Welcome New Faculty Affiliates

 
The EMS Energy Institute welcomes the following principal investigators and faculty associates who have joined the EMS Energy Institute for research support and collaborations in the last year. As our research team continues to grow, the EMS Energy Institute anticipates many new projects that will broaden the scope of our research and enhance our ability to provide training and outreach. Detailed profiles can be found at www.energy.psu.edu.

Seth Blumsack 
Assistant Professor 
Energy and Mineral Engineering

Dr. Blumsack’s work focuses on policy-relevant engineering, environmental and economic research for the energy, electric power and transportation industries. He also performs research in the area of complex engineered infrastructure networks. Before returning to academia, he served as a journalist and consultant for Economic Insight, Inc. His current research interests include the “Smart Grid” and the transition to more efficient and lower-impact energy, electric power and transportation systems; Marcellus Shale and other unconventional natural gas sources; the structure, vulnerability and performance of energy infrastructure networks; integrated design for the built environment; electricity deregulation; and life-cycle environmental impact assessments.

R.J. Briggs 
Assistant Professor 
Energy and Mineral Engineering

Dr. Briggs has an interdisciplinary background studying the environmental impact of resource use, design of environmental policy, and the measurement of the health effects of pollution. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, with a focus on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, and Public Economics. His current research interests include non-renewable resource management and environmental impacts, and policy; design and analysis of permit markets, renewable portfolio standards, and environmental taxes; carbon sequestration and its implications for resource use and climate change; indoor and outdoor air quality and its effect on human health; and normative analysis of environmental policy in dynamic settings.

Wayne Curtis 
Professor 
Chemical Engineering

Dr. Curtis’ research interests are in the applications of bioprocess and biomolecular engineering with a particular focus on bioreactor design and optimization. Current research interests are in CO₂ utilization, including photobioreactor systems for algae growth for biofuels production. rough collaborations, the potential for genetic engineering of hydrocarbon synthesis into algae and other CO₂ consuming organisms is also being explored. Other collaborative projects include transient protein expression plant tissue culture, vaccine production in mushrooms and membrane protein expression in photosynthetic bacteria. Several industrial collaborations are focused on plant propagation bioreactors.

Andrew Kleit 
Professor 
Energy and Mineral Engineering/Meteorology

Dr. Kleit is professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and directs the program in Energy Business and Finance. He holds a joint appointment in Energy and Mineral Engineering and Meteorology with interests that lie heavily in both areas. His current research interests include electricity economics, financial risk management, antitrust issues, pharmaceutical economics, weather risk management, and the impact of regulation. Dr. Kleit also directs the Electricity Markets Initiative (EMI), which conducts industryrelevant academic research that examines important questions in electricity restructuring and electricity markets in Pennsylvania.

Zhen Lei 
Assistant Professor 
Energy and Mineral Engineering

Dr. Lei has expertise in economics and science. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences from Peking University Health Sciences Center in China. His diverse research interests include economics of innovation, intellectual property, science and technology policy, and energy and environmental economics. His current work includes the roles of technology innovation, diffusion in addressing energy and environmental issues including climate change, economics of electricity markets, and patent evaluation in the context of international patenting and patent litigation.

Li Li 
Assistant Professor 
Energy and Mineral Engineering

Dr. Li Li has an interdisciplinary background combining areas of petroleum engineering, environmental engineering and geochemistry. Her research interests are in the general area of multicomponent reactive transport processes in natural subsurface systems. In particular, some of her current research topics include microbially enhanced oil recovery (MEOR), geological CO₂ sequestration, and bioremediation of contaminated environments. She focuses on understanding complex interactions between multiple physical and (bio)geochemical processes at multiple spatial scales, and how characteristics of natural environments affect the kinetics of reactions important in MEOR, carbon sequestration, and bioremediation.

Antonio Nieto 
Associate Professor 
Energy and Mineral Engineering

Prior to coming to Penn State, Dr. Nieto worked as an assistant professor at Virginia Tech. He also worked in the mining industry in both underground and surface mines. Dr. Nieto’s research focuses on Mining Operations and Information Technology, specifically in the areas of geo-spatial characterization and real-time sensorial systems in mining and earth-extractive operations. His research interests include: assisted driving systems, real-time tracking GIS systems, computer based geological modeling, ore reserve estimation, and earth and environmental geostatistical characterization. Dr. Nieto is also working on cyclic solutions for capture and storage of CO₂ (CCS) and the mining and extraction of methane hydrates.

Donghai Wang 
Assistant Professor 
Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

Dr. Donghai Wang joined Penn State as an Assistant Professor in 2009 after working at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories as a staff scientist. His expertise is in the design and synthesis of nanostructured functional materials for clean energy technologies including Li batteries, fuel cells, solar cells and green catalysis. His research interests include: electrode material and fabrication of Li batteries, new catalyst developments, nanostructured photo electrode materials for low cost solar cells, and mechanical properties of nanocomposite materials.

John Yilin Wang 
Assistant Professor 
Energy and Mineral Engineering

Dr. Wang’s research focus is on developing new technology to improve productivity and increase recovery of oil, gas, and geothermal resources. He is especially interested in the evaluation, fracturing and development of unconventional resources, including ultra-tight gas, shale gas, coal bed methane, shale oil and geothermal. Before coming to Penn State, Dr. Wang worked as a petroleum and natural gas engineer with a U.S. independent producer. Currently, he is working to build an active lab and effective industry/academia/government consortium, 3S Laboratory, for petroleum research in reservoir simulation, stimulation and strategy.