Energy-related topics

Richard Abrams
Professor of history
Study phone: (510) 527-0462
E-mail: abramsr@socrates.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Modern U.S. history, government-business relations, political economy of industrial societies, and the history of deregulation.

Paul Alivisatos
Professor of chemistry
Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences and  Director of the Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office phone: (510) 643-7371, 642-2148
E-mail: alivis@berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: nanocrystal photovoltaics for solar power; nanocrystal/polymer composites for light emitting diodes and photovoltaics; fundamental studies of nanocrystal physics and synthesis.

Alex Bell
Professor of chemical engineering
Faculty senior scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office phone: (510) 642-1536
E-mail: bell@cchem.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: catalysis; production of fuels and biofuels via catalytic processes; reduction of NOx emissions; use of catalysts for green (environmentally friendly) chemical production.    

Harvey Blanch
Professor of chemical engineering
Faculty senior scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office phone: (510) 642-1387
E-mail: blanch@berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: biochemical engineering; enzyme engineering; enzymes for cellulosic biofuel production; ethanol and other biofuels.

Severin Borenstein
E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at Haas School of Business
Director of University of California Energy Institute
Member of governing board of California Power Exchange and California Attorney General's Gasoline Price Task Force
Office phone: (510) 642-3689 or 642-5145
E-mail: borenste@haas.berkeley.edu
Areas of Expertise: Business competition and government regulation, deregulated electricity markets, and gasoline and oil industries.

Charles C. Benton
Professor of architecture and chair of UC Berkeley's architecture department
Faculty member at UC Berkeley's Center for the Built Environment
Office phone: (510) 642-4942
E-mail: crisp@socrates.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Architecture and energy.

Gail Brager
Professor of Architecture
Associate Director, Center for the Built Environment
Office phone:  (510) 642-1696
E-mail:  gbrager@berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise:  Green building design, energy use of buildings, innovative facades and mechanical systems, indoor environmental quality, natural ventilation, post-occupancy evaluation methods.

James Bushnell
Lecturer at Haas School of Business
Co-director of UC Energy Institute
Member of Market Monitoring Committee of California Power Exchange
Office phone: (510) 642-9590, ext. 213
E-mail: jimb@ieor.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Deregulation and organization of energy markets, energy policy, strategic behavior, water and hydroelectric power in the Western United States.

Elton J. Cairns
Professor of chemical engineering
Faculty senior scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office phone: (510) 486-5028, 642-8537
E-mail: ejcairns@lbl.gov
Areas of expertise: Hydrogen fuel cells; fuel cell technology; methanol and ethanol fuel cells; lithium-ion batteries and new battery technology; electrodes, catalysts; electric vehicles; federal energy policy; federal energy research priorities.

Jamie Cate
Assistant professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology
Faculty scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office phone: (510) 642-1536
E-mail: jcate@lbl.gov
Areas of expertise: Protein synthesis; biochemistry of enzymes for potential production of biofuels; biochemistry, structural biology, and biophysics of protein synthesis by ribosome.

Douglas Clark
Professor of chemical engineering
Office phone: (510) 642-2408, 643-1228
E-mail: clark@cchem.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: biochemical engineering, enzyme technology, extremophiles and extremophilic enzymes; biofuels from algae.

Timothy P. Duane
Associate professor of energy and resources, city and regional planning, landscape architecture and environmental planning
Currently on leave from UC Berkeley, Duane is a senior policy consultant to the California Public Utilities
Commission on electricity restructuring issues, including environmental assessment of proposed divestiture of PG&E's hydroelectric generating portfolio.
Author of "Shaping The Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West," UC Press, 1999
Cell phone: (415) 509-5263
E-mail: duane@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Electric utility industry restructuring; environmental policy, law and regulation; water resources planning and policy; incorporation of philosophical and ethical issues in land and resource management.

Gregory L. Fenves
Professor of civil engineering
Office phone: (510) 643-8543 or 642-6463
E-mail: fenves@ce.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Disaster preparedness, including readiness of California to respond to massive power failure.

Harrison S. Fraker Jr.
Dean of College of Environmental Design
Professor of architecture
Office phone: (510) 642-0831
E-mail: melmar@uclink.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Sustainable development and ecological design.

Lee Friedman
Professor of public policy at Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy
Former instructor in regulatory economics for California Public Utilities Commission
Office phone: (510) 642-7513
E-mail: lfried@uclink.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Public policy analysis and energy regulation.

John Harte
Professor in Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Resources & Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (ESPM)
Current holder of the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professorship in Energy
Office phone: (510) 642-8553
E-mail: jharte@socrates.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Energy and the environment

Lutgard C. De Jonghe
Professor of materials science and engineering
Office phone: (510) 486-6138
E-mail: dejonghe@lbl.gov
Areas of expertise: Efficient and clean burning fuel cells that burn hydrogen or hydrocarbons extracted from natural gas and converted to electricity. They can be used in the home or to create new generation of electric power plants.

Daniel M. Kammen
Associate professor of energy and society in the Energy and Resources Group
Director of Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL)
Office phone: (510) 643-2243 (RAEL) or 642-1139
E-mail: dkammen@socrates.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Developing and employing renewable, appropriate sources of energy to reduce energy costs and boost efficiency, cultural context and social impacts of new technologies and resource management systems.

Jay D. Keasling
Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering
Director of Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center
Director of Physical Biosciences Division at LBNL
Office phone: (510) 495-2620
E-mail: keasling@berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: engineering pathways for alternative biofuels from isoprenoids and fatty acids; examining the toxicity of biofuels to the host microorganism with the aim of engineering tolerance into the producer; developing biological components (gene expression control systems, metabolic pathways, enzymes) and host cells (Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for production of biofuels.

John D. Kubiatowicz
Professor of computer science
Office phone: (510) 643-6817
E-mail: kubitron@cs.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: "OceanStore" data storage system, which stashes data on computers around the world and makes them accessible via the Internet to avoid power failure-caused losses of computer information stored in corporate data banks and home PCs.

Jeff Long
Associate professor of chemistry
Office phone: (510) 642-0860, 643-3832
E-mail: jlong@bereley.edu
Areas of expertise: Hydrogen storage for fuel cell vehicles; hydrogen storage in microporous metal-organic frameworks; synthesis of inorganic coordination compounds.  

Michael Marletta
Professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology
Chair, Department of Chemistry
Office phone: (510) 643-9325, 643-9358
E-mail: marletta@berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: catalytic and biological properties of enzymes; biochemistry of enzymes for potential production of biofuels, molecular characterization of nitric oxide signaling.

Tasios Melis
Professor of plant and microbial biology
Office phone: (510) 642-8166
E-mail: melis@nature.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Using green algae to produce hydrogen, an alternative energy source, from sunlight and water via the natural process of photosynthesis.

John Newman
Professor of chemical engineering
Faculty senior scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office phone: (510) 642-4063, 643-1972
E-mail: newman@newman.cchem.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: lithium batteries for hybrid vehicles, industrial electrochemical processes, and methanol fuel cells; investigation of efficient and economical methods for electrochemical energy conversion and storage; storage of electrical energy in liquid fuels.

Richard Norgaard
Professor of energy and resources in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and of agricultural and resource economics
Office phone: (510) 642-3465
Home office phone: (510) 845-5359
E-mail: norgaard@socrates.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Economics of renewable energy, economics of climate change and the economic, institutional and historical contexts of energy issues

Shmuel Oren
Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Berkeley site director of Systems Engineering Research Center
Office phone: (510) 642-1836
E-mail: shmuel@euler.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Economics, planning and operation of electric power systems, market-based coordination of network systems, energy economics, risk management and trading systems.

Per F. Peterson
Professor of Nuclear Engineering
Chair of UC Berkeley's Nuclear Engineering Department
Office phone: (510) 643-7749
E-mail: peterson@nuc.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Reactor safety, advanced reactor systems, waste management and inertial fusion energy.

Jan Rabaey
Professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences
Office phone: (510) 666-3102 or 642-0253
E-mail: jan@eecs.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Technological innovations to enhance energy efficiency through use of "smart" buildings and design of low-power technologies for computer systems.

Carl Shapiro
Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy at Haas School of Business
Professor of economics
Director of Institute of Business and Economic Research
Former deputy assistant attorney general for economics in U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division, 1995-96
Co-author of "Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy"
Office phone: (510) 642-5905
E-mail: shapiro@haas.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Antitrust economics, competition policy.

Hal R. Varian
Professor at the School of Information and the Haas School of Business, currently on leave
Co-author of "Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy"
E-mail: hal@ischool.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Economics and technology.

Robb Willer
Assistant professor of sociology
Office phone: (607) 339-6466 (leave messages)
E-mail: willer@berkeley.edu
Interview topics: Trends in Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) purchasing.

Catherine Wolfram
Assistant professor of economics at Haas School of Business
Research associate at UC Energy Institute
Office phone: (510) 642-9590, ext. 205, or 642-2588
E-mail: wolfram@haas.berkeley.edu
Areas of expertise: Energy markets, energy consumption and changes in home energy costs.

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