Energy Experts

From biofuels to batteries, UW–Madison has a wealth of expertise in energy. The researchers working in energy at UW–Madison are generating the knowledge and clean technologies that will accelerate a transition to sustainable, resilient, and affordable energy systems. This resource connects you to UW–Madison faculty conducting research in all areas of energy. If you are a UW–Madison faculty member working in energy and would like to be added to this list, please email communications@energy.wisc.edu

For specific media requests, please contact Mary Blanchard.

Name/Email Title/Department Research Interests

Cameron Currie

currie@bact.wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Ira L. Baldwin Professor of Bacteriology
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Symbiotic associations between animals and microbes
  • Symbiosis in fungus-growing ants
  • Microbe and microbial community deconstruction of plant biomass in nature
  • Identification, characterization, and systems biology analysis of cellulolytic microbes and microbial communities

Natalia DeLeon

ndeleongatti@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Plant breeding and quantitative genetics
  • Population enhancement for biomass increase and cell wall composition
  • Interface of plant breeding and quantitative and molecular genetics
  • Phenotypic, genotypic and expression data
  • Genetic analysis of developmental traits in maize

Ankur Desai

desai@aos.wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
College of Letters & Sciences, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

  • The influence of spatiotemporal scale, ecology, and micrometeorology on ecosystem-atmosphere interactions
  • Micrometeorological, ecological, and biogeochemical interactions at regional to global scales
  • Carbon and water cycling
  • Climate variability and carbon cycles
  • Terrestrial-aquatic linkages of carbon, water, and energy

Stephanie Diem

sjdiem@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
College of Engineering

  • fusion energy
  • experimental plasma physics
  • microwave heating of plasmas
  • magnetically confined plasmas
  • electron Bernstein wave heating

Timothy Donohue

tdonohue@bact.wisc.edu

Investigator

WEI & GLBRC Director, Ira L. Baldwin Professor of Bacteriology
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • The pathways and networks that microbes use to grow, generate biomass or produce alternative fuels from sunlight or other renewable sources of energy
  • Microbial networks and metabolic and regulatory pathways
  • Genome sequencing, microarrays, proteomics and molecular techniques

Sheldon (Xiaodong) Du

xdu23@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Associate Professor of Agriculture & Applied Economics
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Economics of energy
  • Commodity markets
  • Economics of agriculture
  • Applied econometrics

Juliana Pacheco Duarte

pachecoduarte@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
College of Engineering

Nuclear energy
Safety analysis 
Multi-phase flow and heat transfer
Nuclear policy and regulation

James Dumesic

jdumesic@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Ernest Micek Distinguished Chair and Michel Boudart Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Kinetics and catalysis
  • Surface and solid-state chemistry
  • In situ catalyst studies

Morgan Edwards

morgan.edwards@wisc.edu

Affiliate

Assistant Professor of Public Affairs
La Follette School of Public Affairs

  • Just transitions, fossil fuels, and stranded assets
  • Leaks in natural gas distribution systems
  • Measuring impacts of local climate action
  • Negative emissions technologies
  • Valuing impacts of non-CO2 emissions

Tom Eggert

tleggert@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Senior Lecturer
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

  • Role of Microfinance in the developing world
  • Greening of business, including brand and reputation building
  • Social responsibility of business
  • Environmental leadership programs, including state and federal programs
  • Socially responsible investing

Paul Evans

pgevans@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Materials Science & Engineering
College of Engineering

  • X-ray diffraction
  • Microscopy
  • Optics
  • X-ray probes for ultrafast dynamics
  • Micro-and-nanoscale properties of magnetic materials
  • Magnetism
  • Domains and switching in ferroelectric materials
  • Surfaces and interfaces of organic and inorganic materials
  • Epitaxial crystallization processes in oxide thin films and nanostructures

Kurt Feigl

feigl@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Geoscience
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Tectonic applications of geodesy
  • Measuring and modeling crustal deformation from earthquake faults, volcano activity, glacier loads, and fluid extraction.
  • Geodetic measurement techniques
  • Numerical modeling approaches

Michael Ferris

ferris@cs.wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Jacques-Louis Lions Chair and Stephen C. Kleene Professor of Computer Sciences
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Development of modeling tools and software
  • Problem analysis routines, data manipulations, and solution visualization procedures
  • Theory and applications of optimization
     

Mark Finster

mark.finster@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor Emeritus
School of Business

  • Sustainable strategy, design, and improvement of complex systems in a wide variety of industries and sectors, including for profit, government, education, not-for-profit, large and small organizations

Cary Forest

cbforest@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Physics
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Liquid metal dynamos and MHD turbulence
  • MHD instabilities in line-tied plasmas and their stabilization by moving metal walls
  • Heat, current transport, and non-inductive currents in tokamaks and RFPs
  • Flow-dominated plasmas

Dave Foster

defoster@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Phil and Jean Myers Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Thermodynamics
  • Heat transfer
  • Fluid mechanics
  • Internal combustion engines
  • Combustion kinetics
  • Emission formation

Brian Fox

bgfox@biochem.wisc.edu

Affiliate

Chair, Department of Biochemistry, Marvin J. Johnson Professor in Fermentation Biochemistry
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Biochemical, catalytic, and spectroscopic studies of redox active enzymes
  • Protein engineering
  • The structure and reactivity of carbohydrate active enzymes

Jennifer Franck

jafranck@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Affiliate Appointment in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics & Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Unsteady fluid mechanics
  • Turbulent flows
  • Wind and tidal energy
  • Aerodynamics
  • Flow control
  • Propulsion
  • Fluid-structure interaction

Dante Fratta

fratta@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Associate Professor of Geological Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Fundamental physical behavior of soils and rocks
  • Assessment of the near-surface underground using non-invasive tomographic studies (geotomography)
  • On-shore and off-shore near surface geophysics
  • Evaluation of electrowetting phenomenon for surface tension changes in quaternary oil recovery
  • Instrumenting and monitoring wind turbine foundation responses under cyclic loading
  • Use of distributed fiber optic sensor arrays for imaging and characterizing low and high-temperature geothermal fields

Zachary Freedman

zfreedman@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Soil Microbiology
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Microbial communities and their ecosystem functions
  • Microbiome
  • Plant-soil-microbial interactions
  • Quantitative, trait-based microbial ecology

Audrey Gasch

agasch@wisc.edu

Affiliate

Professor of Genetics
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Elucidating the role, regulation, and evolution of eukaryotic stress responses
  • Computational systems and synthetic biology
  • Evolutionary and population genetics
  • Gene expression, genomics, and proteomics

Jaal Ghandhi

jaal.ghandhi@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

John Bollinger Chair of Mechanical Engineering & Grainger Professor of Sustainable Energy
College of Engineering

  • Combustion and fluid mechanics or internal combustion engines 
  • Laser-based diagnostics

Holly Gibbs

hkgibbs@wisc.edu

Affiliate

Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

  • Agricultural expansion in U.S., Brazil, and globally
  • Tropical deforestation
  • Conservation, agriculture, and energy policy
  • Impact evaluation
  • Environmental sustainability

Linda Graham

lkgraham@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Botany
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Algal/plant-microbe symbioses
  • Metagenomics & genomics
  • Wastewater remediation

Corbett Grainger

corbett.grainger@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Associate Professor of Agriculture & Applied Economics
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Environmental and natural resource economics
  • Distributional effects of environmental policies
  • Rights-based management
  • Air pollution
  • Economics of climate change
  • Electricity and economic development

Claudio Gratton

cgratton@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Entomology
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Landscape ecology of arthropods
  • Sustainable management of bioenergy landscapes
  • Examining the ecological links between lakes and land

Dominic Gross

dominic.gross@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Control of microgrids and power systems dominated by power electronics
  • Grid-forming control of converter-interfaced renewable generation and energy storage devices
  • Grid-forming control of power converters subject to constraints
  • Distributed control and optimization of complex networked systems

Chirag Gupta

cgupta9@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering, Wisconsin Energy Institute

  • Semiconductor devices (WBG and UWBG)
  • Group III-nitrides (GaN) and oxides (GaOx)
  • RF and power electronics: HEMTs and MOSFETs
  • Optoelectronics (LEDs, LASERs)
  • Lattice engineering
  • Quantum applications

Robert J. Hamers

rjhamers@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Steenbock Professor of Physical Science
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Chemistry, photochemistry, electronic properties, and atomic-level structure of semiconductor surfaces and interfaces
  • Chemical transformations and environmental impact of nanomaterials
  • Development and implementation of novel analytical probes and characterization tools for in situ chemical analysis at surfaces and interfaces
  • Electrochemical energy storage

Chris Hegna

cchegna@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
College of Engineering

  • Theoretical plasma physics
  • Fusion science
  • Magnetic confinement of plasmas
  • Magnetohydrodynamics