Ben Kroposki, PhD, PE, IEEE Fellow
Director – Power Systems Engineering Center
National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Dr. Ben Kroposki is the Director of the Power Systems Engineering Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he leads NREL’s strategic research in the design, planning and operations of electrical power systems. He has over 30 years of experience in the design, testing, and integration of renewable and distributed power systems and has more than 150 publications in these areas with over 9,000 citations. Dr. Kroposki received his BSEE and MSEE from Virginia Tech and Ph.D. from the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Kroposki is the recipient of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Ramakumar Family Renewable Energy Excellence Award. This award has been established to recognize outstanding contributions in the field of developing, utilizing and integrating renewable energy resources in the national and global energy scenarios. As an IEEE Fellow, Dr. Kroposki was recognized for his leadership in renewable and distributed energy systems integration. Dr. Kroposki is also an Adjunct Professor at the Colorado School of Mines and University of Colorado and teaches courses on integrating renewable energy into power systems.

Hiroaki Nagayama, Professor at Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (GSAIS), Kyoto University.

Dr. Nagayama has gained over 20 years of working experience as an energy policy consultant , having worked for Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.(1988-2007) and Kyoto University (2008-present). He has worked for a number of electricity policy projects in such countries as Iran, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Pakistan. He is now closely involved with formulating an electricity regulatory agency and grid code for the government of Laos.

He is currently a council member of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, the “Mass Introduction of Renewable Energy / Next Generation Power Network Committee” and the “Renewable Energy as a Main Power Supply System Reform Subcommittee” .
His recent book, “The Political Economics of Renewable Energy as a Main-stream Energy and Power Sector Reform(in Japanese) ”, published by Toyokeizai Shinposha (2020), was given an energy-forum award by Energy-forum Co. Ltd.

Graham “Gus” Nathan, Prof., Ph.D.,
Gus Nathan is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide, the inaugural Energy Professional of the Year from the Australian Institute of Energy, SA, a Fellow of the Combustion Institute, a recipient of a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council and an ATSE KH Sutherland medallist. He was the bid leader for, and is now the Research Director of, the national $215m Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre, the HILT CRC. He has led the development of six technology platforms, three of which are in ongoing commercial use and include the flame for Sydney Olympic Relay Torch, while three are currently being upscaled to decarbonise heavy industry. He has published some 300 papers in international journals, 250 in peer reviewed conferences, 50 commissioned reports and 13 patents.

As a co-founder of the international ISF Workshop, Professor Nathan also specialises in the joint development and application of both advanced laser diagnostic measurements and numerical models to de-risk emerging technologies in hydrogen production and heavy industrial processes. He also leads the Alternative Applications program in the $87m Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative, which aims to lower the cost of solar fuels production, and a $14m ARENA funded project to introduce concentrating solar thermal into the Bayer Alumina process. He has worked closely with industry throughout his career, beginning with a 13 year industrial lectureship and followed, more recently, as the founding chair of the international High Temperature Minerals Processing (HiTeMP) Forum.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Vajen is director of the Institute of Thermal Engineering at the University of Kassel, Germany, where he holds the chair of Solar- and Systems Engineering, and furthermore distinguished professor of the Technical University of Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek. He holds a PhD in applied physics and is (co-)author of 300+ publications about (solar) thermal engineering, university education and energy policy. He is founder and director of the MSc-programme “Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency” at the University of Kassel, as well as founder and head of the council “University Educations on Renewable Energies” with 120+ professors from German speaking countries. He developed and coordinates the Europe-wide PhD-education on solar thermal technology, together with Professor U. Jordan.

Klaus was member of the ISES Board of Directors from 2003-2011 and is a member again since 2018. He was Vice-president of ISES 2006-2007, founder of Young ISES (together with J. McIntosh) and Chair of the Solar World Congress 2011 in Kassel.　Since 2019, he is the president of ISES.

Dr. Jeffrey D. Spitler is Regents Professor of mechanical engineering at Oklahoma State University where he holds the OG&E Energy Technology Chair. He has 30 years of experience researching ground source heat pump systems, with the results from experimental, computational, and field research published in over 120 technical papers. Major contributions include development of widely used design software (GLHEPRO); development of equipment and analysis procedures for in situ measurement of ground thermal properties; development of ground heat exchanger simulation models now used in DOE2, EnergyPlus, and other tools; and field measurement of GSHP system performance in several commercial buildings. He is a Fellow of ASHRAE and IBPSA, and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Science and Technology for the Built Environment.　Academic background is,

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990.
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984.
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1983.

Ms. Lauren Boyd is the both the Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office and Office’s Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Program Manager. In her Deputy Director role, Lauren manages Office-wide efforts to improve performance, lower costs, and accelerate deployment of all geothermal technologies. In her EGS Program Manager role, Lauren is responsible for all activities related to EGS, including strategic planning, budget formulation, and project execution of a broad RD&D portfolio that includes EGS research, development and demonstration projects and new technology initiatives, such as the DOE’s Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE). Lauren also manages the Department’s international portfolio on geothermal and represents the U.S. on several international steering committees.

Lauren holds a Master of Science in Geology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Arts in Geology from Vassar College.