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

Dan Anderson

danderson@bus.wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor Emeritus of Risk Management and Insurance
School of Business

  • Sustainability risks facing businesses and organizations
  • Sustainability risk management strategies

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

Christy Remucal

remucal@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Formation of reactive oxygen species in water
  • Polar organic contaminants in natural and engineered aquatic systems
  • Molecular composition and reactivity of dissolved organic matter

Christopher Zahasky

czahasky@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Geoscience
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Contaminant hydrogeology - the study of how fluids and contaminants enter and travel through the subsurface
  • Carbon capture and storage - a technology for mitigating emissions from fossil fuel power plants and large industrial point sources
  • Conventional and unconventional energy resources - hydraulic fracturing processes for extracting shale gas and oil, geothermal energy production, and nuclear waste storage

Chris Todd Hittinger

cthittinger@wisc.edu

Investigator

Professor of Genetics for the J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences

  • Yeast genetics, biodiversity, and synthetic biology
  • Evolutionary genomics
  • Carbon metabolism
  • Brewing
  • Isobutanol
  • Fermentation

Chris Rutland

rutland@engr.wisc.edu

Energy Expert

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

  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Turbulence, combustion, and spray modeling for internal combustion (IC) engines
  • Turbulent reacting flows
  • Large eddy simulation
  • IC engine aftertreatment modeling

Chris Kucharik

kucharik@wisc.edu

Investigator

Professor of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

  • Sustainable Biofuels
  • Agroecosystem modeling
  • Sustainable agriculture
  • Terrestrial carbon sequestration
  • Urban heat islands

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

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

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

Carl Sovinec

csovinec@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
College of Engineering

  • Computational plasma physics
  • Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Numerical methods for partial differential equations

Canan Sener

csener@wisc.edu

Investigator

Scientist
Wisconsin Energy Institute

  • Kinetics and catalysis 
  • Design and controlled synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts 
  • Process and reaction engineering 
  • Catalyst development for selective chemical transformation 

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

Bulent Sarlioglu

sarlioglu@wisc.edu

Investigator

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Electric machines, drives, motors, and new topologies
  • Electrification of vehicles
  • Power electronics using wide band-gap devices
  • Electric actuation systems
  • Automotive, aerospace, naval and renewable energy applications
  • Complex and interdisciplinary power system architecture

Bu Wang

bu.wang@wisc.edu

Affiliate

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Direct air capture and utiliization of CO2 using industrial alkaline wastes
  • Making cement green by low-temperature manufacturing of calcium hydroxide
  • Utilizing CO2 and industrial waste to produce precipitated calcium carbonate
  • Fundamental behaviors of glassy materials

Brian Pfleger

brian.pfleger@wisc.edu

Affiliate

Karen and William Monfre Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Metabolic engineering
  • Biotechnology
  • Synthetic biology
  • Natural products
  • Protein engineering
  • Cyanobacteria
  • Sustainability

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

Bernard Lesieutre

lesieutre@engr.wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering & Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies
College of Engineering

  • grid security
  • grid reliability

Benjamin Lindley

lindley2@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
College of Engineering

  • Design and analysis of advanced nuclear reactors
  • Design and analysis of nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems
  • Development of net-zero emissions energy systems

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

Arganthael Berson

berson2@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Lecturer of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Multiphase flow and flow at interfaces
  • Flow boiling and condensation
  • Evaporation-driven self-assembly
  • Advanced flow diagnostic techniques (PIV, hot-wire anemometry, high-speed microscopy, thermoreflectance)
  • Energy systems  

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

Andrea Strzelec

strzelec@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Program Director, Masters of Engineering in Engine Systems, Polymer Engineering, and Power Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Heterogeneous reaction kinetics and characterization
  • Automotive emissions aftertreatment
  • Low temperature catalysis
  • Particulate filtration
  • Pyrolysis
  • Remediation of hydrocarbon contamination

Andrea Hicks

hicks5@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Sustainability
  • Environmental systems analysis and optimization
  • Life cycle assessment
  • Agent-based modeling
  • Rebound effect
  • Environmental implications of technology

Ananth Krishnamurthy

ananth.krishnamurthy@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering
College of Engineering

  • Production inventory systems
  • Assembly operations
  • Product variety and customization
  • Warehouse systems
  • Quick response manufacturing

Alan Carroll

carroll@geology.wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Professor of Geoscience
College of Letters & Sciences

  • Continental tectonics
  • Basin evolution
  • Ancient lakes
  • Petroleum geology
  • Paleoclimatology
  • China geology

Adrien Couet

couet@wisc.edu

Energy Expert

Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics
College of Engineering

  • Nuclear Materials
  • Irradiation Damage
  • Corrosion of Metals and Alloys
  • Oxidation Model
  • Electrochemistry
  • Molten salt corrosion
  • Defect Transport in Oxides