The CEI Interdisciplinary Seminar Series brings distinguished leaders in the field of clean energy to the University of Washington to present their research and meet with faculty and students from departments across the university. Speakers present their clean energy research in a one-hour seminar which includes audience Q&A. Seminar topics relate to CEI’s main research thrusts such as next-generation solar energy, battery materials and devices, and renewable integration with systems and the grid as well as CEI’s mission to accelerate the adoption of a scalable and equitable clean energy future that will improve the health and economy of our state, nation, and world. Speaker nominations can be submitted here.
The CEI Interdisciplinary Seminar is offered as a public lecture series as well as a 1-credit graduate-level course.
MOLENG 535: Seminar in Clean Energy
The primary audience for this course is UW STEM graduate students interested in clean energy. This 1-credit course is a requirement for current CEI Graduate Fellows and students pursuing the Graduate Certificate in Clean Energy Science, Engineering, & Society.
Students who take the course will:
- Broaden their understanding of contemporary clean energy issues, research, policy and solutions.
- Increase their awareness of research and career opportunities in the clean energy field.
- Deepen their understanding of clean energy science and the adoption of scalable and equitable clean energy solutions.
This course is currently offered in autumn and spring quarters on Thursdays, 4:00–5:00 pm in the Nanoengineering & Sciences Building (NanoES) Room 181.
Speaker Nomination & Selection Criteria: CEI seeks nominations of distinguished individuals demonstrating leadership in clean energy research, including solar, storage, grid systems, and advanced materials, as well as efforts that connect innovation with communities and promote the broad adoption and benefits of clean energy technologies. CEI funds travel and lodging for speakers and sets up meetings with UW faculty and students during their stay.
Expertise and Leadership: CEI seminars are highly interdisciplinary, nominees should be dynamic speakers, who can give an engaging public lecture to a broad audience that appeals beyond their specific area of specialization – talks which might otherwise fit into a normal departmental series are discouraged. Leadership encompasses a broad scope of experience. CEI recognizes that it takes different forms for different fields and career pathways. Factors that display quality leadership include but are not limited to appointments to distinguished boards and committees, awards recognizing nominee’s leadership, influence in academia such as h-index or citations, established or contributed to the establishment of a unique research field.
Varied Perspectives: CEI recognizes and values the importance of drawing from a wide range of perspectives that reflect the breadth of experiences, disciplines, and career trajectories within the clean energy community. Nominations are encouraged for individuals who bring distinct viewpoints shaped by their experiences, backgrounds, areas of expertise, and career pathways. Consideration may include, but is not limited to, differences in professional sector (academia, industry, government), disciplinary focus, geographic background, lived experience, and personal or professional journeys. CEI seeks speakers whose perspectives can broaden understanding, foster meaningful discussion, and contribute to a well-rounded seminar series.
Upcoming Seminars
Past Seminars
2025–26
2024–25
| Oct. 31, 2024 | Johannes Urpelainen | Johns Hopkins University | The Comparative Energy Transition |
| Nov. 21, 2024 | Jie Xiao | University of Washington/Pacific Northwest National Lab | An Integrated Science and Engineering Approach for Next-Generation Battery Materials and Technologies |
| Dec. 5, 2024 | Seth Darling | Argonne National Lab | Pushing the Limits of Membrane Separations |
| Jan. 31, 2025 | Daniel Sun | Sunchem | Precision Separation of Critical Metals |
| Feb. 13, 2025 | Jodie Lutkenhaus | Texas A&M University | Organic Batteries for a More Sustainable Future |
| Feb. 27, 2025 | Zhigang Ban | First Solar | Thin-Film PV at the Multi-GW Scale |
| Apr. 10, 2025 | Maksym Kovalenko | ETH Zurich | My quantum dot journey: from water to infrared, and finally to luminescent salts |
| May 15, 2025 | Jonathan Phillips | Duke University | Energy in Transition: The End of Aid and What it Means for Achieving Modern Energy Systems in Emerging Economies |
| May 29, 2025 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
| June 5, 2025 | Kelsey Hatzell | Princeton University | Seeing is believing – how x-ray probes can help us image solid state batteries |
2023–24
| Sep. 28, 2023 | Maria Antonietta Loi | University of Groningen | Tin/lead perovskites: challenges and opportunities for photovoltaics |
| Nov. 30, 2023 | June Lukuyu | University of Washington | Enriching the Conceptual and Analytical Framework for Energy Access: A Case of Kampala, Uganda |
| Feb. 15, 2024 | Mircea Dinca | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | The emergence of electrically conductive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) |
| Feb. 22, 2024 | Arend van der Zande | University of Illinois | Straintronics in 2D materials |
| Feb. 29, 2024 | Pinshane Huang | University of Illinois | New methods for imaging 2D materials: Imaging strain, moirés, and phase transformations from micrometers to picometers |
| Mar. 7, 2024 | Cinthia Piamonteze | Paul Scherrer Institute | Investigation of complex materials by resonant x-ray absorption |
| Apr. 11, 2024 | Liz Doris | National Renewable Energy Laboratory | What got us to clean energy scale up won’t get us through clean energy scale up: Emerging Challenges to Clean Energy Transformation |
| Apr. 18, 2024 | CEI Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellows: Dr. Zixiao Ma, Dr. Chris Torres, Dr. Rebecca Vincent, Dr. Rachel Woods-Robinson | University of Washington | |
| May 9, 2024 | CEI Entrepreneurs in Residence: Dhileep Sivam, Volha Hrechka | Washington Clean Energy Testbeds | |
| May 16, 2024 | Kelsey Stoerzinger | University of Minnesota | Fundamental Insights into the Oxygen Evolution Reaction |
| May 30, 2024 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2022–23
| Oct. 6, 2022 | Jesse Jenkins | Princeton University | Will New Federal Policy Put the United States on the Path to Net-Zero? |
| Oct. 27, 2022 | Line Roald | University of Wisconsin – Madison | Optimizing the Electric Grid: From Climate Mitigation to Climate Change Adaption |
| Nov. 3, 2022 | Sascha Von Meier | University of California, Berkeley | Measurements in the Electric Grid |
| Nov. 10, 2022 | Jan Kleissl | University of California, San Diego | DERConnect – A Distributed Energy Resources Testbed for Solar Power Integration |
| Nov. 10, 2022 | Katherine Mirica | Dartmouth College | Molecular Engineering of Multifunctional Framework Materials |
| Feb. 9, 2023 | Zhaoyu Wang | Iowa State University | Energy Savings via Conservation Voltage Reduction: Measurement and Verification Methodologies and Field Results |
| Feb. 16, 2023 | Laura Schelhas | National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Understanding degradation in metal halide perovskite solar cells and modules |
| Mar. 3, 2023 | Alberta Carpenter | National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Evaluating the Circular Economy |
| Apr. 6, 2023 | Sayantani Ghosh | University of California, Merced | The Probability Space of Metal Halide Perovskites |
| Apr. 27, 2023 | Kwabena Bediako | University of California, Berkeley | Quantum Materials for Electrochemistry and Electronics |
| May 25, 2023 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2021–22
| Oct. 21, 2021 | Ali Abur | Northeastern University | Monitoring and Anomaly Detection in Large Power Grids Containing Renewable Energy Sources |
| Nov. 4, 2021 | Ted Sargent | University of Toronto | Electrical Synthesis of Fuels and Feedstocks from CO2 |
| Nov. 18, 2021 | Michael Irwin | CubicPV | Derisking Metal Halide Perovskite Semiconductors for Solar PC Applications |
| Jan. 13, 2022 | Pierre Pinson | Technical University of Denmark | Regression Markets and Their Link to Energy System Operation |
| Feb. 10, 2022 | Marija Ilic | MIT | Photocatalysis with Plasmons: From Light Absorption to Charge General and Utilization |
| Mar. 3, 2022 | Venkat Viswanathan | Carnegie Mellon University | The Challenges and Opportunities of Battery-Powered Flight |
| Apr. 7, 2022 | Andy Sun | MIT | Electric Power System Operations and Planning in Energy Systems Transition |
| May 5, 2022 | Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena | Georgia Institute of Technology | Tailored Interfaces in Metal Halide Perovskites for Efficient Charrier Transfer |
| May 19, 2022 | Sam Stranks | University of Cambridge | Understanding Nanoscale Recombination and Instabilities in Halide Perovskite Solar Cells |
| May 26, 2022 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2020–21
| Oct. 8, 2020 | Florian Dorfler | ETH Zurich | Data-Driven Control in Autonomous Energy Systems |
| Oct. 15, 2020 | Inez Azevedo | Stanford University | Getting to sustainable energy systems while considering trade-offs, environmental justice, and distributional effects |
| Nov. 5, 2020 | Alán Aspuru-Guzik | University of Toronto | Where computational science meets experiment: Self-driving laboratories for materials discovery |
| Jan. 14, 2021 | Jillian L. Dempsey | University of North Carolina | Elucidating Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Mechanisms Underpinning the Catalytic Generation of Renewable Fuels |
| Feb. 18, 2021 | Jacinto Sá | Uppsala University | Photocatalysis with Plasmons: From Light Absorption to Charge General and Utilization |
| Feb. 25, 2021 | Bettina V. Lotsch | Max Planck Institute | Bridging energy conversion and storage in two-dimensional molecular frameworks |
| Apr. 29, 2021 | Tom Overbye | Texas A&M University | New Developments in the Visualization of Wide-Area Electric Grid Information with Application to Grid Interconnection Studies |
| May 6, 2021 | Mario Leclerc | Université Laval | Green Materials for Green Energy |
| May 13, 2021 | Destenie Nock | Carnegie Mellon University | Low-Carbon Energy Transitions: Understanding Trade-Offs Between Sustainability and Equity |
| May 27, 2021 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2019–20
| Oct. 3, 2019 | Tom Mallouk | University of Pennsylvania | Managing Electrons and Protons in the Bio-Inspired Production of Fuel from Sunlight |
| Oct. 10, 2019 | Kang Xu | U.S. Army Research Laboratory | Before Li-Ion Batteries, and Thereafter |
| Oct. 29, 2019 | Yi Cui | Stanford | Materials and Interface Design for Batteries |
| Oct. 30, 2019 | Yang-Kook Sun | Hanyang University | High-Energy Cathodes for Next-Generation Electric Vehicles |
| Oct. 31, 2019 | Sean Meyn | University of Florida | Demand Dispatch and the Zero Marginal Cost Power Grid |
| Nov. 4, 2019 | Jay Whitacre | Carnegie Mellon University | Autonomous Machine Learning-Informed Experimentation: Optimizing Complex Battery Electrolyte Solutions with Maximum Efficiency |
| Nov. 7, 2019 | David Wood | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Perspectives on the Relationship Between Materials Chemistry and Roll-to-Roll Electrode Manufacturing for High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries |
| Nov. 12, 2019 | Bruce Dunn | UCLA | Some New Directions in Solid Electrolytes |
| Nov. 21, 2019 | M. Stanley Whittingham | SUNY at Binghamton | Lithium Batteries: From an Ideal to Domination of Portable Storage |
| Jan. 16, 2020 | James McCalley | Iowa State University | Connecting Eastern and Western Grids; Macrogrid Design – a Strategic US Infrastructure Investment |
| Jan. 21, 2020 | James E. West | Johns Hopkins | Piezoelectric Polymers |
| Jan. 23, 2020 | Mark Hersam | Northwestern University | Stabilizing and Enhancing Lithium-Ion Batteries with Chemically Inert 2D Materials |
| Jan. 30, 2020 | Carlos Silva | Georgia Tech | Exciton Polarons in Two-Dimensional Hybrid Metal-Halide Perovskites |
| Apr. 9, 2020 | Lin Chen | Northwestern University, Argonne National Laboratory | Electronic Processes, Morphologies and Structural-functional Correlations in Conjugated Oligomers, Polymers and Perovskite for OPV/HOPV |
| Apr. 16, 2020 | Jie Xiao | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | Energy Storage: Integration of Materials Chemistry, Electrochemistry and Engineering |
| Apr. 23, 2020 | Kristin Persson | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | The Era of Data-Driven Materials Innovation and Design |
| Apr. 30, 2020 | Victor Zavala | University of Wisconsin-Madison | Optimization of Energy Systems: At the Interface of Data, Modeling, and Decision-Making |
| May 6, 2020 | Daniel Kammen | University of California, Berkeley | The Clean Energy Revolution Has (Finally) Begun |
| May 28, 2020 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2018–19
| Nov. 1, 2018 | Brian Johnson | University of Washington | Nonlinear Oscillators for Modular Power Electronics Architectures |
| Nov. 29, 2018 | Neal Armstrong | University of Arizona | Interface Science of Emerging Solar Cell Technologies and Their Potential Role at the Nexus of Energy/Water/Food (A View from Arid and Hyper-Arid Environments |
| Dec. 6, 2018 | Tobias Hanrath | Cornell University | Quantum Dot Solids: From Fundamental Insights into Assembly and Attachment Mechanism Towards Fabrication of Complex Hierarchical Superstructures and Enabled Energy Applications. |
| Jan. 24, 2019 | Quyen Nguyen | Univeristy of California, Santa Barbara | Solution-Processed Organic Solar Cells for Energy-Efficient Buildings |
| Feb. 7, 2019 | Dragan Maksimovic | University of Colorado Boulder | Advances in Power Electronics Enabled by Converter Topologies, Soft Switching Techniques, and Wide Bandgap Semiconductors |
| Feb. 21, 2019 | Vijay Vittal | Arizona State University | Interdependent Electric and Water Infrastructure Modeling, Optimization and Control |
| Feb. 25, 2019 | Noël M. Bakhtian | Center for Advanced Energy Studies | |
| Mar. 7, 2019 | Joe Berry | National Renewable Energy Laboratory | |
| Apr. 18, 2019 | Ted Miller | Ford Motor Company | Vehicle electrification |
| Apr. 25, 2019 | Xavier Crispin | Linköping University, Sweden | Electronic and Ionic Thermoelectric Effects with Conducting Polymers |
| May 2, 2019 | Daniel P. Abraham | Argonne National Laborator | No official title (Topic: Rapid cycling of lithium-ion batteries) |
| May 16, 2019 | Brian Korgel | University of Texas at Austin | Nanomaterials in Pursuit of Ubiquitous Portable Power |
| Jun. 13, 2019 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2017–18
| Sept. 28, 2017 | Kameshwar Poolla | University of California, Berkeley | The Sharing Economy for the Smart Grid |
| Oct. 6, 2017 | Sean James | Microsoft | Disruptive Facility Architectures with Fuel Cells |
| Oct. 12, 2017 | Tom Meyer | University of North Carolina | Our Energy Future. Science and Technology Challenges for the 21st Century |
| Nov. 2, 2017 | Dan Steingart | Princeton University | Exploring and Exploiting Often Unwanted Coupling in Closed Energy Cells |
| Jan. 4, 2018 | Michael McGehee | Stanford University | How perovskite semiconductors could transform the solar industry |
| Feb. 22, 2018 | Jean-Luc Brédas | Georgia Tech | Organic Solar Cells: Characterization of interfacial charge-separation and charge-recombination processes |
| Mar. 1, 2018 | Takayuki Homma | Waseda University | Electrochemical nano/micro processing for functional materials and devices: Process development and mechanistic understanding |
| Mar. 29, 2018 | Khalil Amine | Argonne National Laboratory | Next Generation Rechargeable Lithium Batteries and Beyond |
| Apr. 5, 2018 | Christian Belady | Microsoft | |
| Apr. 12, 2018 | Johanna Wolfson | PRIME Impact Fund | Overcoming Challenges to Getting Clean Energy Technologies to Market |
| Apr. 26, 2018 | Ian Dobson | Iowa State University | Data-Driven Models of Cascading Blackouts in Electric Power Transmissions Networks |
| May 3, 2018 | Elsa Reichmanis | Georgia Tech | From silicon to plastic: materials design and process considerations |
| May 31, 2018 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2016–17
| Sept. 29, 2016 | Venkatesh Narayanamurti | Harvard University | Is this America’s Sputnik Moment? Re-inventing the Future and Bridging the Basic Applied Dichotomy: The Case of Clean Energy and the National Laboratories |
| Oct. 6, 2016 | Michael Chertkov | Los Alamos National Laboratory | Pressure Transients and Fluctuations in Natural Gas Networks caused by Gas-Electric Coupling |
| Oct. 13, 2016 | Benjamin F. Hobbs | Johns Hopkins University | Designing Power Markets to Support Socially Optimal Decisions |
| Oct. 27, 2016 | Pascal Van Hentenryck | University of Michigan | Optimization of Electricity and Gas Networks |
| Dec. 1, 2016 | Yuriy Roman | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Architecture at the nanscale: Design principles for next generation catalysts in energy applications |
| Dec. 13, 2016 | Jonathan Pershing | US Department of State | The Paris Agreement and the Path Forward |
| Jan. 5, 2017 | Jianhui Wang | Argonne National Laboratory | Grid Modernization: Challenges, Opportunities, and Solutions |
| Jan. 20, 2017 | Sergei V. Kalinin | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Electrochemistry on Nano- and Atomic Levels: Scanning Probe Microscopy Meets Deep Data |
| Feb. 2, 2017 | Amy Prieto | Colorado State University | Inexpensive, Efficient Approaches for Energy Production and Storage |
| Mar. 2, 2017 | Gao Liu | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | The Design, Synthesis and Engineering of Soft Materials for Lithium Batteries |
| Apr. 6, 2017 | M. Stanley Whittingham | SUNY at Binghamton | The Ultimate Limits of Intercalation Reactions for Li-Batteries |
| Apr. 27, 2017 | Regan Zane | Utah State University | Transportation Electrification: Techologies Towards a Sustainable Future for Transportation Systems |
| May 11, 2017 | Mercouri Kanatzidis | Northwestern University | Energy from waste heat: how the thermoelectric materials are designed and used |
| May 18, 2017 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | State of CEI |
2015–16
| Oct. 29, 2015 | Peter Faguy | US Department of Energy | Development of Next-Generation Batteries for Plug-in Electric Vehicles |
| Nov. 5, 2015 | Vincent Holmberg | University of Washington | Synthesis, application and integration of nanomaterials |
| Nov. 12, 2015 | Sossina Haile | Northwestern University | Thermochemistry of Redox Active Oxides and its Relevance to Solar Fuel Generation |
| Dec. 10, 2015 | Daniel T. Schwartz | University of Washington | Testbeds Update and Roadmap for the Future |
| Jan. 7, 2016 | Dirk Weiss | First Solar | Disruptive Solar Technologies versus the State of the Art |
| Jan. 14, 2016 | Matthew Sheldon | Texas A&M | Plasmonic Nanomaterials for Optical-to-Electrical Energy Conversion |
| Jan. 28, 2016 | Hiroyuki Nishide | Waseda University | Radical Polymer Batteries: Towards High-Power, Safe and Flexible Devices |
| Feb. 4, 2016 | Paulina Jaramillo | Carnegie Mellon University | Consequential Energy Systems Analysis: Case Studies on the U.S. Transition Away from Coal |
| Mar. 3, 2016 | Ross Baldick | University of Texas | Transmission Capacity Expansion Planning |
| Apr. 28, 2016 | Lindsay Anderson | Cornell University | Toward scalable methods for managing uncertainty under high penetration of renewable energy resources |
| May 5, 2016 | CEI Testbeds | University of Washington | Testbeds to accelerate a scalable clean energy future |
| May 19, 2016 | Judith C. Yang | University of Pittsburgh | Structural Dynamics of Surface Reactions: Oxidation and Heterogeneous Cayalysis |
| May 26, 2016 | Adienne Little | US Department of Energy | Changing the Paradigm for Thermal Energy Systems: An ARPA-E Initiative |
| May 26, 2016 | Christopher Wolverton | Northwestern University | Accelerating Materials Discovery with Data-Driven Atomistic Computational Tools |
2014–15
| Oct. 9, 2014 | John Lemmon | Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) | Materials science and electrochemical properties of several battery chemistries |
| Oct. 30, 2014 | Cody Schlenker | University of Washington | Charge dynamics at interfaces in next-generation energy conversion materials |
| Nov. 6, 2014 | Venkat Subramanian | University of Washington | Model Based Battery Management System (BMS) for Electric Transporation and Renewable Microgrids |
| Jan. 15, 2015 | Bruce Dunn | University of California, Los Angeles | Intercalation Pseudocapacitance: A Route Towards Oxide Supercapacitors |
| Jan. 29, 2015 | Antonio Jesus Conejo Navarro | Ohio State University | Toward Fully Renewable Electric Energy Systems |
| Feb. 12, 2015 | Antoine Kahn | Princeton University | (In)Organic Electronics: A World of Ubiquitous and Cruical Interfaces |
| Apr. 9, 2015 | Henry Snaith | University of Oxford | Understanding Formation, Operation and Stability of Organic-Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells |
| Apr. 15, 2015 | Sam Stranks | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Organic-Inorganic Perovskites for Photovoltaics and Light Emission |
| May 21, 2015 | Ronald L. Litzinger | Edison Energy | An Executive’s View of the Changes Driving the Energy Economy |
2013–14
| Nov. 7, 2013 | Mildred Dresselhaus | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Perspectives on Our Energy Future |
| Jan. 14, 2014 | Zhigang Suo | Harvard University | Soft Generators that Harvest Energy from Renewable Sources |
| Feb. 6, 2014 | François Bouffard | McGill University | Umbrella Constraint Discovery |
| Feb. 13, 2014 | Steven Low | Caltech | Optimal Power Flow for Future Smart Grid |
| Mar. 6, 2014 | Cyrus Wadia | Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and White House OSTP | Scaling Cleaning Energy Production – A Materials Grand Challenge |
| Apr. 3, 2014 | Harry Atwater | Caltech | Photovoltaics and Solar Energy |
| May 8, 2014 | George Crabtree | Argonne National Laboratory | JCESR: Beyond Li-ion Batteries |
| May 13, 2014 | Tobin J. Marks | Northwestern University | Interface Science of Organic Photovoltaics |
| May 22, 2014 | Kory Hedman | Arizona State University | Managing variable renewable resources in the smart grid |
| Aug. 18, 2014 | Reza Ghodssi | University of Maryland | Biofabrication for Micro-Nano-Bio-Systems Integration |