Sign Up for a Clean Energy Ambassador Visit

Clean Energy Ambassadors are UW undergraduate and graduate students who lead K-12 outreach activities in classrooms and at public events. Students will learn about the science and engineering of clean energy and participate in hands-on demos. There is no charge for a visit. You can also use this form to request a field trip tour of the Clean Energy Institute and Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building at UW.

Due to COVID-19, CEI is not currently scheduling tours or in-person workshops. However, we are pleased to offer a virtual visit from one of our UW students with K-12 classrooms via Zoom or other video conferencing platforms. A virtual visit lasts 30-45 minutes and includes a personal introduction by the presenter, a description of their science or engineering background, and a basic science presentation or demo on topics that align with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Speakers are prepared to present information about basic energy concepts, solar materials, energy storage, smart grids, and materials science. See the list of presenters at the bottom of this page.

Use the form below to request a virtual outreach visit. You can ask for a presenter by name, or tell us the topics you are interested in hearing about and we will recruit a presenter who best matches your interests.

Please provide the following information:

Elementary school and above

	Name	Research focus
	Erica Eggleton	Chemical engineering graduate student. Research focuses on bus battery modeling.
	David Ginger	Chemistry Professor & CEI Chief Scientist. Research focuses on new solar and electronic materials. Offering students a lesson called “Will it freeze?” Watch what happens when different objects are dipped in liquid nitrogen.
	Erin Jedlicka	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on quantum dots and defects.
	Owen Johnson	Engineering undergraduate student.
	Mitchell Kaiser	Chemistry graduate student.
	Demi Liu	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on organic photovoltaic materials.
	Oliver Nakano-Baker	Materials science and engineering graduate student. Research focuses on transparent conducting layers for solar cells. Offering a code hackathon lesson for students.
	Amy Mayhugh	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on organic materials for electronic applications.
	Beth Mundy	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on nanocrystals for solar energy.
	Nayon Park	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on quantum dots. Offering students a virtual workshop on light, color and nanomaterials.
	Sarah Pristash	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on developing solar materials.
	Lane Smith	Electrical and computer engineering graduate student. Research focuses on distributed energy resources markets.
	Maria Viitaniemi	Physics graduate student. Quantum computing (high school), Lasers (all ages), A physicist’s toolbox: Exploring how light can be used as a tool (all ages).

Middle school and above

	Name	Research focus
	Abbie Ganas	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on making diamonds to study defects in crystals.
	Hang Hu	Molecular engineering graduate student. Research focuses on computation and design of materials.
	Nick Terry	Industrial engineering graduate student. Research focuses on machine learning, optimization, and applications in energy grid design/management. Offering students an interactive demo related to integrating renewable energy sources in the power grid (along with other CEI demos).

High school

	Name	Research focus
	Justin Pothoof	Chemistry graduate student. Research focuses on scanning probe microscopy to study solar materials. Offering students an online open forum discussing scientific career paths.