Chemistry and the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, was named a 2022 Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Chirik was selected for establishing the field of catalysis using Earth-abundant elements and demonstrating its impact on sustainable chemistry.

Elke Weber receives the Suppes Prize from APS President Linda Greenhouse and Committee Chair Richard Shiffrin. (Photo courtesy of the American Philosophical Society)

Eyeing Methane Emissions

Since the establishment of the Global Methane Pledge at COP26, which aims to cut global methane emissions by 30% of 2020 levels by the end of the decade, the molecule known as “the second-most important greenhouse gas” has garnered significant research attention. While methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, its relatively short lifespan in the atmosphere means reducing emissions could be a quick win for curbing climate warming. However, mitigating emissions against a historical baseline requires an accurate understanding of previous and existing methane emissions. Yet several Princeton-led research efforts suggest the world is underestimating actual methane emissions from a number of industries, including wastewater treatment and oil and gas production.

Wastewater Treatment

Two collaborative papers led by Z. Jason Ren and Mark Zondlo, professor of civil and environmental engineering, employed two independent methodologies to arrive at nearly the same conclusion: the wastewater treatment sector could be emitting twice as much methane as previously thought.

Ren’s team used machine-learning techniques to analyze published literature on methane emissions from wastewater treatment and sewer systems across the globe. The team was able to pinpoint specific wastewater treatment processes, such as

anaerobic digestion, that can have outsized impacts on methane emissions if not properly managed. They also uncovered non-trivial methane emissions from sewer networks around the world that are largely unaccounted for under existing monitoring practices.

Zondlo’s team of researchers headed up an effort to perform on-the-ground measurements of whole-plant methane emissions from 96 wastewater treatment facilities across the U.S. By measuring the entire emissions plume from a treatment facility rather than performing component-by-component measurements, the results suggested that leaks and inefficiencies could drive up unseen methane emissions.

Oil and Gas Production

In a separate effort to quantify methane emissions from the oil and gas sector in the United Kingdom, Denise Mauzerall, the William S. Tod Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public and International Affairs, along with collaborator Stuart Riddick of Colorado State University, uncovered that five times more methane is being leaked from off-shore oil and gas rigs in the United Kingdom than is reported. Paralleling wastewater treatment, the researchers argued that existing frameworks for estimating methane emissions from the oil and gas sector do not incorporate the full range of processes that contribute to overall emissions and that self-reporting by industry may underestimate emissions or miss activities during which emissions occur. For example, significant methane leakage can occur when off-shore oil and gas rigs are idle — a source of emissions not included in current inventories. The researchers concluded that their results from the U.K. likely apply to many other countries that employ similar frameworks for estimating emissions.

By uncovering flaws in current approaches, the teams are informing the development of an updated set of guidelines for estimating emissions from wastewater treatment and oil and gas production. The new guidelines will help operators better understand emissions at their own facilities and assist the world in critical efforts to reduce anthropogenic methane emissions.

Daniel Moore, a civil and environmental engineering graduate student working with Mark Zondlo, conducts on-theground measurements of methane emissions from wastewater treatment plants using gas sensors mounted on a vehicle.

(Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

(stock.adobe.com)

Why Do Solid-state Batteries Fail?

Solid-state batteries could become a major advancement in the field of energy storage, promising faster charging, greater range, and longer lifespan than conventional lithium-ion batteries. However, current solid-state battery designs are prone to failure. By studying batteries while in operation, Kelsey Hatzell led a research team to discover that irregularities within the structure of the solid-state batteries caused ions to move at different speeds within the material, accelerating battery failure. The findings, published in Nature Materials, will inform future efforts to improve solid-state batteries to realize their true potential in a net-zero future.

Steering Funds for Clean Hydrogen

The Inflation Reduction Act established billions of dollars’ worth of incentives for clean energy development in the U.S., including a tax credit designed to spur low-carbon hydrogen production. Yet a team led by Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, found that without specific guidelines, the tax credit could increase –rather than decrease – system-wide carbon emissions. Consequently, Jenkins and Wilson Ricks, a graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering, identified three key implementation guidelines for the tax credit that are critical for ensuring it accomplishes its purpose of promoting clean hydrogen.

Transforming Carbon Emissions into Marketable Products Tracking Corporate Climate Progress

Emily A. Carter, the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and senior strategic advisor and associate laboratory director for applied materials and sustainability sciences at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), was selected to chair a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee on carbon utilization following a mandate from Congress in the Energy Act of 2020. The committee released its first report in 2022, which outlined the status, opportunities, and challenges of transforming captured carbon dioxide emissions into marketable products, such as construction materials or sustainable jet fuels. The committee of experts identified near-term priorities for carbon utilization and underlined the benefits of co-locating clean energy, clean hydrogen, and carbon utilization infrastructure. A second report from the committee is expected to be released in 2024.

First, they argued that grid-based hydrogen producers should be required to procure clean energy on an hourly basis to qualify for the credit. Existing carbon accounting approaches allow clean energy to be procured annually, which does not account for daily fluctuations in the grid’s energy mix. Second, the researchers said hydrogen producers must procure clean energy from newly built sources. If producers procured energy from existing sources, they would effectively increase system-wide demand for clean energy without adding additional supply. Third, clean energy must be procured from sources nearby to the hydrogen producer to ensure that the purchased energy is actually deliverable and is not being blocked by existing transmission bottlenecks in the grid. The researchers said all three requirements are necessary for minimizing the emissions impact of gridbased hydrogen production.

Chris Greig, the Theodora D. ’78 and William H. Walton III ’74 Senior Research Scientist at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, alongside international research collaborators including Saphira Rekker from The University of Queensland and Matthew Ives from the University of Oxford, developed a new approach for tracking the alignment of companies with the aims of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius. When applied to Australian cement and electric utility companies in a 2022 Nature Communications study, the researchers found only one of 20 companies were on track to being Paris-compliant. In 2023, the researchers expanded their original approach to track progress in the fossil fuel industry and found over 60% of the top 142 oil, gas, and coal producers were not aligned with targets to mitigate global temperature increases.

Wilson Ricks

(Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Fund for Energy Research with Corporate Partners

Princeton University established the Energy Research Fund in 2022 to support fundamental and applied energy solutions research and foster collaboration with corporate partners. The fund underlines the University’s ongoing commitment to support innovative energy research and emphasizes the critical role that energy will play in securing a sustainable shared future. The Energy Research Fund supports two programs, one of which is the Fund for Energy Research with Corporate Partners. The fund, administered by the Andlinger Center, is designed to forge partnerships between academic researchers and industry experts to accelerate the development and deployment of energy and environmental solutions. Projects are either funded via Research Awards, which provide support for up to three years, or via Seed Awards, which provide one year of support.

Research Awards

Understanding the speed limits to global decarbonization efforts

Meeting mid-century climate targets requires mobilizing capital and deploying energy infrastructure at an unprecedented speed, scale, and level of complexity. However, most energy systems models make simplistic assumptions about clean energy project development, entity coordination, and capital allocation, leading to policy recommendations that are inadequate to mobilize projects at the speed and scale needed to meet mid-century ambitions. Chris Greig will lead a collaboration with analysts at Clean Air Task Force and Google to incorporate industrial and financial considerations into energy transition models to ensure they provide realistic pathways and timelines for decarbonization efforts. Greig will also work with Eric Larson, senior research engineer at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Jesse Jenkins, and Elke Weber. The collaborators will convene industry experts to identify project development and capital allocation factors that will limit the speed of the clean energy transition in the absence of more innovative and urgent policies. With the goal of informing more robust policy design, the team will incorporate those speed-limiting factors into energy systems models to create more realistic representations of how the energy transition might unfold for different regions around the world.

Demonstrating the potential of renewables-powered radiant systems

Radiant heating and cooling systems could significantly cut energy consumption in buildings over conventional air-based HVAC systems, yet they have not realized their full potential to revolutionize the building sector. Forrest Meggers, associate professor of architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, will lead a project to demonstrate the energy efficiency gains that can be achieved through the adoption of radiant heating and cooling systems powered by renewable energy sources. Meggers will work with Global Environmental Technologies, AIL Research, and CHAOSense, to research and deploy a demonstration project on Princeton’s campus to showcase the energy-savings of radiant systems at the building scale. Meggers will also work with Jyotirmoy Mandal, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and key campus stakeholders. The demonstration will highlight Meggers’ research to develop more efficient heating and cooling systems and serve as a public-facing example of an effective way to condition spaces.

Stabilizing perovskite solar cells

Despite work to boost the power conversion efficiencies of metal-halide perovskite solar cells and address stability issues that have limited device lifespans, many challenges remain, especially when many individual solar cells are connected to form a solar module. Barry Rand is collaborating with solar manufacturer CubicPV to tackle one such stability issue related to iodide, the halide commonly used in the construction of metal-halide perovskites. While important for absorbing solar radiation, iodide is easily oxidized and highly mobile. As such, after being oxidized, it can travel throughout a solar module to corrode the metal components, quickly leading to performance losses. Rand and CubicPV aim to develop a mechanism to block iodide from traveling throughout the solar cell while allowing internal current to flow. By preventing iodide’s movement, the team seeks to solve a challenge that has long-plagued perovskites to extend device lifespans and push them closer to commercialization.

Seed Awards

Studying the impact of carbon pricing on daily power grid operations

Lead PIs: René Carmona, the Paul M. Wythes ’55 Professor of Engineering and Finance, and Ronnie Sircar, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Operations Research and Financial Engineering

Corporate Partner: Siemens Smart Infrastructure – Grid Software

Evaluating North-South partnerships in long-term liquified natural gas contracting

Lead PI: Sylvain Chassang , professor of economics

Co-PI: Nahim Bin Zahur, assistant professor of economics at Queen’s University

Corporate Partner: International Group of Liquified Natural Gas Importers

Mining bacterial enzymes for better biofuels

Lead PI: Jonathan Conway, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering

Corporate Partner: Novozymes

Modeling missing data on electricity networks in sub-Saharan Africa

Lead PI: Jürgen Hackl , assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering

Corporate Partner: WSP

Ammonia combustion and emissions: Effects of “cracking” stratification

Lead PI: Michael Mueller

Corporate Partner: GE Research

Investigating the green hydrogen economy’s water problem

Lead PI: Z. Jason Ren

Co-PI: Anthony Ku, consultant and former non-resident fellow at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Corporate Partner: New Jersey Resources

Supporting Innovative Research in Energy and the Environment

Through the Grant for Innovative Research in Energy and the Environment, the Andlinger Center makes investments in bold energy and environmental research with transformative potential. Here are highlights from two previous awards:

Systems Methods for Sustainable Electronics

Since receiving a grant in 2022, the research team led by Minjie Chen has:

• worked to develop systematic efforts to evaluate the environmental impact of semiconductors, capacitors, and magnetics in power conversion sectors,

• investigated new ways of fabricating organic, biodegradable computing cells, and

• evaluated and quantified the environmental footprint of highperformance computing systems.

Optimizing Offshore Wind Farm Design

Since receiving a grant in 2020, the research team led by Michael Mueller has:

• enhanced their state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics model to account for real oceanic wave distributions on offshore wind farms,

• demonstrated multiple orders of magnitude in cost-savings to competing computational approaches for full-scale offshore wind farm simulations,

• demonstrated the critical sensitivity of offshore wind farm performance to oceanic waves.

Funding for the Grant for Innovative Research in Energy and the Environment was provided by: Addy/ISN North American Low Carbon Emission Energy Self-Sufficiency Fund; Gerhard R. Andlinger Innovation Fund; and anonymous gifts.

excel investing in cutting-edge research

Growing Startups at the Andlinger Center

Securing a Strong Lithium Supply

Lithium has emerged as a critical material for the clean energy transition, but the global supply of lithium has lagged behind skyrocketing battery demand for electric vehicles and energy storage. A new technology developed in the lab of Z. Jason Ren could unlock new sources of lithium and accelerate existing production by enabling environmentally friendly lithium extraction from salt-rich waters known as brine.

The technology, published in Nature Water, has made significant progress toward commercialization over the past year. Led by Sunxiang (Sean) Zheng, a former Andlinger Center Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow, the research team has engaged extensively with Princeton’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Zheng participated in the inaugural START Fellowship, a program designed to help researchers translate academic innovation into impactful new ventures. The team also participated in the National Science Foundation I-Corps Northeast Hub program to identify product-market fit and potential customers. Their pitch recently won the first prize in the STEM division at the Keller Center’s Innovation Forum.

Zheng is now leading a new startup, PureLi Inc., based on the technology developed in Ren’s lab. The team is currently working with a leading lithium producer on prototype testing and fundraising. Ultimately, they hope this innovative technology will contribute to securing the supply of critical minerals and advancing the nation’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

A Better Way to Recycle Lithium-ion Batteries

Princeton NuEnergy, a startup based on technologies that grew out of the labs of Yiguang Ju, the Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Bruce Koel, professor of chemical and biological engineering, has developed an economical alternative for recycling spent lithium-ion batteries. The environmentally friendly recycling process employs low-temperature plasmas to directly recycle the cathode materials of batteries, which are often the most expensive part of a lithium-ion battery.

Princeton NuEnergy was co-founded in 2019 by Ju and Koel, as well as Chao Yan, a research associate at Princeton and the company’s CEO, and Xiaofang Yang, a former associate research scholar at Princeton and the company’s CTO. The company opened a new joint pilot production line in October 2022 in Texas, in partnership with Wistron GreenTech. The company also received a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in November 2022 to further their operations and continue refining their battery recycling process. Princeton NuEnergy won a 2022 Tiger Entrepreneur Award for their work to bring research to the real world.

Sean Zheng takes center stage to present his team’s winning innovation at the 17th annual Innovation Forum hosted by the Keller Center. (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Jerry Xiang ‘20 *22 discusses samples with a tour group at the Princeton NuEnergy factory in McKinney, Texas.

(Photo by Ben Torres)

excel distinguished postdoctoral fellows

Distinguished Postdocs Study Social Systems and Analyze Atmospheric Dynamics

Nusrat Molla and Nathaniel Wei have joined the Andlinger Center in 2023 as its newest Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellows, working to understand community-level impacts of clean energy transitions and explore atmospheric dynamics to realize the full potential of wind energy, respectively.

Molla is working with Simon Levin, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Elke Weber, to study how communities relying on extractive industries will be impacted by clean energy transitions. She plans to combine perspectives from the social sciences with a complex systems modeling approach to understand the social and institutional dynamics that underlie community-level outcomes of energy policies and the factors that govern overall community resilience. Molla plans to conduct fieldwork for her research in the coal-mining regions of Appalachia.

Wei will work with Marcus Hultmark, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Elie Bou-Zeid, professor of civil and environmental engineering, to study how atmospheric dynamics influence wind energy production. He plans to aid in the construction of a state-ofthe-art wind tunnel on Princeton’s Forrestal Campus to better understand atmospheric surface layer dynamics, which could inform efforts to optimize the power production of wind farms. He also hopes to explore the use of drones to characterize atmospheric flows at scales in between the coarse resolutions of most climate models and the relatively granular resolutions of current experimental techniques, a gap in the scientific literature often referred to as the terra incognita of atmospheric dynamics.

Launch Pad

The Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellows program at the Andlinger Center propels early career researchers into meaningful careers. Here is what some of our recent fellows have achieved:

Julie Euvrard (2021-2022)

Lecturer (equivalent to assistant professor) in physics at Imperial College London

Holly Caggiano (2021-2023)

Assistant professor of climate justice and environmental planning in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia

Allyson McGaughey (2021-2023)

Assistant professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering at the University of New Mexico

Nusrat Molla (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Nathaniel Wei (Courtesy of Nathaniel Wei)

At the Andlinger Center, researchers are committed to bringing energy and environmental solutions out of the lab and into the real world. The Center routinely convenes experts from academia, industry, government, and nonprofits to forge research collaborations with maximal impact on society. Through conferences, meetings, trainings, and seminars, the Andlinger Center fosters dialogue between groups that share a stake in meeting global energy needs without contributing to climate change.

The Andlinger Center also administers a corporate partnership program, Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership, to bring researchers and industry experts together around shared areas of interest and expertise. These vehicles for involvement ensure that energy and environmental solutions are not developed inside of a vacuum, but are instead designed in response to real-world research needs.

By bringing together and engaging with such a wide group of stakeholders, the Andlinger Center creates spaces for impactful ideas to take shape. The partnerships at the Andlinger Center inform new research directions, bring researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in direct contact, and, ultimately, pave the way for a cleaner and more secure energy future.

Cutting-edge energy technologies and innovative modeling efforts have limited impact if they never leave the lab in which they were developed.

Barry Rand, Associate Director for External Partnerships, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

(Photo by Tori Repp / Fotobuddy)

Photo: Forrest Meggers discusses energy efficiency features at Princeton during the E-ffiliates Retreat.

(Photo by Adena Stevens)

andlinger center engage

$18.8 Million in Funding by Research Area

$18.8 million Cumulative Funding for All Research Projects via Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership

Key to Andlinger Center Research Areas

Built environment, transportation, and infrastructure

Electricity production, transmission, and storage

Fuels and chemicals

Environmental sensing and remediation

Decision and behavioral science, policy, and economics

Environmental and climate science

84 Faculty, Researchers, and Students Involved

64 Collaborations Formed as a Result of E-ffiliates Research

Annual meeting poster session winners, Lilianna Gittoes ’24, an undergraduate in operations and financial research engineering, and Loïc De Weerdt, a postdoctoral research associate at the Andlinger Center.

(Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

2022 Annual Meeting Poster Awards

Worley Postdoctoral Researcher Poster Award

Loïc De Weerdt / “The Inflation Reduction Act and its Effect on Investment Decisions in Net-Zero Energy-Generating Technologies” –Advised by Eric Larson, senior research engineer at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Deloitte Graduate Poster Award

Dhanya Puthuserri / “Pathways Toward Realizing Energy Dense All Solid-State Batteries” – Advised by Kelsey Hatzell, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

ExxonMobil Postdoctoral Researcher Poster Award

Tubagus Aryandi Gunawa / “Rapid Cost Estimation of Various Industrial CO2 Capture Retrofits” – Advised by Eric Larson

Siemens Undergraduate Poster Award

Caleb Geissler / “Optimization of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) Systems: Economic and Environmental Analysis in the Present and Future” – Advised by Christos Maravelias, the Anderson Family Professor in Energy and the Environment and a professor of chemical and biological engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

NEC Labs Undergraduate Poster Award

Mohammad Shaharyar Wani / “Developing Interconnected Graphene-Carbon Fiber Aerogel and its Potential for Water Purification” – Advised by Craig Arnold, vice dean for innovation and Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

American Tower Graduate Poster Award

Helena Frudit / “Environmental Risk Assessment of Two Pathways of Net-Zero America Energy Transition”

– Advised by Chris Greig, the Theodora D. ’78 and William H. Walton III ’74 Senior Research Scientist at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Community Energy Graduate Poster Award

Lilianna Gittoes / “Design of CO2 Transport and Storage Networks” – Advised by Eric Larson

2022 Annual Meeting: The Changing Geopolitics of the Energy Transition

The Andlinger Center’s eleventh annual meeting highlighted the role that geopolitics will play in either assisting or hindering the global energy transition. During the morning keynote address, Amanda Lacaze, CEO of Lynas Rare Earths, argued that technology alone cannot achieve the energy transition. Along with the technical challenges of developing clean energy technologies, Lacaze said that securing the necessary resources to enable those technologies will require that institutions rethink traditional geopolitical relationships to build resilient supply chains. She recommended that governments take a long-term approach to industry development to ensure that newly emerging companies have the support to compete with established market players.

The day’s panels explored additional geopolitical challenges of the energy transition. One panel on climate change and conflict highlighted the need for countries to rally around shared goals to forge international collaborations, especially as climate change-induced sea level rises and increasingly frequent extreme weather events shake up existing social relationships. Another panel on the future of seaborne trade explored the international challenges likely to arise as nations seek to transport clean technologies across international boundaries.

The afternoon keynote featured a discussion between Jigar Shah, director of the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, and Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Shah noted that even with increasing public sector support for the development of clean energy technologies, institutions still need to make conscious changes to their supply chain and organizational infrastructures to achieve clean energy targets.

Top: Amanda Lacaze discusses the geopolitics of the clean energy transition during her morning keynote.

Left: Jigar Shah addresses the afternoon crowd during a conversation with Jesse Jenkins on U.S. policy and new domestic opportunities for clean energy development.

(Photos by Frank Wojciechowski)

2023 E-ffiliates Retreat: Innovating the Built Environment for a Net-zero Future

Using Princeton’s campus as a living case study, the tenth annual E-ffiliates Retreat spotlighted the role of the built environment in achieving a cleaner future. The day-long retreat convened industry experts and Princeton faculty, students, and campus partners to explore the future of sustainable infrastructure and identify the key shifts needed to bring about meaningful change in the building sector.

The day kicked off with a set of presentations about effective ways to communicate about the disruption caused by sustainable infrastructure projects. John Pickering, chief behavioral scientist at Evidn, argued that appealing to an individual’s sense of shared identity with a group can be a powerful tool for overcoming negative perceptions by encouraging people to feel included in the construction process.

The presentations were followed by a tour of Princeton’s campus led by Forrest Meggers, associate professor of architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, who explained some of the innovative infrastructure projects underway at Princeton to make on-campus heating and cooling systems more efficient. One such project is geo-exchange, an energy storage system for capturing, storing, and then reusing heat several months later.

After the tour, Jeff Terry, vice president of corporate social responsibility and sustainability at GAF, delivered a keynote address in which he explained the difficulty

of making rapid changes in the building sector, which prides itself on durability and dependability. Terry highlighted efforts underway at GAF that prove sustainability and dependability can exist side-by-side and emphasized the importance of understanding the emissions impacts of an entire building project, from the raw materials to the building’s operation and finally to its end-of-life.

The day concluded with a panel discussion about how companies can consider the built environment on the pathway to net-zero, emphasizing the critical role that innovators play in driving system-wide change.

2022

Deloitte Research Poster Award

Xunkai Chen / “Chemomechanical Evolution of Silicon Anodes during Electrolyte Freeze-Thaw Cycles” –Advised by Kelsey Hatzell

Worley Research Poster Award

Erfan Hosseini / “Energy + Food: The Benefits of Combining Photovoltaics with Crop Cultivation” –Advised by Elie Bou-Zeid, professor of civil and environmental engineering

Left: Keynote speaker Jeff Terry speaks about decarbonization efforts underway in the building sector.

Right: Ted Borer, director of Princeton’s energy plants (left), and Ijeoma Nwagwu, assistant director of academic engagement and campus-as-lab initiatives at Princeton’s Office of Sustainability (center), co-lead a presentation about the energy efficiency features of the new Stadium Drive Garage, which overlooks the geo-exchange plant on campus.

(Photos by Adena Stevens)

E-ffiliates Retreat Poster Awards

E-ffiliates Expands

Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership was formed to foster collaboration between industry and academic experts to accelerate the development and implementation of innovative energy and environmental solutions. The Andlinger Center welcomed three new E-ffiliates members during the 2022-2023 academic year, growing the program to include 21 corporate members overall. The program continues to grow each year, strengthening existing areas of expertise and expanding to include new industries that are critical to the energy transition. E-ffiliates members represent key enablers of the clean energy transition across the value chain, from financial services and consulting companies to technological innovators and manufacturers.

Breakthrough Energy

Breakthrough Energy was founded in 2015 to accelerate the clean energy transition and help the world reach net-zero emissions. Breakthrough Energy uses investment vehicles, philanthropic programs, policy advocacy, and other means to scale technologies the world needs to meet its climate goals. The collaboration with the Andlinger Center will contribute to a shared goal of speeding up the development and deployment of clean energy and policy solutions to ensure the world remains on track to achieve its climate targets.

Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership Members

NT-Tao

NT-Tao, a compact fusion energy startup company headquartered in Israel, is focused on developing a safe, scalable, independent energy solution that enables the world to transition away from conventional energy sources and bridge humanity’s energy gaps. With a goal of achieving commercialization this decade, NT-Tao marks the first fusion company to join E-ffiliates, expanding the program’s reach into a rapidly growing clean energy industry. As a member of E-ffiliates, NT-Tao will work with Princeton researchers to continue exploring ways to unlock fusion’s potential as a clean energy resource.

Wabtec

Wabtec, a global company headquartered in Pittsburgh, works to accelerate the transition to a sustainable future by pioneering advanced transportation technologies. Operating in over 50 countries around the world, Wabtec is a global supplier of equipment, systems, digital solutions, and value-added services for the freight and transit rail sectors. As an E-ffiliates member, Wabtec plans to collaborate with researchers to unlock the full potential of transportation technologies, such as clean hydrogen, biofuels, and batteries, that are critical for decarbonizing transportation networks and building a sustainable shared future.

A Hub for Energy Technologies

Deloitte, a global leader in providing climate change transformation services to corporations and governments, has collaborated with Chris Greig and Eric Larson to support multiple studies related to the planning and optimization of clean energy hubs.

Clean Hydrogen Hubs

The collaboration with Deloitte resulted in a new study to explore challenges for a future clean hydrogen economy. With assistance from Anthony Ku, consultant and former non-resident fellow at the Andlinger Center, the initial study focused on hydrogen development in the U.S., which has been buoyed by unprecedented subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act and federal funding for regional clean hydrogen hubs. Through interviews and workshops with senior-level individuals from organizations across the clean hydrogen value chain and investment community, the researchers concluded that most investment was likely to support opportunities where clean hydrogen substitutes existing carbon-intensive supplies in the chemical and refining sectors. However, the researchers found that investment in most new clean hydrogen uses remains uncertain. Consequently, the collaborators identified several system-level issues that regional hydrogen hubs will need to address to support a large and diverse clean hydrogen economy.

Carbon Capture, Transport, and Storage (CCTS) Hubs

Collaboration with Deloitte has also supported an effort to understand the opportunities and challenges of rolling out widespread CCTS infrastructure. In one study, researchers developed a model for making scoping-level estimates of the cost of retrofitting any existing industrial facility in the US with carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology based on the concentration and magnitude of CO2 in its emissions. A second project is combining the cost model with other methodologies and datasets to study cost-optimized designs for CCTS hubs, with a case study focusing on heavily industrialized southeast Louisiana. One initial finding is that sharing CO2 pipelines among multiple nearby CO2 capture facilities could reduce the cost of CO2 transportation infrastructure by up to two-thirds and the total required pipe miles by more than two-thirds, implying significantly reduced disruptions for local communities and landscapes.

Delivering on Decarbonization Goals

Worley, a leading global provider of engineering, procurement and construction services to the energy, chemicals and resources sectors, continued its collaboration with Chris Greig

Net Zero Australia

The collaboration with Worley includes participation in the Net Zero Australia study, inspired by Princeton’s influential Net-Zero America study. The Net Zero Australia study was launched in 2021 to develop pathways for decarbonizing the country’s relatively small domestic economy as well as for transforming its export economy from being coal and natural gas intensive to instead focus on exporting clean energy carriers. Net Zero Australia findings were publicly released in August 2022, final modeling results from the study were released in April 2023, and a mobilization report was released in July 2023, which outlines opportunities and timelines for making net-zero goals happen.

From Ambition to Reality

Greig has also continued to work with Worley to produce From Ambition to Reality, a series of thought leadership articles that aim to reimagine infrastructure delivery to convert net-zero goals into tangible outcomes. The first paper, released in 2021, identified five key shifts in practice that would constitute a new paradigm for infrastructure delivery. The second paper, released in 2022, proposed fifteen indicators of change to measure global progress on each of the five shifts. The series prompted a pulsecheck on current industry behaviors and suggested a huge gap between net-zero ideals and current practices. As a result, the collaboration has expanded to include Elke Weber, the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor of Energy and the Environment and professor of psychology and public affairs, and Jordana Composto, a graduate psychology student. The team designed and administered the first installment of a longitudinal survey to a diverse range of stakeholders connected with the energy transition around the world to measure progress and identify bottlenecks to clean energy adoption at the industry level. The third paper in the series, released in August 2023, incorporated early findings from the study and outlined an updated framework to drive adoption of the paradigm shift and accelerate net-zero infrastructure delivery.

Optimizing How Baggage Is Loaded Onto Planes

Christos Maravelias, the Anderson Family Professor in Energy and the Environment, is collaborating with Siemens to automate the process of loading cargo into unit load devices, which are containers used to store luggage on planes. Maravelias is developing an optimization model to maximize the amount of cargo that can fit into each loading device. Such optimization could reduce the number of devices that need to be flown, leading to greater aircraft fuel savings. Additionally, automating the loading process could reduce workplace injuries and lead to less misplaced baggage.

Learning to Control Power Grids

Despite advances in automation, managing daily energy grid operations still requires almost hourly interventions from human operators. Ryan Adams, professor of computer science, is working with Siemens to explore how artificial intelligence can be harnessed to further automate and optimize power grid operations. The team has demonstrated that

AI algorithms can learn clever ways of reconfiguring network topologies to redirect power through alternate paths, especially when the power flows on critical lines are under stress from external events such as natural disasters or cyber-physical attacks. The team is currently working to communicate their findings at conferences and in peer-reviewed publications.

Net-Zero Grows

Siam Cement Group (SCG) is one of Thailand’s largest industrial firms with key business units of cement, chemicals, and packaging. SCG supported a scoping study for a potential Net-Zero Thailand, with a similar level of technological, temporal and spatial resolution to Net-Zero America and Net Zero Australia. Led by Chris Greig, the team has undertaken multiple visits to Thailand and has engaged with more than 60 individuals, representing five universities and research institutions, six energy and industrial companies, and a number of governmental agencies. The research is currently pending the initiation and engagement of core research partners, which is being led by collaborators at Thammasat University.

Zero-Carbon Technology Consortium

Aligned with E-ffiliates, Jesse Jenkins has designed and launched a new industry-academic coalition known as the Zero-Carbon Technology Consortium to evaluate novel low-carbon energy technologies. The consortium launched in January 2022 with founding members Google, GE, and ClearPath, and added a new member, Breakthrough Energy, in 2023.

Since its establishment, the consortium has supported cutting-edge research to develop cost targets and performance goals of new and emerging technologies such as advanced fission, fusion, and low-carbon fuels. For example, researchers explored the role of fusion energy in a future renewables-heavy energy grid and identified features, such as incorporating thermal storage in reactor designs, that could boost fusion’s competitiveness against other technologies.

The consortium is also working to understand how climate policies can shape the development of emerging technologies. For instance, researchers supported by the consortium are exploring the impact of recent federal policy on the cost-competitiveness of different pathways for producing clean fuels such as hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels.

E-ffiliates Tech Talks

Through E-ffiliates, the Andlinger Center creates a space for members to regularly discuss emerging energy and environmental technologies and ideas with Princeton faculty and guest experts:

Vehicle to Grid Technology: Aug. 2021

Hydrogen: Jan. 2022

Direct Air Capture: Jul. 2022

Energy Systems Transition Materials: Jan. 2023

Carbon Recycling and Valorization: Apr. 2023

Digital Carbon Footprint: Jul. 2023

Through the consortium, we’re able to work with companies to ensure that the research questions we’re asking are the ones that can guide innovation in the real world.”

– Jesse Jenkins

Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellows in Energy and the Environment

Transforming waste and biomass into valuable products

A pioneer in waste and biomass valorization, Ange Nzihou will join the Andlinger Center in March 2024 as a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow. Nzihou is a distinguished professor of chemical engineering at IMT Mines Albi – CNRS in France.

As a fellow, Nzihou will continue a collaboration with Claire White, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, that began when he visited Princeton in 2022 through the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program. The initial collaboration revealed the mechanism by which iron acts as a catalyst to turn waste biomass such as wood chips and cellulosic biomass into graphene, an advanced carbon material with many potential energy and environmental applications. The collaboration will also grow to include additional Princeton faculty, such as Craig Arnold, to explore additional applications for waste valorization in the agriculture sector.

Triangulating water research, policy and practice

Angela Fasnacht, a veteran of the water utilities sector, joined the Andlinger Center in June 2023 as a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow to develop integrated solutions for decarbonizing the water sector and cleaning up pollutants.

Fasnacht has collaborated with Peter Jaffé, the William L. Knapp ’47 Professor of Civil Engineering, to develop a course on decarbonization in the water sector that bridges the gap between researchers, operators, and policymakers. Fasnacht will work with students to construct a global database of policy solutions regarding decarbonization in the water sector to identify which policies have been most effective. Fasnacht will also work with Jaffé to develop a more holistic approach to managing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a class of pollutants that are notoriously difficult to remove from soil and groundwater sources. They plan to organize a PFAS summit at Princeton to identify research priorities after recent action from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address PFAS contamination.

Including developing nations in the Rapid Switch

Ekaterina (Katya) Gratcheva joined the Andlinger Center in Fall 2023 as a non-resident fellow. She will work with Chris Greig to expand Rapid Switch, an international research initiative to identify and overcome the most critical bottlenecks to global decarbonization efforts.

Gratcheva’s expertise in sustainable and development finance will extend the initiative’s country coverage to include mobilizing capital to help drive resilient, low-carbon infrastructure deployment in developing countries. As a non-resident fellow, she aims to build lasting partnerships between Princeton researchers, the financial industry, and multilateral and regional development banks to accelerate a just energy transition.

The nanostructure of graphene, a one-atomthick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. (stock.adobe.com)

When I saw the structure of the Andlinger Center, I saw that it had everything I would need to develop my research.”

–Ange Nzihou

Outlining Opportunities and Challenges for Biogenic Methane Management

In June 2023, the Andlinger Center hosted a workshop to discuss how best to harness methane from biogenic sources, such as from wastewater treatment plants and dairy farms, to advance national and global sustainability goals. Harold (Hal) May, who joined the Andlinger Center as a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow in September 2022, organized the day-long workshop that brought researchers from Princeton and other institutions together with government and industry experts to identify research and policy priorities for managing biogenic methane.

A central theme of the day was an ongoing dialogue about the best use cases for biogenic methane. Participants discussed whether it would be best to prioritize ways to simply reduce methane emissions, substitute biogenic methane for processes that already rely on fossil fuel-derived methane, or harness biogenic methane to create new and advanced products such as fuels, chemicals, and enzymes.

Participants also examined where additional policies and regulations are needed to guide the development of biogenic methane. For example, methane sources such as dairy farms and wastewater treatment facilities that are scattered around the world have few incentives –positive or negative – for accounting for their emissions.

Such spatially dispersed methane emitters require either greater support for monitoring and regulatory efforts or greater incentives for implementing small-scale methane management tools.

As a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow, May has collaborated with Z. Jason Ren, professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, to explore ways to convert carbon emissions into valuable fuels and chemicals through the use of microbial and electrochemical systems. He is professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina, as well as the Marine Biomedicine and Environmental Science Center at the Hollings Marine Laboratory.

Hal May facilitates a day-long workshop on biogenic methane at the Andlinger Center. (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

We need fully developed decision trees to understand when to prioritize cutting emissions and when to explore ways to harness biogenic methane.”

–Hal May

At the core of the Andlinger Center’s mission is a commitment to preparing present and future energy leaders with the skills and perspectives they need to tackle the global climate crisis. The Andlinger Center’s cross-cutting education programs equip researchers, policymakers, and global citizens with the interdisciplinary approaches and systems-level thinking skills they need to make a lasting impact on the pathway to net-zero. The Center’s many educational initiatives deliver knowledge and skills to a diverse set of learners, from Princeton’s community of undergraduate and graduate students, to its network of postdoctoral researchers and research scholars, all the way to academic peers at other institutions, top industry executives, and critical environmental policymakers.

By presenting cutting-edge information and nurturing a systems-level approach to today’s energy and environmental challenges, the Andlinger Center seeks to galvanize present and future generations toward a sustainable shared future. Through the knowledge we impart, the Andlinger Center provides talented thinkers with the courage to bring forth bold new solutions that have the potential to transform today’s energy and environmental systems.

Addressing the existential challenge of the climate crisis means empowering today’s and tomorrow’s forward-thinkers with the tools they need to create lasting change.

Barry Rand, professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, demonstrates for his students the mechanics of capturing and storing solar energy with the help of Tony Bastarache, a retired computer systems analyst and engineering enthusiast.

(Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Elke Weber, Associate Director for Education at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment, and Professor of Psychology and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

(Photo by David Kelly Crow)

andlinger center inform

146 Undergraduate Summer Interns by research area (2023)

114 Undergraduate Certificate Graduates by research area (2023)

52 Undergraduate and Graduate Courses by research area (2023)

17 Maeder Fellows by research area (2023)

Key

to Andlinger Center Research Areas

Built environment, transportation, and infrastructure

Electricity production, transmission, and storage

Fuels and chemicals

Environmental sensing and remediation

Decision and behavioral science, policy, and economics

Environmental and climate science

Alex Ban ’24, an undergraduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering, works with carbon samples during a course about negative emissions technologies.

(Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Certificate Programs: Preparing Future Energy Leaders

The Andlinger Center offers two undergraduate certificate programs for students from all backgrounds to gain practical knowledge and insight into the energy and environmental challenges facing the world today. The Program in Sustainable Energy teaches students about current energy resources, as well as how to develop sustainable energy systems that support economic growth alongside environmental well-being. The Program in Technology and Society: Energy Track, jointly administered with the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, prepares students to understand the co-evolution of society and technology, investigating the ways in which people interact with energy technologies to shape a sustainable shared future.

Celebrating Successes: Class Day and Certificate Symposium

The Andlinger Center celebrated 17 graduating seniors who received certificates in the Program in Sustainable Energy at its annual Class Day ceremony. The students, whose majors ranged from economics to mechanical and aerospace engineering, tackled timely energy and environmental topics in their senior thesis projects, which they had presented to a group of faculty two weeks earlier at the Certificate Symposium.

Claire Gmachl, interim director of the Andlinger Center, congratulated each of the students at the ceremony

and wished them the best in their future endeavors.

“Through their wonderful accomplishments, the Class of 2023 members of the Program in Sustainable Energy have enriched not only themselves, but the entire community,” said Gmachl, who is also the Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering.

At the Class Day ceremony, Katie Kruse, an economics concentrator, was awarded the Andlinger Center Senior Thesis Prize in Energy and the Environment. Her thesis investigated Russia’s exports of natural gas in the lead-up to its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Advised by Nancy Reichman, visiting professor of economics at Princeton, Kruse found that there was a marked decrease in natural gas exports through Ukraine from Russia leading up to the invasion. Using econometric models, Kruse showed that the decline in exports deviated significantly from trends and could not be solely explained by other factors that have historically driven the volume of Russia’s natural gas exports.

“The certificate program helped me investigate my interest in the intersection of economics and sustainable energy,” Kruse said. “I used a lot of the things that I learned in my classes for the Sustainable Energy certificate to write my thesis.”

The career trajectories of the graduates were as diverse as the students themselves. Some, like Francesca DiMare, a chemistry student, had plans to continue their academic careers by pursuing graduate degrees in science and engineering, while others, like Riti Bhandarkar, a civil and environmental engineering student, planned to enter into industry in a number of clean energy sectors.

Left: Certificate graduates gather in the Maeder Hall courtyard during Class Day 2023.

Right: Katie Kruse ‘23, winner of the Andlinger Center Senior Thesis Prize in Energy and the Environment (Photos by Lori M. Nichols)

Course Highlights

During the 2022-2023 academic year, Andlinger Center faculty offered 10 courses to graduate and undergraduate students, and 16 other courses taught by other Princeton faculty were cross-listed with the Andlinger Center. The classes addressed a wide range of energy and environmental issues, teaching students about both the scientific and engineering challenges of the energy transition as well as the human decision-making and policy factors that shape the reality of decarbonization strategies.

New! - Negative Emissions Technologies

Kelsey Hatzell, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, taught a new course on negative emissions technologies in the fall semester. Students in the class surveyed the field of carbon capture, conversion, and storage technologies that could play a critical role in the global energy transition. Throughout the semester, Hatzell explained the technical principles that underlie various carbon capture and conversion technologies and led students in hands-on exercises, such as a demonstration of how carbon dioxide can be valorized into solid carbon (top left).

Designing Sustainable Systems

In the fall semester, Forrest Meggers, associate professor of architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, led a course that challenged students to apply their knowledge of sustainable building practices to design and construct an outdoor study space for two people that used heat pump technology to keep its users comfortable. After teaching them the tenets of sustainable design, Meggers encouraged students to exchange their textbooks for power tools and taught them valuable troubleshooting skills as they constructed their demonstration structure (bottom left).

Supporting Our Student Community

The Andlinger Center supports Princeton University Energy Association (PUEA), an undergraduate-led student organization dedicated to raising awareness and interest in contemporary energy and environmental challenges.

PUEA’s fall conference convened energy experts around topics ranging from the future of fuels, environmental equity, distributed energy resources, and the environmental impacts of blockchain. The event kicked off with opening remarks from Claire Gmachl, who praised the engagement of the student attendees with the energy-related issues of today. Panelists included Minjie Chen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and Chris Greig, the Theodora D. ‘78 and William H. Walton III ‘74 Senior Research Scientist.

Vinay Konuru ’24, an undergraduate studying electrical and computer engineering and the president of Princeton University Energy Association, oversees the organization’s fall conference.

(Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Lighting Puerto Rico’s Energy Future

When Hurricane Maria rocked the island of Puerto Rico in 2017, causing massive damage and long-lasting power outages for millions of people, Arielle Rivera, an electrical and computer engineering student, saw a major problem that needed fixing. In addition to its tragic impact on human lives, Rivera, who lost contact with several relatives during and after Maria, said the hurricane made it clear that Puerto Rico’s energy infrastructure was exceedingly frail. Consequently, she arrived at Princeton in 2019 wanting to work on planning a resilient energygrid system on the island.

Her determination kicked off a series of experiences that deepened her appreciation for the complexities of energy systems planning. First, Rivera worked to support La Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montaña, a community organization in Puerto Rico striving to provide costeffective, resilient energy to sparsely populated communities in the island’s main mountain range, Cordillera Central. Next, she participated in an internship with the Environmental Defense Fund, supported by the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, to study the potential for rooftop solar-storage projects on Culebra, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Lastly, she worked with Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, on her senior thesis, which explored how Puerto Rico can make its electricity supply more resilient to climate disasters while meeting its ambitious energy goals.

Alongside her journey in energy systems planning, Rivera said her experience working with communities in Puerto Rico allowed her to deepen what she sees as an important part of her identity. “I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to connect with people and learn about their experiences,” she said. “I’ve been able to explore my family’s culture outside of my hometown in Maryland.”

Kanders Churchill Scholar Bridges Science and Policy

Aneesha Manocha, an electrical and computer engineering student, was selected as one of two Kanders Churchill Scholars. Manocha will spend a year pursuing an MPhil in Public Policy at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where she hopes to bridge the divide between energy systems researchers and policymakers. As an undergraduate at Princeton, Manocha worked closely with Jesse Jenkins. She led a research effort in Jenkins’ lab to model the benefits of co-locating solar and wind resources with energy storage to reduce transmission buildout and evaluate the value of energy storage on the electricity grid.

After the scholarship, Manocha will pursue a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California-Berkeley.

Arielle Rivera (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

(Photo by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy)

The energy crisis cannot be solved in silos.”

– Aneesha Manocha

summer internships

Andlinger Center

Summer Internships

The Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment awarded internship funds to 31 undergraduate students to support their work on 23 different energy- and environment-related research projects. Through the Andlinger Center’s internship program, undergraduates have the opportunity to work with Princeton faculty as well as nonprofit and government organizations to gain first-hand knowledge on a diverse range of topics, from the capture and remediation of microplastics from waterways to the development of messaging to promote pro-environmental behaviors.

The student internship program is supported by the Peter B. Lewis Fund for Student Innovation in Energy and the Environment and the Dede T. Bartlett P03 Fund for Student Research in Energy and the Environment. The program is also supported by Learning and Education in Service (LENS), a Princeton University commitment to ensure that all undergraduates have the opportunity to participate in a summer internship in service and social impact.

Built environment, transportation, and infrastructure

Laura Wunderlich (CEE ’24) / Associate Professor Claire White / Decarbonizing the Cement Industry

Ayanna Smith (MAE ’25) and Kelsey Wang (CHM ’24) / Associate Professor Forrest Meggers / Heat Pumps to Save the World

Electricity production, transmission, and storage

Clara Bloom (CEE ’26) / Senior Research Engineer

Eric Larson and Postdoctoral Research Associate

Arya Gunawan / CO2 Capture, Transport, and Storage Hubs for Decarbonizing Industry

Edward Deleu (ECE ’26) and Wonju Lee (ECE ’26) / Assistant Professor Minjie Chen / Automatic Characterization of High Frequency Power Magnetic Materials

Alex Moosbrugger (CEE ’24) / Assistant Professor

Jesse Jenkins and Associate Research Scholar

Fangwei Cheng / Evaluating the Trade-off Between Carbon Removal Technology, Fossil Fuel Coupled with Carbon Capture, and Hydrogen on Deep Decarbonization of the Power Sector

Tal Shpigel (ECE ‘26) / Assistant Professor

Egemen Kolemen / Fusion Engineering – Liquid Metal Technology

Justin Smallwood (MAE ’26) and Hao Teng (COS ’26) / Assistant Professor Kelsey Hatzell / X-ray Imaging of Solid State Batteries

Kayla Xu (COS ’26) / Assistant Professor

Egemen Kolemen / Fusion Engineering – Machine Learning for Fusion Data

Fuels and chemicals

Camila Cabrera Martinez (CBE ’24) / Assistant Professor Jonathan Conway / Analyzing and Engineering Cellulase and Hemicellulase Enzymes for Lignocellulosic Biofuels Applications

Sonia Ghoshal (ECE ’26) / Associate Professor

Claire White / Density Functional Theory Modeling to Investigate Iron-Graphite Interfaces

Yiling Li (Undecided ’26) and Tersoo Upaa (ECE ’26) / Associate Professor Barry Rand / Plasmon Enhanced Light-mediated Chemical Processes

Desiree Rivers (MAE ’26) / Professor Yiguang Ju / Plasma Assisted Ammonia Synthesis

Diana Savchyn (CBE ’25) / Assistant Professor

Jonathan Conway / Analyzing the Sugar Transport System in the Extremely Thermophilic Lignocellulose Degrading Bacterium Caldicelulosiruptor bescii

Dawood Virk (CBE ’25) / Professor Jamie Link / Engineering of PET Degrading Enzymes

Sonia Ghoshal (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Environmental sensing and remediation

Colin Bausley (CBE ’26) / Professor Howard Stone and Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow

Fernando Temprano-Coleto / Capturing Microplastics from Water using Inertial Microfluidics

Kelvin Green (CEE ’24) / Professor Howard Stone and Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow

Fernando Temprano-Coleto / Diffusiophoresis for the Efficient Remediation of Microplastics

Sophia Miller (CBE ’26) and Matthew Oh (CBE ’25) / Assistant Professor Michele Sarazen / Conversion of Waste Plastics on Tailored Bifunctional Catalysts

Decision and behavioral science, policy, and economics

Aaron Dantzler (ORF ’25) and Bibiane Kan (ECO ’26) / Professor Elke Weber / Social Norm Dynamics & Behavior and Organizational Change towards Net Zero Carbon Emissions

Aditi Desai (SPI ’24) / Environmental Defense Fund / Energy Transition Analytics

Kyle Gschwend (CEE ’26) and Rutva Shah (CEE ’26) / Moonshot Missions / Utility Technical Advisor Research

Sameer Riaz (MAE ’24) / Federal Energy Regulatory Commission / Energy Markets Regulation

Dominic Riendeau-Krause (ORF ’25) / Professor Ronnie Sircar / Quantifying Uncertainty in Electricity Generation

Kevin Yang (ORF ’26) / American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy / Messaging Comprehensive Retrofits

Environmental and climate science

Lilianna Gittoes (ORF ’24) / Senior Research Engineer Eric Larson and Associate Research Scholar

Fangwei Cheng / Carbon Balances for Forest-basedBioenergy with CO2 Capture and Storage

Exploring New Materials for Carbon Capture

Darius Rudasingwa Ganza came into his summer internship after his sophomore year eager to study and synthesize new materials with real-world impacts. And over the course of the summer working with Michele Sarazen, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, he went from being curious about creating carbon capture materials to being an active member of a research team.

Ganza’s project investigated the shelf-stability of various composite materials that were engineered to capture carbon directly from ambient air, as well as from flue gas emitted by power plants. A critical feature of any industrial carbon capture material is its ability to remain effective under varying environmental conditions and after many cycles of reuse. However, many well-studied carbon capture materials have demonstrated significant stability limitations, leading to lower carbon capture efficiencies in a matter of days.

Ganza helped the researchers in the Sarazen lab to synthesize and test the carbon capture efficiencies of different composite materials after storage in a range of different environments. He also helped to characterize the final materials to understand how their structure had changed during the experiments. His contributions to the project are reflected in his authorship on a peer-reviewed paper published in Materials Advances, which details the tradeoffs between carbon capture efficiency, rate, and stability of the materials he helped to test.

“The internship was an incredible opportunity to be involved as an undergraduate in the same thing that I had thought was only for postdocs and graduate students,” Ganza said. “It really helped to train me as a potential future researcher, and it opened my eyes to the possibilities of doing research.”

Darius Rudasingwa Ganza (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

Maeder Graduate Fellowship Unlocks

Fusion Energy’s Potential

Francisco Sáenz, a graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering, was awarded the Maeder Graduate Fellowship in Energy and the Environment for the 2023-2024 academic year. Sáenz, advised by Egemen Kolemen, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), will study liquid metals and their applications to fusion energy.

Fusion reactors produce a staggering amount of heat, causing solid metal reactor components to melt, erode, and become brittle during a reaction. Liquid metals, on the other hand, are mobile, which could allow them to dissipate heat much more effectively than solid metal components. However, their movement is slowed down by the strong magnetic forces inside fusion devices.

Sáenz is studying a new concept for fusion reactors known as ‘divertorlets,’ which would function like small trenches in the divertors of fusion devices. The divertorlets could allow liquid metals to flow continuously in a circular motion, minimizing the negative impacts of the magnetic forces in the reactor and allowing liquid metals to effectively dissipate heat.

Sáenz will work closely with collaborators at PPPL to model and develop a prototype of the divertorlets concept under realistic fusion reactor conditions, moving the promise of fusion energy closer to becoming a reality.

The Maeder Graduate Fellowship is supported by the Paul A. Maeder ‘75 Fund for Innovation in Energy and the Environment.

Previous Maeder Fellows –Where Are They Now?

2023-2024 Joanna Schneider (chemical and biological engineering) - thermal sciences associate at Exponent

2021-2022 Tianran Liu (chemical and biological engineering) - postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2021-2022 Karina Alventosa (civil and environmental engineering) - senior sustainability consultant at Greenstone Plus, a Cority company

2019-2020 Weitao Shuai (civil and environmental engineering) - research associate at Northwestern University

2018-2019 Hongshan Guo (architecture)principal data scientist at BNY Mellon

2018-2019 Evan Zhao (chemical and biological engineering) - chief science officer at Oddity Labs

2017-2018 Ching-Yao Lai (mechanical and aerospace engineering) - assistant professor at Stanford University

Exploring Nanomaterials

Suong (Su) Nguyen, the 2020-2021 Maeder Graduate Fellow, was awarded the 2023 Schmidt Science Fellowship. The fellowship is given to high-achieving, early-career scientists who are addressing global challenges through their research.

Nguyen, now a postdoc in the department of chemistry at MIT, received her Ph.D. from Princeton’s department of chemistry in 2022. She worked closely with Robert Knowles, professor of chemistry, to develop photocatalytic methods for breaking down biomass without the use of fossil fuels or harmful chemicals. At MIT, Nguyen has pivoted her research from organic chemistry to nanomaterials. She plans to use the Schmidt Science Fellowship to develop a new synthetic method for controlling the structure, morphology, and properties of biomaterials.

Francisco Sáenz (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

inform educating the public

Reunions: Seizing the Climate Mitigation Window

At Reunions 2023, Emily A. Carter, the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and senior strategic advisor and associate laboratory director for applied materials and sustainability sciences at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), spoke about new initiatives underway at Princeton and PPPL to seize current opportunities for climate change mitigation. To an audience of Princeton alumni, Carter described the challenges and opportunities of fusion energy, electromanufacturing, and solar radiation management, and she emphasized the need for multiple alternatives in order to chart a robust pathway to net-zero.

“We need to galvanize the incredible talent that exists at Princeton and PPPL to not only fix some of the sins of our carbon-emitting past, but also to think intentionally about what our energy transition will look like in the future,” said Carter.

Highlight Seminar Series

Gabriela Schlau-Cohen (October 2022), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Reducing the Energy Costs of Chemical Manufacturing: Bioinspired Light-Escalated Chemistry (BioLEC)”

Bruce Rittmann (October 2022), Arizona State University, “Wastewater and Beyond: From Treatment to Resource”

Christopher Bretherton (November 2022), University of Washington, “Climate Models Are Good; Can AI Make Them Better?”

Jennifer Wilcox (February 2023), U.S. Department of Energy, “The Role of Carbon Capture in Meeting Net-zero Carbon Goals”

Wintersession: From Research to Practice at the Andlinger Center

Forrest Meggers led a tour of the Andlinger Center and its innovative energy-saving features during a Wintersession event. Wintersession is a winter break program at Princeton created to cultivate community and teach students, faculty, and staff new skills and passions. During his behind-the-scenes tour of the Andlinger Center building, Meggers explained the thoughtful design approach that is necessary to build and manage energy efficient buildings to a large group of students and staff. Meggers also discussed the ways in which research taking place at the Andlinger Center interfaces with the rest of Princeton’s campus, from thin-film photovoltaics to environmentally friendly materials for concrete.

David Keith (March 2023), Harvard University, “Solar Geoengineering: Known, Unknown, and Unknowable”

Sir Peter Bruce (April 2023), Oxford University, “Solid-State Batteries: Opportunities and a Challenge of Interfaces”

Emily A. Carter addresses Princeton alumni during the Reunions event in the Maeder Hall courtyard.

(Photo by Adena Stevens)

David Keith of Harvard University expounds on the challenges and opportunities of solar geoengineering during a Highlight Seminar. (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)

andlinger center for energy and the environment 2022-23

Leadership and Staff

Claire F. Gmachl

Interim Director, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering; Head, Whitman College

Barry Rand

Associate Director for External Partnerships, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Z. Jason Ren

Associate Director for Research, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Elke U. Weber

Associate Director for Education, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Gerhard R. Andlinger

Professor in Energy and the Environment; Professor in Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Diane Carlino

Executive Director for Administration

Victoria Cleave

Assistant Director, BioLEC

Bumper DeJesus

Visual Communications Specialist

Diana Dudash

Program Administrator for E-ffiliates and Events

Robert Eich

Program Administrator for Research

Vivian Fuhrman

Assistant Director for External Partnerships

Sarah Jackson

Administrative Assistant

Brenda Mikeo

Business Manager

Colton Poore

Communications Specialist

Ashlee Prewitt-Crosby

Grants and Finance Manager

Moira Selinka

Program Manager, Education and Outreach

Charlie Sharpless

Assistant Director for Research

Faculty and Researchers

José Avalos

Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Emily A. Carter

Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment; Senior Strategic Advisor and Associate Lab Director for Applied Materials and Sustainability Sciences, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)

Minjie Chen

Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

David Gates

Senior Research Scholar, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Managing Research Physicist, Advanced Projects Department Head, PPPL (on leave)

Christopher Greig

Theodora D. ’78 and William H. Walton III ’74 Senior Research Scientist, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Kelsey B. Hatzell

Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Jesse Jenkins

Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Egemen Kolemen

Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and Research Physicist, PPPL

Eric Larson

Senior Research Engineer, Energy Systems Analysis Group, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo

Chief Executive Officer, Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation; Theodora D. ‘78 and William H. Walton III ‘74 Professor in Engineering, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering (on leave)

Christos Maravelias

Anderson Family Professor in Energy and the Environment; Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Chair, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Forrest Meggers

Associate Professor of Architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Barry P. Rand

Associate Director for External Partnerships, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Z. Jason Ren

Associate Director for Research, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Elke U. Weber

Associate Director for Education, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment; Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Claire E. White

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

External Advisory Council

D. Michelle Addington

Dean, School of Architecture; Henry M. Rockwell Chair in Architecture University of Texas at Austin

Merrick G. Andlinger ’80

President Andlinger & Company, Inc.

Sally Benson

Professor, Energy Resources Engineering Stanford University (on leave)

Yet-Ming Chiang

Kyocera Professor of Ceramics Massachusetts Institute of Technology

David Eaglesham

Founder and Chief Technology Officer Electric Hydrogen

Menachem Elimelech

Roberto Goizueta Professor of Environmental and Chemical Engineering; Director, Environmental Engineering Program

Yale University

Peter Green

Deputy Laboratory Director, Science and Technology; Chief Research Officer

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Jennifer Holmgren

Chief Executive Officer LanzaTech

Catherine McVay Hughes ‘82 President’s Council

Ceres

Ralph Izzo

Former Chairman, President, and CEO PSEG

Paul A. Maeder ’75

Managing General Partner & Founder Highland Capital Partners

Linda F. Nazar, FRS, FRSC, Order of Canada Waterloo Distinguished Research Professor, Senior Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials; Department of Chemistry and the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology; University of Waterloo

Gregory H. Olsen

President

GHO Ventures, LLC

Geeta Thakorlal

Executive Group Director, Information & Digital Delivery, Worley

Matthew Tirrell

Dean and Founding Pritzker Director, Institute for Molecular Engineering University of Chicago

Deputy Laboratory Director for Science Argonne National Laboratory

William H. Walton III ’74 P21

Managing Member and Co-Founder Rockpoint Group, LLC

Elizabeth Wilson

Professor of Environmental Studies; Director, Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society Dartmouth College

Executive Committee

Craig B. Arnold

Vice Dean for Innovation; Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

René A. Carmona

Paul M. Wythes ’55 Professor of Engineering and Finance; Professor of Operations Research and Financial Engineering

Emily A. Carter

Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment; Senior Strategic Advisor and Associate Lab Director for Applied Materials and Sustainability Sciences, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)

Sir Steven C. Cowley

Director, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; Professor of Astrophysical Sciences

Claire F. Gmachl

Interim Director, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering; Head, Whitman College

Chris Greig

Theodora D. ’78 and William H. Walton III ’74 Senior Research Scientist, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Peter R. Jaffé

William L. Knapp ’47 Professor of Civil Engineering; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Egemen Kolemen

Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Christos Maravelias

Anderson Family Professor in Energy and the Environment, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Chair, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Denise Mauzerall

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public and International Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Forrest Meggers

Associate Professor of Architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Anu Ramaswami

Sanjay Swani ’87 Professor of India Studies; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Director, M.S. Chadha Center for Global India

Barry P. Rand

Associate Director for External Partnerships, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Richard Register

Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Director, Princeton Materials Institute (PMI)

Z. Jason Ren

Associate Director for Research, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Gregory Scholes

William S. Tod Professor of Chemistry; Chair, Department of Chemistry

Sankaran Sundaresan

Norman John Sollenberger Professor in Engineering; Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Gabriel A. Vecchi

Professor, Geosciences and High Meadows Environmental Institute; Director, High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University

Elke U. Weber

Associate Director for Education, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment; Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Claire E. White

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Mark A. Zondlo

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

andlinger center for energy and the environment 2022-23

Supporters

The Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University is grateful to the following supporters whose gifts help to realize the vision of the center. 2022-2023 donors are denoted with asterisks.

Gerhard R. Andlinger ’52 Founding Gift

James W. and Dede T. Bartlett to the Dede T. Bartlett P03 Fund for Student Research in Energy and the Environment*

John E. Bartlett ’03 to the Dede T. Bartlett P03 Fund for Student Research in Energy and the Environment*

F. Clement Dinsmore, J.D. ’65 to further the center’s mission*

Gerald P. Kaminsky to the David P. Simons Fund for Energy and the Environment*

Leigh Walzer ’81 to further the center’s mission*

Ari I. Weinberg ’99 to further the center’s mission*

Lydia B. and William M. Addy ’82 to establish the Addy/ ISN North American Low Carbon Emission Energy Self-Sufficiency Fund to support innovative research, equipment, policy development, and teaching

Dwight W. Anderson ’89 to establish the Anderson Family Professorship in Energy and the Environment

Tia S. Barancik ’83 to establish the Class of 1983 Fund for Energy and the Environment

Solomon D. Barnett ’05 to further the center’s mission

Peter J. Bartlett ’77 and Erin T. Bartlett to further the center’s mission

Charles A. Bernheim ’57 to further the center’s mission

Erik C. Blachford ’89 to further the center’s mission

Patricia A. and Dante G. Bonardi to the David P. Simons Fund for Energy and the Environment

Howard E. Cox, Jr. ’64 to the WEF/Young Global Leaders Executive Education Module

John E. Cross ’72 and Mary Tiffany Cross to further the center’s mission

Nancy A. Curtin ’79 and John Stafford to establish the Nancy A. Curtin ’79 and John Stafford Research Innovation Fund

John O. Dabiri ’01 to establish the John O. Dabiri ’01 Family Fund for Excellence in Energy and Environmental Research

The de Carvalho-Heineken Family to establish the de Carvalho-Heineken Family Fund for Environmental Studies for faculty and student research

John P. Drzik ’83 and Ann L. Thorsell ’83 to establish the John Drzik and Ann Thorsell Fund for Innovation

A. Donald Grosset, Jr. ’54 in memory of John E. Stauffer ’54

High Meadows Foundation to establish the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment Director’s Fund

Kerry L. and William F. Holekamp for equipment

Thomas W. Horton Family for equipment

Fred W. Kittler, Jr. ’70 to further the center’s mission

Peter C. Klosowicz ’76 to establish the Peter C. Klosowicz ’76 Fund for Energy and the Environment for research and teaching

David T. Liu ’99 *04 to further the center’s mission

Sally Liu ’87 and Bay-Wei W. Chang ’87 to establish the Sally Liu ’87 and Bay Chang ’87 Fund for Energy and the Environment

David R. Loevner ‘76 and Catherine P. Loevner to support the Rapid Switch Initiative

Paul A. Maeder ’75 for construction of Maeder Hall and to establish the Paul A. Maeder ’75 Fund for Innovation in Energy and the Environment for graduate fellowships

Jay P. Mandelbaum ’84 to establish the Laurie and Jay P. Mandelbaum ’84 Fund for Energy and the Environment

Lisa Lee Morgan ’76 *79 for research in renewable energy

William N. Neidig ’70 and Christy E. Neidig to further the center’s mission

Nicholas J. Nicholas, Jr. ’62 to establish the Nicholas Family Fund for the Environment to advance public understanding of important issues related to energy and the environment

Nicholas G. Nomicos ’84 and Kathleen Connor Nomicos ’84 to establish the Nicholas and Kathleen Nomicos Class of 1984 Fund for the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment to advance public understanding of important issues related to energy and the environment

Gregory H. Olsen to establish the Gregory H. Olsen Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund

Sarah Finnie Robinson ’78 and Jackson W. Robinson to further the center’s mission

Mark F. Rockefeller ’89 to establish the Renee and Mark F. Rockefeller ’89 Fund for the Environment for faculty and student research

Ernest H. Ruehl, Jr. ’85 to establish the Ruehl Family Fund for the Environment for faculty and student research

Elchin A. Safarov and Dilyara Allakhverdova to further the center’s mission

Patrick and Mary Scanlan to further the center’s mission

Gloria G. and Karl F. Schlaepfer ’49 to further the center’s mission and to establish the Schlaepfer Family Fund for equipment

Richard and Enika Schulze Foundation for research

Erika Simons to the David P. Simons Fund for Energy and the Environment

Kent C. Simons ’57 to establish the David P. Simons Fund for Energy and the Environment

Alexander L. Smorczewski ’07 to further the center’s mission

Valerie Brown Stauffer to establish the John E. Stauffer ’54 Teaching Laboratories in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Lewis W. van Amerongen ’62 to establish the Lewis W. van Amerongen ’62 Fund for Energy Research for equipment

Alex L. Volckhausen ’93, Sharon Volckhausen ’91, and Mrs. William A. Volckhausen to support the Rapid Switch Initiative

William H. Walton, III ’74 and Theodora D. Walton ’78 to establish the Theodora D. ‘78 and William H. Walton, III ‘74 Research Scientist Fund

Maura Wong ’88 and Kenneth Chen ’87 to further the center’s mission

Anonymous gifts for construction of the Andlinger Center building

Anonymous gift for environmental policy research

Anonymous gift for the highest priorities of the center, including research, equipment, and a visitors program

Anonymous gift for research

Anonymous gift to establish the Peter B. Lewis Fund for Student Innovation in Energy and the Environment for student projects, particularly field work and laboratory research

Anonymous gift to establish the Sustainability Fund for student research

Anonymous gift for research in carbon sequestration, solar energy, and fusion energy

Anonymous gift to establish the Parallax Fund for Energy and the Environment for faculty and student research

Anonymous gift to support the Rapid Switch Initiative

Where to Find Us

Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

86 Olden Street Princeton University

Princeton, NJ 08544

Email acee@princeton.edu

Phone 609-258-4899

Web https://acee.princeton.edu

LinkedIn @andlingercenter

Twitter @AndlingerCenter

Facebook @andlingercenter

Youtube @AndlingerCenter

Writer and Editor

Colton Poore

Visuals and Design

Bumper DeJesus

Contributing Editors

Diane Carlino, Vivian Fuhrman, Moira Selinka, and Charlie Sharpless

Contributing Writers

Glen Chua, Steven Schultz, Claire Grace Shin, and John Sullivan

Project Manager

Robert Eich

Design

Smith + Manning

Photographers

David Kelly Crow, Bumper DeJesus, Lori M. Nichols, Adena Stevens, and Frank Wojciechowski

Copyright © 2023 by The Trustees of Princeton University

In the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity

Princeton University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. The Andlinger Center particularly invites applications from women and members of underrepresented minorities. For information about applying to Princeton and how to self-identify, please visit: https://dof.princeton.edu/academicjobs

Nondiscrimination Statement

In compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and other federal, state and local laws, Princeton University does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, religion, national or ethnic origin, disability, genetic information, or veteran status in any phase of its employment process, in any phase of its admission or financial aid programs, or other aspects of its educational programs or activities. The vice provost for institutional equity and diversity is the individual designated by the University to coordinate its efforts to comply with Title IX, Section 504 and other equal opportunity and affirmative action regulations and laws. Questions or concerns regarding Title IX, Section 504 or other aspects of Princeton’s equal opportunity or affirmative action programs should be directed to Michele Minter, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity, Princeton University, 205 Nassau Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 or 609-2586110. Further, inquiries about the application of Title IX and its supporting regulations may also be directed to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education.

Photo by Bumper DeJesus

COVER Tunvarat Pruksachat / GettyImages

Top: Lin Lin, a postdoctoral researcher, conducts battery testing in Kelsey Hatzell’s lab. Holly Johnson, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, looks over microscopy image data with Barry Rand

Bottom: Michael Soskind, graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, stands next to a hovering drone that is capable of pinpointing greenhouse gas leaks. Churchill Scholar and undergraduate, Aneesha Manocha ’23, presents her research on co-locating renewable energy resources and energy storage at the certificate symposium. (Photos by Bumper DeJesus)