Appendix B
Panelists’ Biographies
TIM LIEUWEN (NAE) is a Regents’ Professor, the David S. Lewis Jr. Chair, and executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech, where he manages the university’s overall strategy and external relations for its $120M/year energy portfolio. He is also founder and CTO of TurbineLogic, an analytics firm working in the energy industry, and his work has contributed to numerous commercialized innovations in the energy and aerospace sectors. He is an international authority on clean energy and propulsion and has authored 4 books and over 400 other publications.
Current and past board positions include governing/advisory boards for Oak Ridge National Lab, Pacific Northwest National Lab, and the National Renewable Energy Lab, appointment by the DOE Secretary to the National Petroleum Council, and board member of the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute. He is also an appointed member of the National Academies’ Committee on Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions.
Prof. Lieuwen’s contributions have been recognized by his election as a member of the NAE, a fellow of ASME, APS, and AIAA, and foreign fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. Major awards include the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, AIAA Pendray Award, and ASME’s George Westinghouse Gold Medal.
He has a BS in engineering from Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Michigan) and received his MS and PhD, both in mechanical engineering, from Georgia Institute of Technology.
CATHERINE A. PETERS is the George J. Magee Professor of Geosciences and Geological Engineering, chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and director of the undergraduate Geological Engineering Program at Princeton University. Since 2017 she has led her department through transformative growth, with key faculty hires, multidisciplinary research collaborations, and educational initiatives on the water-climate nexus, future cities, robotics for advanced mechanics, and environmental biotechnology. She teaches courses in environmental chemistry, energy and the environment, and sustainable design.
Dr. Peters is an expert in environmental chemistry and geochemistry, known for her leadership in sustainable energy technologies, with a focus on geochemical strategies for greenhouse gas mitigation. She has given numerous invited seminars and published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, which have been cited more than 5000 times.
She is a fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and served as president in 2002. In 2020 she was honored with Honorary Board Certification by Eminence in AAEES, and received a Distinguished Alumnus Award of CEE at Carnegie Mellon University. She is editor in chief of Environmental Engineering Science and has served on numerous advisory panels for the US Department of Energy, including the stakeholder group for the National Risk Assessment Program.
She earned her master’s and PhD in civil engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and her BSE in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan.
MOHAMMAD SHAHIDEHPOUR (NAE) is University Distinguished Professor, Bodine Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and director of the Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). He has 45 years of experience with electric power system operation and planning, and his sponsored project on Perfect Power Systems has converted the entire IIT campus to an islandable microgrid.
For his contributions Dr. Shahidehpour has received the IEEE Burke Hayes Award for his research on hydrokinetics, IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Outstanding Power Engineering Educator
Award, IEEE/PES Ramakumar Family Renewable Energy Excellence Award, IEEE/PES Douglas M. Staszesky Distribution Automation Award, and the Edison Electric Institute’s Power Engineering Educator Award. In addition to his election to the NAE, he is a fellow of IEEE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Inventors.
He has coauthored 6 books and 800 technical papers on electric power system operation and planning, and was the founding editor in chief of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. He earned his BS from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and his MS and PhD from the University of Missouri, all in electrical engineering.
LESLIE SHOEMAKER, appointed president of Tetra Tech in 2019, leads its global operations, strategy, and technical innovation programs. She joined the company in 1991 and has held technical, strategic, and operational responsibilities. She has also served as chief sustainability officer for over a decade, guiding the program to recognize the climate-positive impacts of the company’s projects while continuing to reduce carbon impacts throughout its operations. She has focused on connecting Tetra Tech’s 21,000 high-end scientists, engineers, and technical specialists to develop sustainable solutions by Leading with Science® in water, environment, renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and international development.
Dr. Shoemaker’s technical expertise is in the development of analytics and modeling as decision tools to enhance the environment, especially through watershed modeling systems and optimization of sustainable nature-based solutions. She was part of the Louisville MSD/Tetra Tech team that won the 2019 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award for operations research. She led the development of some of the earliest studies on integrated watershed management programs for the US Environmental Protection Agency and supported the landmark development of the BASINS modeling system. Her early work on watershed modeling included the development and application of tools for nonpoint source simulation such as the Generalized Watershed Loading Function model.
Dr. Shoemaker holds a BA in mathematics from Hamilton College, an M.Eng from Cornell University, and a PhD in agricultural engineering from the University of Maryland.
KEN WASHINGTON (NAE) is vice president of software engineering at Amazon, where he leads a team of engineers developing new consumer devices and services.
Before joining Amazon Dr. Washington was chief technology officer at Ford Motor Company, overseeing the development and implementation of the automaker’s technology strategy. His portfolio at Ford included propulsion systems, sustainable and advanced materials, additive manufacturing, next-gen vehicle architectures, controls, and automated systems. Prior to joining Ford in 2014, Dr. Washington was Lockheed Martin Corporation’s first chief privacy officer, vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center, and vice president and chief technology officer for Lockheed Martin IT. He previously served as the chief information officer for Sandia National Laboratories.
In addition to his election to the NAE in 2020, he is the recipient of the 2012 Black Engineer of the Year Award in Research Leadership.
Dr. Washington has a BS, MS, and PhD in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University and is a fellow of the MIT Seminar XXI program on International Relations.
DEANNE BELL is an engineer, television host, and entrepreneur. Her television hosting credits include PBS, ESPN, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, DIY Network, and most recently CNBC’s Make Me a Millionaire Inventor. She is also the founder and CEO of Future Engineers, an education technology company that engages students in online contests and challenges. Future Engineers’ inaugural competition, developed with the ASME Foundation and NASA, produced historic achievements including the first student-designed 3D print in space. Her company has since become a US Department of
Education SBIR awardee, and was selected by NASA to host the Mars 2020 “Name the Rover” contest.
Previously she worked at Raytheon for 3 years as an optomechanical engineer. She focused on packaging FLIR into a helicopter-mounted gimbal, involving the redesign of the afocal telescope and the packaging of the cryo-cooled imager and CCD camera. She then worked for other R&D programs at the company, including as head of the mechanical design and build of a synthetic aperture ladar (SALTI) optical test bench.
She earned her BS in mechanical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and was selected by its McKelvey School of Engineering to receive the Young Alumni Award in 2019. She was also the featured interviewee in the fall 2019 issue of The Bridge.
