Recognition

RASEI Physicist Recognized for Pioneering Materials Research

Daniel Morton — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 16:49:21 +0000

RASEI Physicist Recognized for Pioneering Materials Research Daniel Morton Fri, 03/28/2025 - 10:49

Daniel Morton

In a celebration of scientific excellence, RASEI Fellow Ivan Smalyukh has been named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), joining an elite group of 471 distinguished scientists, engineers, and innovators.

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College Press Release

AAAS Press Release

A Journey of Scientific Discovery

Smalyukh's remarkable journey in science began in Ukraine, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees with highest honors from Lviv Polytechnic National University in 1994 and 1995. After completing his PhD in chemical physics from Kent State University in 2003, he joined �� Boulder's faculty in 2007, quickly establishing himself as a pioneering researcher in materials science.

Cutting-Edge Research with a Purpose

What sets Smalyukh apart is not just his scientific research, but his commitment to addressing global challenges. His research spans an impressive range of fields, including:

Soft-condensed-matter physics
Optical physics
Liquid crystal properties
Nano-structured materials
Photonic and electro-optic applications

"We aspire to uncover fundamental physical principles underlying material properties," Smalyukh explains. "But our ultimate goal is practical – to contribute to a sustainable future by designing innovative materials that can help reduce energy demand and combat climate change."

A Multifaceted Scientist

Beyond his primary appointment in physics, Smalyukh's expertise extends across multiple disciplines. He holds courtesy appointments in electrical and computer engineering and is a fellow of RASEI.

Recognition and Impact

Smalyukh's contributions have not gone unnoticed. He has previously been honored with:

Fellow of the American Physical Society
Department of Energy Early Career Research Award
National Science Foundation CAREER Award

When reflecting on this latest honor, Smalyukh's gratitude shines through. "I am especially grateful to the many students and postdocs who have worked with me over nearly 20 years at �� Boulder," he said, highlighting the collaborative nature of scientific discovery.

A Continuing Legacy

With this AAAS fellowship, Smalyukh joins 80 other �� Boulder professors who have received this prestigious recognition since 1981. His work continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in materials science, offering hope for more sustainable and innovative solutions to global challenges.

March 2025

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Big Award for Understanding the Tiny

Daniel Morton — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:26:24 +0000

Big Award for Understanding the Tiny Daniel Morton Tue, 03/25/2025 - 13:26

Tara McMurty

RASEI Fellow Steven Spurgeon has been awarded the Burton Medal for his work harnessing AI and Machine Learning to accelerate the study of the microscopic world of energy materials

By Tara McMurty | Adapted from an article originally published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Find out more

Original NREL Article

MSA Press Release

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) materials data scientist and RASEI Fellow Steven R. Spurgeon has been honored with the Microscopy Society of America’s (MSA’s) Burton Medal award. The award, which is given annually to a single physical sciences researcher under the age of 40, is the highest honor the MSA bestows upon early-career scientists in the field of microscopy and microanalysis.

“I’ve been involved with the MSA for 15 years and have been fortunate to work with amazing leaders in the field of microscopy,” Spurgeon said. “To be recognized with this award and join their ranks is a true honor.”

Throughout his career, Spurgeon has pioneered the integration of machine learning (ML) with electron microscopy, using artificial intelligence (AI), to help make sense of the detailed images generated by electron microscopes. This approach not only dramatically enhances the efficiency of microscopy techniques; it also provides new insights into the behavior of functional materials—like silicon microprocessors used in computers and cell phones—at the atomic level. These insights enable researchers to fine-tune material properties and enhance efficiency to drive advancements in energy solutions.

“Dr. Spurgeon’s pioneering work at the intersection of AI and microscopy continues to transform materials science,” said Katherine Jungjohann, who manages NREL’s Analytical Microscopy and Imaging Science group. “His visionary leadership and groundbreaking research make him a truly deserving recipient of the Burton Medal.”

Spurgeon’s journey to the AI/microscopy frontier began with a deep curiosity about the fundamental building blocks of matter. As a graduate student at Drexel University, he studied materials science and engineering, focusing on developing new functional materials. After Spurgeon completed his Ph.D., he joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), first as a postdoctoral research associate, and later as a staff scientist in the laboratory’s longstanding thin-film Basic Energy Sciences program. At PNNL, he developed new functional materials that could be used for energy storage and computing, which was recognized by the PNNL Laboratory Director’s Award for Early Career Achievement. He also had a realization that would shape the trajectory of his career.

AI-powered tools like transformers—which is what the “T” in ChatGPT stands for—began to emerge in the scientific community about 10 years ago and were used in areas like processing internet data and building autonomous vehicles. Watching the rise of these ML tools, Spurgeon began to wonder if they could benefit his own field of work.

“I realized we were collecting and analyzing all our data by hand,” Spurgeon recalled. “That made me ask, ‘Can we use AI to accelerate our experiments so that humans don’t have to make every single decision?’ I saw that machine learning could help us analyze larger datasets, uncover patterns that would be difficult to detect manually, and ultimately shorten the time to discovery.”

Inspired by these possibilities, Spurgeon helped launch an AI initiative at PNNL and established a groundbreaking partnership with industry to design a completely new AI-infused microscope. His efforts led to the development of the Autonomous Electron Microscope (AutoEM), a platform that leverages AI to improve the way researchers study and understand functional materials. The platform, which enables researchers to conduct analyses up to 1,000 times faster than traditional methods, earned Spurgeon and his team an R&D 100 Award in 2024.

“During his time at PNNL, Dr. Spurgeon rapidly ascended to international prominence in AI-guided materials science and electron microscopy,” said Sergei Kalinin, chief scientist of Physics-Informed Machine Learning at PNNL. “He established himself as a brilliant researcher, a staunch advocate for our field, and an exceptional mentor, and he continues this reputation today.”

After nearly 10 years at PNNL, Spurgeon joined NREL’s Material Science team in May 2024 with a mission to lead research on autonomous materials science and characterization in the development of new energy technologies.

“I joined NREL to help establish a forward-thinking vision for autonomous science,” Spurgeon said. “NREL's leadership in emerging energy technologies, coupled with its proactive approach to integrating AI, creates an environment like no other, where researchers can strategically innovate and push the boundaries of energy solutions.”

Since joining NREL, Spurgeon has integrated autonomous capabilities into lab workflows, established new industry partnerships, and created effective teams. In May 2025, he is organizing a workshop to convene leading experts to explore practical, real-world applications of autonomous research.

His work has sped up experiments and led to faster discoveries in energy materials and microelectronics, which translates to tangible benefits for NREL’s partners and the wider community. Moving forward, he is focused on using AI to develop important materials—like advanced semiconductors and catalysts—that could lead to major breakthroughs in technology.

As Spurgeon explained, “AI-driven autonomy in materials science is the key to breaking through current research bottlenecks. It allows us to move beyond incremental improvements and achieve truly transformative discoveries in the energy materials we use every day, saving money and improving resilience.”

Reflecting on his career, Spurgeon identified the thrill of discovery, bolstered by persistence in the face of failure, as a driving factor in all that he has achieved.

“Breakthroughs don’t come easily. They often follow many, many failures,” Spurgeon said. “But every once in a while, you get a new process to work or you uncover a phenomenon no one has seen before. Those moments of seeing something for the first time—something no one else has seen—are what make me come to work every day.”

Beyond the personal satisfaction of pushing the boundaries of knowledge, Spurgeon finds inspiration in the support of the scientific community and in the impact of his work on real-world technologies.

“When you’re all pushing in the same direction, you can help each other, share in the struggles, and celebrate the wins,” Spurgeon said. “It has been especially rewarding to work with so many talented early-career staff and students over the years.”

Spurgeon also recognizes that the focus of his work—AI integration—has been the subject of a fair amount of debate in recent years.

“We're at the start of a significant transformation in science, but the essence of the scientific process—generating and testing a hypothesis—still belongs to humans,” Spurgeon said. “AI can help us analyze more data and refine our decision-making, but it’s still on us as scientists to take responsibility for our conclusions.”

With this in mind, Spurgeon emphasizes the importance of building practical, trustworthy AI implementations whose conclusions can be clearly explained and that provide real value for users.

Looking ahead, Spurgeon is optimistic: “The future of materials science lies in the collaborative power of AI and human ingenuity. Together, we'll push the boundaries of innovation and improve the lives of everyone around the world.”

March 2025

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RASEI Fellow Maureen McCann named NREL Senior Research Fellow

Daniel Morton — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 23:00:30 +0000

RASEI Fellow Maureen McCann named NREL Senior Research Fellow Daniel Morton Fri, 02/21/2025 - 16:00

February 2025

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Innovative Wind Turbine Control Earns Lucy Pao Prestigious IEEE Award

Daniel Morton — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:03:00 +0000

Innovative Wind Turbine Control Earns Lucy Pao Prestigious IEEE Award Daniel Morton Thu, 12/19/2024 - 08:03

Daniel Morton

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) Fellow Lucy Pao, from the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder, is travelling to Milan, Italy, this December to receive the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award.

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IEEE Conference on Decision and Control

Read the Article

ForWind Center

Collaboration Highlight

Each year a panel reviews papers nominated from the past two years and selects an article of high significance. The paper, published in 2022, describes the first experimental implementation of Model Predictive Control of the pitch angles of the blades in wind turbines. The Award Ceremony will be held on December 18, 2024, as part of the 2024 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, held at the Milan Convention Centre in Italy.

Model Predictive Control (MPC) is an established control technique that is popular in the general control systems community. One of the primary demonstrated applications for MPC is in process chemistry for the large-scale manufacture of pharmaceuticals and commodity chemicals. This paper describes, for the first time, the application of this technique in the blade pitch control of wind turbines. Control systems in wind turbines are essential for optimizing their performance, ensuring safety, and maximizing energy output. By monitoring key parameters such as blade pitch, rotor speed, yaw angle, and blade root bending moment, the control system can adapt to changing wind conditions, enhancing the efficiency of power generation and reducing mechanical stress on components, helping to extend the turbine’s lifespan.

“MPC is a very nice approach, but it is computationally complex,” explained Lucy. “There is an optimization that needs to be done at every time step, so getting it into a form where we could implement it, was a challenge”.

While MPC is a computationally intensive approach, the benefits for wind turbines are significant. Many wind turbine control systems are based on a feedback-only system, where the adjustments are based on feedback of what is happening now. MPC enables preview information to be included, so, for example, you can incorporate knowledge of a gust coming through and the controls can prepare the turbine ahead of time, which can reduce structural loading on that turbine. It changes the control system from simply being responsive to stimuli, to instead being proactive to knowledge of the conditions, essentially letting the wind turbine “see into the future”.

The MPC approach could have significant impacts on how wind turbines are controlled, not only improving their efficiency, but also reducing structural stress on the turbines and extending their lifetimes.

“We are really very excited about this award,” said Pao. “This has been a wonderful collaboration with our colleagues at the ForWind Center for Wind Energy Research in Oldenburg Germany. We started in 2016, with an experimental campaign in 2019 that led to this paper”. Misha Sinner, the lead author of the study, was a graduate student working with Lucy Pao and is now a Research Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Misha travelled to Germany to lead this experimental campaign, and worked together with the team in Germany, led by Martin Kühn, to apply MPC to the turbines. “This was a complex experiment to run, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the team of experts and infrastructure at ForWind,” said Misha. “The collaboration has been a really symbiotic relationship; I really value Martin’s input, support, and feedback on the work,” said Lucy.

The collaboration was sparked over a meeting in Stuttgart in 2015. “Martin and I were both external evaluators on a PhD defense for a student at the University of Stuttgart. We had lots of opportunities to chat, and when I mentioned that I was coming up on a sabbatical, he suggested a fellowship that I could apply for that would enable me to work with them,” explained Lucy. This was the start of the long and fruitful collaboration among the team.

There is hope that the recognition that the award brings will accelerate adoption of advanced control systems by the wind energy industry. “MPC can take into account constraints on the wind turbine system, and it is flexible enough to incorporate preview wind information,” said Lucy. This could provide significant improvements in the efficiency and lifetime of future wind turbines. “It is a really nice control framework, and while it has been looked at in the simulation context, it had not been examined experimentally for blade pitch control, to our knowledge,” said Lucy. “We have heard that Industry is looking at MPC, but we don’t know whether it has made it into their actual controllers. The wind turbine industry can be quite secretive about what they are doing”.

The MPC approach could have significant impact on future, and existing wind turbines, by giving the control system the chance to effectively “see into the future” by a couple to tens of seconds so the turbine can prepare itself. “We are very excited and really touched by this award,” emphasized Lucy, with the hope that this will catch the attention of those in the wind turbine industry.

December 2024

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2024 VinFuture Sci-Tech Week and Awards

Daniel Morton — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 19:18:25 +0000

2024 VinFuture Sci-Tech Week and Awards Daniel Morton Sat, 12/07/2024 - 12:18

Daniel Morton

Find out more

The VinFuture Prize

�� Boulder Press Release

Anseth Award Summary

Q&A with Kristi

2024 Awards Summary

RASEI Director Seth Marder spoke at the 2024 VinFuture Sci-Tech Week and Awards Ceremony, where �� Boulder Colleague Kristi Anseth was honored with the Special Prize for Women Innovators Award.

December 2024 – This week in Hanoi, Vietnam, the VinFuture Foundation hosted the 2024 Sci-Tech week and award Ceremony. This series of world-class events bring together leading scientists and experts from across a range of critical scientific fields, including materials science, artificial intelligence, air pollution and environmental studies. The capstone of the week is the Award Ceremony, recognizing scientists for their groundbreaking achievements that have significant societal impact.

RASEI Director Seth Marder was an invited keynote speaker in the Materials for a Sustainable Future session. �� Boulder colleague Kristi Anseth received the 2024 Women Innovators Award, recognized for the advancement in design of polymeric biomaterials and methods for biomedical applications. Kristi is a pioneer in the development of biomaterial cell culture systems, critical components in the regulation of tissue development, maintenance and regeneration. Her team has designed new materials that can be engineered for tissue regeneration and accelerate healing of disease states. This provides a foundation for the study of 4-D biology in vitro with responsive and synthetic biomaterials, regenerating tissues across the human body.

Congratulations Kristi!

December 2024

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2024 Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher Awards

Daniel Morton — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:12:12 +0000

2024 Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher Awards Daniel Morton Tue, 11/19/2024 - 13:12

Find out more:

2024 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers

Five RASEI Fellows awarded the Highly Cited Researcher designation by Clarivate.

Each year Clarivate analyzes the citations of articles from researchers from across the sciences. From this analysis Clarivate highlights the researchers who have authored multiple highly cited papers which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field(s) and publication year in the Web of Science over the past decade.

This year five RASEI Fellows featured in the 2024 Highly Cited Researcher list, which includes 6,886 researchers. This year Matt Beard, Joe Berry, Joey Luther, Mike McGehee and Mike Toney were selected. For Matt, Mike and Joey, this is the fifth year in the row, the fourth year in a row for Joe Berry and the third year in a row for Mike Toney.

Congratulation to everyone for the recognition of the impact of their research.

11/19/2024

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RASEI Fellows receive 2024-2025 Deloitte and CIC Research Awards

Daniel Morton — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 21:11:59 +0000

RASEI Fellows receive 2024-2025 Deloitte and CIC Research Awards Daniel Morton Mon, 11/11/2024 - 14:11

Daniel Morton

The Climate Innovation Collaboratory (CIC) was launched as a collaborative venture between �� Boulder and Deloitte, with the goal of translating cutting-edge climate research and data into meaningful climate solutions for businesses, organization, government agencies and communities.

This year three RASEI Fellows were recipients of awards to develop long-term engagements with Deloitte and expand access to critical climate data analytics, research and technology. These projects explore how the renewable energy grid can be built out to offer clean solutions for AI data centers and greater adoption of electric vehicles.

RASEI Fellow Bri-Mathias Hodge is the principal investigator for a project titled “Interconnection Planning for Large Data Centers”. The goal is to develop a system planning tool to automate the initial processes needed for utilities to identify generation expansion, network reinforcement, and asset upgrades to meet the demands of new data centers. This work will help utilities, grid operators, and data center operators to deal with the expansion in the number and energy usage of data centers at the state, regional, and international levels. With the rise of AI, seen as the industrial revolution of the 21^st century, better understanding of how and where to place the data centers that are the engines driving this transformation will be critical.

RASEI Fellow Kyri Baker is the principal investigator for a project titled “Viability of long- and short-duration energy storage for AI Data Centers: Carbon, Cost, and Reliability”. This project combines the benefits of short and long duration energy storage to increase uptime, improve renewable energy utilization, and lower payback periods for AI data centers. By developing an optimization framework for data centers energy storage that leverages price and renewable energy forecasts to co-optimize cost, carbon, and resilience. Creation of a tool that optimizes data energy storage would have significant relevance to commercial and government clients seeking to lower data center consumption.

RASEI Fellow Stephanie Weber is the principal investigator for a project titled “EV Infrastructure and local economic spillovers”. This project seeks to understand both how the construction of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure affects the surrounding areas as well as the tradeoffs associated with prioritizing equity in public charging locations. This will help inform state and national governments in the deployment of EV charging stations, to help incentivize EV adoption, and better understand the non-monetary impact of building EV chargers.

11/11/2024

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2024 Earthshot Prize for Fix Our Climate

Daniel Morton — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 19:09:13 +0000

2024 Earthshot Prize for Fix Our Climate Daniel Morton Wed, 11/06/2024 - 12:09

Daniel Morton

Find out more about the award

Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems

ATS Award Press Release

The Earthshot Prize

ATS Award Information

RASEI Graduate Jake Perez (Shaheen Group) and Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems Team Win 2024 Earthshot Prize to Transform Our Planet

Pioneering Energy Solution Converts Industrial waste Heat into Clean Electricity, Revolutionizing Global Energy Use

The Earthshot Prize, inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” challenge in 1962 to land a man on the moon, was launched by Prince William in 2020 to search for, and scale, the most innovative solutions to the world’s greatest environmental needs. The aim is to unleash the urgent optimism required to accelerate and scale the environmental innovations that will repair and regenerate our planet. In 2024 there were over 5,000 nominations across five categories. One of the 20 winners was the Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems (ATS) team, including Jake Perez, a RASEI alum.

The ATS team was awarded the distinguished 2024 Earthshot “Fix Our Climate” prize for their transformative efforts against climate change. Chosen from 5,342 nominations across 141countries, this prestigious award was recently celebrated at the Earthshot Prize ceremony in Cape Town, that brought together global stakeholders in the fight to save the climate, including Prince William and Sir David Attenborough.

Waste heat is everywhere. Globally, of the energy used to power the industries that the world needs, such as cement and steel, approximately 60% is simply lost as waste. This wasted heat is the equivalent of the energy used by 4 billion homes, twice the number of homes that are on the planet. It is a huge economic and environmental cost. ATS’s revolutionary technology has the potential to redefine the energy sector by tackling the colossal challenge of industrial waste heat, by changing perspectives and considering this ‘waste heat’ as an untapped resource.

ATS has developed a solid-state approach to harness electricity from waste heat, eliminating the resilience on moving parts. This is a shift from traditional turbine-approaches that are complex, have a lot of moving parts and can often rely on hazardous chemicals. The ATS cartridge system is designed for seamless integration across a wide range of industrial applications. You can learn more about the team and the technology that they are developing on this short video.

Congratulations to Jake Perez, who is a RASEI alumni from the Shaheen Group, and the whole team at ATS! Excited to see what is next!

11/06/2024

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RASEI Innovators awarded Lab Venture Challenge Prizes

Daniel Morton — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 20:59:29 +0000

RASEI Innovators awarded Lab Venture Challenge Prizes Daniel Morton Mon, 10/28/2024 - 14:59

Daniel Morton

Fourteen teams from across the University of Colorado competed for a combined total of $1.25M in startup funding grants as part of the 2024 Lab Venture Challenge (LVC).

Judges from across the network heard Shark-Tank-Style pitches across two evenings, one for innovations in biosciences, and another for physical sciences and engineering. Two RASEI Fellows, Gregor Henze and Adam Holewinski were members of two of the successful teams, being awarded a total of $250k in startup funding ($125k each).

Find out more about EcoValeric Innovations

Visit EcoValeric Innovation's website

EcoValeric Innovations

RASEI Fellow Adam Holewinski was the lead for EcoValeric Innovations, built around an electrochemical process that converts biomass-based building blocks (levulinic acid) into commodity chemicals (4-hydroxyvaleric acid (HVA)), versatile intermediates for producing biodegradable plastics, biofuels and green solvents. This scalable, renewable process has the potential to significantly reduce the reliance on fossil fuels in a sustainable fashion. Also on the EcoValeric team were CEO Roberta Leão and CTO Will Lucas.

Find out more about Whisper Energy

Visit Whisper Energy's website

Whisper Energy

RASEI Fellow Gregor Henze was the lead for Whisper Energy, built around the development of a wireless, battery-free sensor platform for smart buildings. Using machine learning to cut energy consumption by >30%, the platform can provide real-time data to optimize energy use, reduce emissions, and drive toward more energy efficient homes and commercial buildings. Developed through an initial $2M ARPA-E grant, it advances zero emissions in an economic and efficent manner. Gregor was supported by CEO Galen Williams and Technical lead Gerry Conroy.

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The Smalyukh Group wins the Guinness World Record for the most Transparent Material

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

The Smalyukh Group wins the Guinness World Record for the most Transparent Material Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/15/2024 - 00:00

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

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