College of Engineering faculty Claire Xiong, Brian Jaques and Lan Li have been named 2020 fellows of the Center of Advanced Energy Studies (CAES). The fellows initiative was launched in spring 2020 to provide recognition, resources and opportunities to members of the CAES community. Each of the six members of the inaugural CAES fellows cohort has exhibited impressive leadership: mentoring students, leading research projects and workshops, taking the initiative to create stronger bonds among members of the CAES consortium and serving as champions for CAES to external communities.
Fellows serve two-year appointments during which they are provided with resources and opportunities to drive further collaboration among the CAES entities. To learn more about the new CAES fellows, please visit: https://caesenergy.org/caes-fellows/
Xiong is an associate professor in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering who has been a CAES collaborator since 2012, participating in several projects involving Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the CAES universities. Her current projects with INL include a laboratory directed research and development project with the lab’s energy storage and advanced transportation group, work with the In-Pile Instrumentation Program and a project focused on nuclear materials for molten salt reactors. She is collaborating with researchers at the University of Idaho and University of Wyoming on a project aimed at the development of carbon electrode materials. She also has partnered with INL researchers Erik Dufek and Kevin Gering to write a book chapter on batteries, and is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Xiong has co-organized several CAES workshops and contributed to a recent CAES nuclear energy roundtable.
Jaques is an assistant professor in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering who has been involved with CAES since its opening in 2009, when he worked there as a research engineer. He has collaborated on several CAES projects in the areas of nuclear energy and advanced manufacturing and currently is the Boise State program director for the In-Pile Instrumentation Program, a $8 million Department of Energy-funded collaboration between INL and Boise State that calls for developing novel sensors for in-pile, in-situ measurements in a nuclear reactor core. Jaques, who recently received an INL joint appointment, also is collaborating on several pending proposals with CAES partners.
Li is an associate professor in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering who has been actively involved in CAES seminars, workshops, working groups and proposal development. For example she is leading the Remote Summer Boot Camp on Computing, Data and Visualization scheduled for June 8-12 and sponsored by CAES and INL’s Collaborative Computing Center.
Li currently is participating in two projects with CAES entities and has led the development of a computational materials science roadmap report to identify researchers with expertise in the field, equipment, and computational power at the CAES institutions, as well as research needs and funding sources.
CAES is a research, education, and innovation consortium consisting of INL and the public research universities of Idaho and Wyoming: Boise State University, Idaho State University, University of Wyoming, and the University of Idaho. CAES was designed to harness the power of collaboration among its members – representing 65,000 students, 8,000 researchers, 1,100 degrees/certificates and nearly $2 billion in annual research funding. From its headquarters in Idaho Falls to spoke locations across both states, CAES leverages its collective expertise to inspire innovation and impact, empowering students, faculty, researchers and industry to accelerate solutions to complex energy issues.