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Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
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C

Biographical Sketches

PAUL GAFFNEY (NAE), Chair, is president of Monmouth University. He is a retired Navy vice admiral and served as president of the National Defense University from 2000 to 2003. Prior to assuming those duties, Admiral Gaffney was the chief of naval research with responsibility for science and technology investment, a substantial part of which supported basic research in American universities. He was appointed to the U.S. Ocean Policy Commission in July 2001 and served during its full tenure from 2001 to 2004. His distinguished naval career spanned more than three decades, including duty at sea, overseas, and ashore in executive and command positions. Admiral Gaffney served in Japan, Vietnam, Spain, and Indonesia and traveled extensively in official capacities. While a military officer, his career focused on oceanography. Admiral Gaffney is a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Upon graduation, he was selected for immediate graduate education and received a master’s degree in ocean engineering from Catholic University of America. He completed a year as a student and advanced research fellow at the Naval War College, graduating with highest distinction. He completed an M.B.A. at Jacksonville University. The University of South Carolina, Jacksonville University, and Catholic University have awarded him honorary doctorates. He has been recognized with a number of military decorations and the Naval War College’s J. William Middendorf Prize for Strategic Research. Admiral Gaffney chairs the federal Ocean Research/Resources Advisory Panel. He is a trustee of Meridian Health and a director of Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.

Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
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PHILIP BEAUCHAMP manages the Mechanical Systems-Performance Lab at the General Electric Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York. His laboratory is in part focused on research and development (R&D) of hydromechanical devices for GE. In this regard, he has participated internally with GE Energy and GE Water and with numerous external organizations in tracking a wide range of emerging ocean energy technologies. Dr. Beauchamp holds an M.S. in numerical methods from the University of Arizona, an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Boston University.

MICHAEL BECK is a senior scientist with the Global Marine Initiative of the Nature Conservancy and a research associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He works in the interface between marine science and policy. Dr. Beck’s present work includes research on marine regional planning; the nursery role of nearshore habitats such as kelp forests; tools for ecosystem-based management and land-sea integration; the conservation and restoration of nearshore habitats, including shellfish reefs and beds; and marine proprietary rights, including the lease and ownership of submerged lands. Dr. Beck holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Florida State University.

VALERIE BROWNING is the owner, senior consultant, and subject matter expert for ValTech Solutions, LLC. She serves as a subject matter expert for a number of Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), and other government activities in the areas of advanced materials and alternative energy. Prior to forming ValTech Solutions in 2007, Dr. Browning served as a program manager in the Defense Sciences Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). During her tenure at DARPA, she assumed full responsibility for the strategic planning, operating management, leadership, and development of multiple DOD R&D programs providing innovative technologies in power and energy, radar, telecommunications, and biotechnology for diagnostics, therapeutics, and chemical and biological warfare defense. Specific programs managed by Dr. Browning include the MetaMaterials, Palm Power, Direct Thermal to Electric Conversion, Negative Index Materials, Robust Portable Power Systems, and BioMagnetic Interfacing Concepts programs. She also served as the DARPA liaison to the DOD Integrated Product Team on energy security and served as acting director of the Defense Sciences Office prior to her departure from government service. In addition to her time at DARPA, Dr. Browning spent 16 of her 24 years of government service as a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory.

Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×

Her primary areas of research were thermoelectric materials, high-temperature superconductors, and magnetic oxide materials. Upon leaving her government position, Dr. Browning was awarded the Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Public Service. She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including three book chapters. She is active in a number of professional organizations, including the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, and Sigma Xi. Dr. Browning served as co-chair for a 2007 Materials Research Society symposium on magnetic materials and was the Technical Program Committee chair for its 2008 Fuel Cell Seminar. She continues to serve on the Technical Program Committee for the Fuel Cell Seminar and Exposition and was appointed as member of the National Materials Advisory Board in 2009. Additionally, she served as a member of the NRC Committee on Developments in Detector Technologies.

CHRIS GARRETT (NAS) is an emeritus professor at the University of Victoria, having been the Lansdowne Professor of Ocean Physics until 2010. His background is in applied mathematics and fluid dynamics. His research emphasis has mostly been on theoretical studies of small-scale processes such as waves, tides, turbulent dispersion and mixing, air-sea interaction, and the dynamics of flows in straits. He has also contributed to assessments of the oceanic disposal of radioactive and other wastes and to issues of ocean energy, such as iceberg trajectory prediction for the Canadian offshore oil industry and deriving fundamental limits to tidal power as well as evaluating its environmental impact. Dr. Garrett holds a B.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in geophysical fluid dynamics, both from the University of Cambridge. He is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

ANNETTE GRILLI is a research assistant professor of ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island. Her professional experience started as an assistant in regional geography at the University of Liège (Belgium), working on identifying indices of economic and social crises in rural areas using multivariate spatial statistical analysis. While finishing her Ph.D. in climatology at the University of Delaware, modeling the albedo of the ocean surface as a function of sea state, she worked as a consultant in environmental science and engineering and a research scientist for Applied Science Associates, Inc. (Narragansett, Rhode Island) on various environmental modeling projects. After a few years as research scientist in the Department of Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island, in 2005 Dr. Grilli joined the faculty and has since been working on a variety of ocean renewable energy projects, for example, the siting in Rhode Island of Energetech’s Oscillating Water Column wave energy plant (now

Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×

Oceanlinx, Australia); the conceptual development and modeling of point absorber autonomous buoys; and the siting of a wind farm in Rhode Island waters, including siting optimization in terms of resources and technical, and ecological factors. The latter two projects are still active. At the University of Liège, Dr. Grilli earned a B.S. in geography (summa cum laude), a B.S. in education, and an M.S. in physical oceanography. She earned a Ph.D. in climatology from the University of Delaware.

J. ANDREW HAMILTON is a research engineer with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. His research interests include ocean wave energy harvesting for oceanographic and renewable energy applications, as well as marine hydrodynamics. Dr. Hamilton is currently developing a free-swimming ocean platform that can harvest energy from the ocean environment to provide at-sea recharging for autonomous vehicles. He has served as an associate editor of the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. Dr. Hamilton holds an M.S. degree in ocean engineering and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

TUBA OZKAN-HALLER is an associate professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Her interests include numerical, field, and analytical investigations of water motions in the near-shore zone, defined by water depth of about 10 m or less. Of special interest is the application of numerical models to predict nearshore circulation as well as the modeling of bathymetric change due to this circulation field. Verification of the results is carried out using field and laboratory data. Dr. Ozkan-Haller holds an M.C.E. and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Delaware.

ELIZABETH FANNING PHILPOT is a principal research engineer, Research and Technology Management, Research and Environmental Affairs, Southern Company. She managed a variety of research projects in the following strategic areas: energy policy and economic analysis, environmental research, environmental regulation, strategic implementation, energy production, and delivery and use. Now, her focus is defining renewable energy resources within the Southern Company footprint and evaluating renewable energy technologies that might be applicable to the Southern Company. She was the project manager for Southern Company on the Southern Winds project, which was a joint Southern Company-Georgia Tech project looking into the feasibility of offshore wind generation along the Georgia coast. She is currently working on an interim lease application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement for the placement of an offshore meteorological tower. She

Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×

also worked with EPRI to define the ocean resources within the Southern Company footprint and to evaluate technologies that might be applicable for the existing resource.

BHAKTA RATH (NAE) is the head of the Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate at the Naval Research Laboratory. In his current position, Dr. Rath manages a multidisciplinary research program to discover and exploit new improved materials, generate new concepts associated with materials behavior, and develop advanced components based on these new and improved materials and concepts. Scientists in this directorate perform theoretical and experimental research to determine the scientific origins of materials behavior and to develop procedures for modifying these materials to meet naval needs for advanced platforms, electronics, sensors, and photonics. Dr. Rath earned an M.S. in metallurgy from Michigan Technological University and received his Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has received a number of honors and awards, including the DOD Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the National Materials Advancement Award from the Federation of Materials Societies (2001).

RAYMOND SCHMITT is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he has spent most of his career. His research interests include oceanic mixing and microstructure, double-diffusive convection, the thermohaline circulation, oceanic freshwater budgets, the salinity distribution and its measurement, the use of acoustics for imaging fine structure, and the development of instrumentation. He is also interested in the intergenerational problem of sustaining long-term observations for climate. Dr. Schmitt has served on ocean sciences and polar program panels with the National Science Foundation, the Ocean Observing System Development Panel, the CLIVAR Science Steering Group, and the NRC’s Ocean Studies Board. He was named a J.S. Guggenheim fellow in 1997 and has authored or co-authored more than 75 publications. Dr. Schmitt earned a Ph.D. in physical oceanography from the University of Rhode Island and a B.S. in physics from Carnegie Mellon University.

JAMES THOMSON is the assistant professor of environmental fluid dynamics at the University of Washington. After completing a Ph.D. in MIT’s joint program with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he joined the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory in 2006. Dr. Thomson studies waves and currents in the coastal ocean, with an emphasis on field measurements and physical processes. As a member of the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, Dr. Thomson is developing techniques to select and monitor sites for

Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×

tidal energy development. He was raised on the coast of Maine and worked in the sailing industry there prior to beginning a career in physical oceanography.

LARRY WEBER is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research-Hydroscience and Engineering at the University of Iowa. His research interests are in fish passage facilities, physical modeling, river hydraulics, hydropower, computational hydraulics, and ice mechanics, including combining hydrodynamic data and biological data of fish response, applying computational fluid dynamics codes to natural river reaches and hydraulic structures, fundamental principles of plunging jets, and combining open channel flows. Dr. Weber holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Iowa.

ZHAOQING YANG is a senior research scientist in the Coastal and Watershed Processes Modeling Group of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL’s) Marine Sciences Laboratory. Dr. Yang’s primary research focuses on numerical modeling of hydrodynamic and transport processes in estuarine and coastal waters, reservoirs, and river systems. He is currently leading the development of PNNL’s high-resolution hydrodynamic and transport model and operational forecast system for Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits. Dr. Yang has conducted many modeling studies on coastal ocean circulation, estuarine tidal dynamics, nearshore wetland restoration, water quality, sediment and fate transport, and effects of climate changes and sea-level rise on nearshore habitat. He also applied three-dimensional hydrodynamic and transport models to simulate the temperature stratification, circulation patterns, and suspended sediment transport in reservoirs and river systems to help the design of a fish collection facility, sediment cleanup decisions, and source control in connection with total maximum daily load. Dr. Yang also has extensive experience in computational fluid dynamics modeling, groundwater modeling, and ocean engineering, river flood, and management analysis. Currently, Dr. Yang is leading the development of a model to assess the impacts of marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy devices on coastal and estuarine systems. Dr. Yang holds an M.S. in ocean engineering from the University of Rhode Island and a Ph.D. in physical oceanography from the College of William and Mary.

Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×
Page 144
Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×
Page 145
Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×
Page 146
Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×
Page 147
Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×
Page 148
Suggested Citation:"C Biographical Sketches." National Research Council. 2013. An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18278.
×
Page 149
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Increasing renewable energy development, both within the United States and abroad, has rekindled interest in the potential for marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) resources to contribute to electricity generation. These resources derive from ocean tides, waves, and currents; temperature gradients in the ocean; and free-flowing rivers and streams. One measure of the interest in the possible use of these resources for electricity generation is the increasing number of permits that have been filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As of December 2012, FERC had issued 4 licenses and 84 preliminary permits, up from virtually zero a decade ago. However, most of these permits are for developments along the Mississippi River, and the actual benefit realized from all MHK resources is extremely small. The first U.S. commercial gridconnected project, a tidal project in Maine with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt (MW), is currently delivering a fraction of that power to the grid and is due to be fully installed in 2013.

As part of its assessment of MHK resources, DOE asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide detailed evaluations. In response, the NRC formed the Committee on Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Technology Assessment. As directed in its statement of task (SOT), the committee first developed an interim report, released in June 2011, which focused on the wave and tidal resource assessments (Appendix B). The current report contains the committee's evaluation of all five of the DOE resource categories as well as the committee's comments on the overall MHK resource assessment process. This summary focuses on the committee's overarching findings and conclusions regarding a conceptual framework for developing the resource assessments, the aggregation of results into a single number, and the consistency across and coordination between the individual resource assessments. Critiques of the individual resource assessment, further discussion of the practical MHK resource base, and overarching conclusions and recommendations are explained in An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessment.

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