Friday May 12th, 2023 Laura Lewis on Synthetic Tetrataenite: Extraterrestrial Origins and Terrestrial Consequences.

Northeastern University Professor Laura Lewis will speak on Synthetic Tetrataenite: Extraterrestrial Origins and Terrestrial Consequences. 21st-century aspirations for e-mobility, robots and drones require advanced permanent magnets which will approach an estimated 2027 market value of $36.9 billion. While the rare-earth “supermagnets” are excellent for these applications, demand is predicted to outstrip supply within a decade, motivating the search for new types of magnetic materials. One contender is the iron-nickel meteoritic mineral known as “tetrataenite” that could provide a magnetic energy product (BH)max in excess of 300 kJ/m3, ideal for so-called “gap magnet” applications. While comprised entirely of sustainable and easily accessible elements, tetrataenite, however, takes up to a billion years to form in nature. Terrestrial synthesis of tetrataenite-based magnets has the potential to revolutionize technology and upend geopolitically influenced supply chains. Addressing this challenge, enhancement tetrataenite formation has been rationally approached through the application of multiple energies applied during thermal processing of metallic precursors. This presentation will introduce new results concerning stabilization of tetrataenite achieved via special processing, supporting the case that attainment of L10 FeNi is indeed possible on earthly timescales.

Laura H. Lewis is the Distinguished University and Cabot Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Prior to her Northeastern University position, she was a research group leader and Associate Department Chair in the Nanoscience Department of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Concurrently, she was the Deputy Director of the BNL Center for Functional Nanomaterials, a DOE national user facility to provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate and study nanoscale materials. Laura’s research focuses on investigating the materials factors at the atomic level that provide functionality to magnetic and electronic materials, with particular expertise in advanced permanent magnets. She has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and delivered over 100 invited presentations at national and international venues. She has participated on a number of advisory panels and currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Critical Materials Institute (a DOE Energy Innovation Hub). She is a Delegate of the U.S. Technical Advisory Groups to develop supply chain and sustainability standards to ISO TC298 (Rare Earths) and ISO TC333 (Lithium), on behalf of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Laura, a Fellow of the IEEE, was Conference Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (2008 – 2018) and was Chair of the IEEE Magnetics Society Technical Committee (2017-2019). She is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fulbright Fellow as well as an elected member of JEMS-EMA (The European Magnetism Association), the Materials Research Society, the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Engineering Education.

Friday, April 28th, 2023 Ismaila Dabo on Data-Intensive Discovery of Earth-Abundant Semiconductors for Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion

Penn State Professor Ismaila Dabo will speak on Data-Intensive Discovery of Earth-Abundant Semiconductors for Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion. Renewable and sustainable solar generation of hydrogen is pivotal to diversifying the global energy supply away from fossil fuels in the transportation sector and across major branches of the industry, including ammonia synthesis, process metallurgy, and hydrocarbon production. While photovoltaics and electrolysis are increasingly mature technologies whose association may ultimately offer a viable path to produce hydrogen at scale, there is increasing debate over building a future hydrogen infrastructure that would massively rely on critical Pt-group metals and on photovoltaic devices, whose supply chains and global markets are largely controlled by non-domestic producers. Thus, there is strategic interest in developing novel classes of scalable semiconductors that can directly cleave water into oxygen and hydrogen under solar illumination by photocatalytic means. This presentation will discuss the use of data-intensive materials discovery workflow for narrowing down the choice of candidate semiconductors for solar hydrogen generation. Progress in predicting the optical properties of compound semiconductors will also be highlighted.

Ismaila Dabo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State University with joint appointments in the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, and in the Penn State Materials Research Institute. He received a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2008, working under the supervision of Nicola Marzari on the first-principles modeling of electrochemical solid–liquid interfaces. His recent awards include the Wilson Teaching Excellence Award (2021), Materials Science and Engineering Faculty of the Year Award (2021), Corning Chair in Materials Science and Engineering (2020). He currently serves on the editorial board of the journals Computational Materials Science (Elsevier) and Science (AAAS).

Friday, April 14th, 2023 Aziz Asphahani on Computational Materials Design and Engineering

Dr. Aziz Asphahani, Chairman and CEO of QuesTek Innovations, LLC, Evanston IL, will speak on Computational Materials Design and Engineering. Advanced materials are recognized as critical building blocks that drive significant innovations in key sectors of the global economy(e.g., Aerospace, Automotive, Defense, Energy, Medical). Also, these materials are being considered as key enablers in addressing the energy-climate challenges and accelerating the energy transition to near net zero emission targets. The advent of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) technologies (built on thermodynamics and kinetics databases and aided by physics-based models and computational simulations) have led to the design and deployment of several advanced higher-performance alloys. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) play important role in the discovery of new compounds, the ICME technologies coupled with the Accelerated Insertion of Materials (AIM) methodologies have been successful in designing and deploying novel, advanced alloys. The ICME/AIM implementations are also proven effective in the practices of Engineering Concurrency (combining innovative product design with advanced materials). The acquired expertise from 26 years of applying the ICME technologies, and the ensuing cumulative know-how are QuesTek basis for the development and implementation of predictive software packages in the form of an Integrated Computational Materials Design (ICMD®) platform. As envisioned in the ongoing Materials Genome Initiative, the ICMD platform will assist in breaking down barriers between materials discovery and deployment. Presently, the ICMD platform have demonstrated usefulness in predicting the physical properties of Additive Manufacturing (3D-printing) of metals, and in designing printable higher-performance alloys powders.

Dr. Asphahani’s early research activities were focused on identifying the parameters affecting alloys resistance to corrosion. His research involved assessing the mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement and its deleterious impact on corrosion-resistant alloys (CRA). Furthermore, he identified the roles of key alloying elements that were essential to developing CRA with improved resistance to corrosion and wear [one of his patented alloys (HASTELLOY alloy C-22) was selected as a durable material to contain nuclear waste for the Yacca Mountain project]. QuesTek Innovations is a leader in developing and deploying novel, advanced materials based on Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) technologies and the Accelerated Insertion of Materials (AIM) methodologies, using genomic science-based data, and physics-based modeling. He holds eight patents. In 2017, Aziz was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering "for executive leadership in STEM education, integrated computational design of materials, and innovation and production of corrosion-resistant alloys." He is a past president of ASM International and past chair of its educational foundation. His degrees include Diplome Ingenieur-Physique from École Centrale de Paris and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT.

Friday, March 24th, 2023 Michael Garjian on Carbon Dioxide Removal

Michael Garjian will speak about how climate change provides an opportunity to create sustainable community economies by utilizing sustainable power systems and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies such as the CarbonStar system. His 16 years spent in the CDR industry culminated in Michael Garjian’s development, patenting, and successful demonstration of the mobile CarbonStar catalytic vacuum pyrolysis system. The CarbonStar system sequesters atmospheric CO2 by pyrolyzing a variety of biomass feedstocks to produce biochar, bio oils, wood vinegar fertilizer, and biogas to generate electricity to power the CarbonStar system. If widely deployed, the self-sustaining CarbonStar system could sequester megaton levels of CO2 while providing carbon neutral energy and power to urban, rural, and even remote locations wherever a supply of biomass is available. The CarbonStar system has been ranked among the top 80 of 1,300 global CDR technologies entered in Elon Musk’s Carbon XPRIZE.

Michael left the farm to earn a degree in business management from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Isenberg School Of Management. As a lifelong commercial entrepreneur, social entrepreneur, and author, he holds 11 international patents for alternative lighting systems, electronic power supplies, and atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR) systems. As a commercial entrepreneur he and his wife Irene employed 400 associates producing innovations he developed and sold internationally. As a social entrepreneur in the 2000s, he conceived of and pursued the development of sustainable economic systems while working in community development organizations helping more than one hundred very low income individuals and refugees start small businesses. His work earned a number of awards and was recognized widely by the community, business, and social media of that time. He and his wife Irene are the founders of CarbonStar Systems, Inc., a Massachusetts domestic benefit corporation (B-Corp).

Friday March 10th, 2023 David Hsu on The Origin of Community Choice Aggregation

On Friday, March 10th, David Hsu will speak on The Origin of Community Choice Aggregation and other aspects of the role of concerned citizens in moving local and national policy regarding the energy transition necessary to avoid worsening climate change. A recent paper on the invention of Community Choice Aggregation in Massachusetts sheds light on how to achieve changes in the energy system from the bottom-up, with local organizing and government action. A second recent paper, on the interactions between land use and the built environment with national, economy-wide decarbonization, illustrates how local cities and regions must act to contribute to the energy transition.

David Hsu is an Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Cities connect to their environment through infrastructure, built through physical, technological, and social systems. David's research and teaching focus on how planners, policymakers, and advocates can shape and implement these complex systems using technology, data, and analysis. David taught previously at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, and worked in structural engineering, real estate finance, and as a policy analyst in the city governments of New York and Seattle. He holds a B.S. from Yale University in physics; a M.S. from Cornell University in applied and engineering physics; a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in city design and social science; and from the University of Washington in Seattle, a Ph.D. in urban design and planning with a certificate in social science and statistics. David is working on a book contracted with the University of Chicago Press on governance of utilities and infrastructure.

Friday February 24th, 2023 Richard Adler on the Law of Unintended Consequences (LUC)

Why do so many critical business and policy decisions go awry? And what can leaders do to improve decision quality and outcomes? In this talk, Richard Adler will answer the first question using the Law of Unintended Consequences (LUC), which states that attempts to intervene in complex situations tend to produce unexpected and often unpleasant consequences. He will review the Law’s primary causes—cognitive biases and bounded rationality—and explain how they wreak havoc. The second question is answered by describing a method for “test-driving” decisions that helps to combat these causes. This method combines scenario planning and “what-if” simulations to help leaders practice critical decisions and learn safely from virtual rather than real mistakes. Decision test drives help organizations improve their anticipation of the future and reduce the frequency and severity of unintended consequences, thereby “bending” the Law. Finally, Rich will illustrate the test drive method by applying it to decisions about managing organizational risk. This example focuses on improving strategies for DHS agencies to counter terrorist threats against critical national infrastructures.

Richard Adler is a software architect, management consultant, and start-up executive. He spent most of his career building software tools and applications to improve business operations and critical decision-making. Richard worked for Control Data, MITRE, Computer Sciences Corporation, and three software start-up companies. Early in his career, Richard built AI programs, including one that automated operations support for the Launch Processing System for NASA’s Space Shuttle Fleet. As the founder of DecisionPath, he developed solutions to improve strategic decisions such as competitive marketing, counterterrorism, and organizational change, as described in his recent book Bending the Law of Unintended Consequences. Richard has also published and spoken on topics including intelligent and distributed systems, simulation, homeland security, and knowledge management. Richard holds a BS degree in Physics and Philosophy (University of Michigan), an MS in Physics (University of Illinois at Urbana) and a PhD in Philosophy of Physics (University of Minnesota).

Friday, February 10th, 2023 Wayne Sharfin: Developing a Science Demonstration Program to Inspire Underprivileged Middle-School Students

Wayne Sharfin will speak with about his work at Developing a Science Demonstration Program to Inspire Underprivileged Middle-School Students. Students must decide whether they are interested in pursuing a career in science or engineering (STEM subjects) early in high-school in order to choose the appropriate preparatory courses. Underprivileged students generally have little exposure to professional STEM mentors or role models. Our goal is to perform demonstrations that might inspire them to consider a STEM career and to answer questions which would aid them in their decision. Examples of some proposed participatory demonstrations and slides that have been prepared to explain and expand upon the underlying concepts will be shown. Challenges that have been encountered and the relative merits of doing this as part of an in-class or optional after-school program will be discussed.

Wayne Sharfin was born in Queens NYC. Both of his parents worked in NYC public schools, his father was an artist and amateur musician. He performed in the All-City NYC High School Orchestra. He was interested in science and music and attended the U. of Rochester, which has the Eastman School of Music. He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the U. of Chicago where he did his PhD research in laser spectroscopy. Wayne joined the newly formed Fundamental Research Lab of GTE Laboratories after doing post-doctoral research at the U. of Toronto. He received two awards for his research at GTE and joined MIT Lincoln Lab after the Fundamental Research Lab was closed. Dr. Sharfin has been the chairman of several international conferences on optical devices for telecommunications. He began his career in product development at Lasertron in 1993 where he was the Director of Pump Laser Development when Corning acquired the company in 2000 for its pump laser technology. He has been the VP of Engineering at three start-up companies in the US and Canada, including Aegis Lightwave, a market leader in optical channel monitors for WDM communications which was acquired by II-VI Corporation, (now part of Coherent) in 2011.

Friday, January 27th, 2023 Eric Miller on Hydrogen

Eric Miller, Chief Scientist U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office will speak about the DOE program HydroGEN, Materials Research Supporting U.S. National Priorities in Clean Hydrogen Production. Today, technologies for advancing National clean energy priorities are rapidly evolving, including hydrogen and fuel cell technologies which offer unique versatility within a portfolio of domestic options addressing decarbonization, economic growth, and environmental justice. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program, in support of the Hydrogen Energy Earthshot (aka the Hydrogen Shot) and the H2@Scale initiative, comprises a broad portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) activities focused on advancing technologies for the affordable production, storage, distribution, and utilization of clean hydrogen across sectors. Coordinated by the Department’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, this portfolio includes foundational materials research and development (R&D) leveraging consortia that harness the world-class capabilities and expertise of our national laboratories, including consortia affiliated with the DOE Energy Materials Network (EMN). The HydroGEN EMN Consortia, for example, aims to accelerate the materials R&D of advanced water splitting pathways such as alkaline exchange membrane low-temperature electrolysis and proton-conducting high-temperature electrolysis, as well as photoelectrochemical, and solar thermochemical processes. This talk presents an overview of the DOE Hydrogen Program’s priorities in support of H2@Scale and the Hydrogen Shot, and discusses the HydroGEN Consortium’s high-impact materials R&D to enable diverse options for affordable clean hydrogen production.

Dr. Eric L. Miller is Chief Scientist at the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, where he plays important roles in the Department’s Hydrogen Energy Earthshot and H2@Scale Initiatives. He is also co-founder and Chair of the DOE Energy Materials Network, and a member of the OSTP Subcommittee on the Material Genome Initiative. With a background in applied physics, electrical engineering, and materials science, he has spent over 30 years in the research and development of hydrogen and other clean energy technologies; and is globally recognized as a pioneer in the field of solar hydrogen production.

Friday, January 13th, 2022 - Dan Metlay on Nuclear Waste

Dan Metlay will speak with us on DOE’s Consent Based Siting Process for Nuclear Waste. The importance of public acceptance and the social science aspects of dealing with this matter has come up often in our meetings. In late August of the past year, a copy of Dan’s Social Acceptability of Geologic Disposal, which appeared in Elsevier’s Encyclopedia of Nuclear Energy, was circulated to our group and will provide advance reading for this meeting. A copy is attached.

Dr. Daniel Metlay recently retired after 24‐years of service on the senior professional staff of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. Prior to joining the NWTRB, he taught organizational theory and public policy in the political science departments of Indiana University, Bloomington, and at MIT. He served on the steering committee to prepare the Reset of America’s Nuclear Waste Management: Strategy and Policy report, which was released by Stanford and George Washington Universities in 2018. As a Senior Fellow at the B. John Garrick Institute for Risk Sciences at UCLA, he is now working on a book dealing with the institutional and technical challenges of developing a deep‐mined, geologic repository for high‐activity radioactive waste.