Director, Materials Manufacturing Innovation Center, Argonne National Lab
Chris Heckle, PhD, is the Director, Materials Manufacturing Innovation Center at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL. Chris connects industry to lab skills and technologies for the purpose of supporting US manufacturing companies in the materials and chemical processing space. Argonne supports materials companies with technology solutions across a wide variety of areas including scaling up of new materials, decarbonization of processes, supply chain support, transportation / shipping / logistics and workforce development.
Prior to her time at Argonne, she held a variety of positions at Corning Incorporated where she worked from technology initiation through deployment and into commercialization and manufacturing. She understands the life cycle of manufacturing from product concept through getting the product out the door every day.
Technical Account Manager, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Paul Lemar has over 30 years of experience in engineering, economic and environmental analysis of energy efficiency technologies and management practices. Since 2009, he has served as Technical Account Manager under the U.S. Department of Energy Better Plants Program. As technical advisor, he develops energy intensity metrics, models and analyzes energy performance, and structures ISO 50001 energy management systems for large industrial organizations. He has also conducted over 35 energy assessments for industrial facilities in North America and Europe to identify potential energy savings and decarbonization projects. He has authored numerous studies on Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and other onsite energy generation, and has consulted regularly on technical issues with utilities and state commissions on grid interconnection of renewables.
James A. Baker, III, and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics | Senior Director, Center for Energy Studies
Kenneth B. Medlock III, PhD, is the James A. Baker, III, and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics at the Baker Institute and the senior director of the Center for Energy Studies. He is also the director of the Masters of Energy Economics program, and holds adjunct professor appointments in the Department of Economics and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University. Medlock teaches advanced courses in energy economics and supervises Ph.D. students in the energy economics field. He has published numerous scholarly articles in his primary areas of interest, which include: natural gas markets, electricity markets, energy commodity price relationships, transportation, national oil company behavior, economic development and energy demand, energy use and the environment, and various energy transitions topics ranging from engineered and nature-based carbon capture to hydrogen to the economic drivers of technology adoption.
Decarbonization Director, Americas, Wood
Wood’s Katie Zimmerman is a prominent decarbonization leader, highly experienced in devising and delivering engineering and technical solutions for industrial decarbonization, including hydrogen and carbon capture – two of the world’s fastest-growing clean energy solutions.
Based in the world’s energy capital, Houston, Texas, Katie’s own career story began in oil and gas as a process engineer for offshore and shale market sectors. Katie now plays a leading role in developing solutions enabling the world’s energy companies to effectively implement emissions reduction strategies and deliver scalable alternative energy projects.
