Energy Graduate Group Faculty

The EEI has nearly 50 affiliated faculty from departments across UC Davis. These faculty are affiliated with the Energy Graduate Group (EGG).

  • Assistant Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Research Interests: Thermal Environment Modelling, HVAC Systems, Renewable Energy, Precision Livestock Farming
Gwen Arnold
  • Associate Professor, Environmental Science and Policy
  • Co-Director, Center for Environmental Behavior
Research Interests: Hydraulic fracturing; regulation and policymaking
Shota Atsumi
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry
Research Interests: Biofuels
Louise Berben
  • Professor, Chemistry
Research Interests: Solar fuels; CO2 conversion; hydrogen production
Catherine Brinkley
  • Assistant Professor, Human Ecology
Research Interests: City and regional planning; place-based policies and interventions; food-energy-water nexus; integrating agricultural ecosystems with urban areas; district heating
David Bunch
  • Professor, Graduate School of Management
Research Interests: Consumer choice behavior and modeling; decision and management sciences
James Bushnell
  • Professor, Economics
Research Interests: Energy markets; utility regulation; climate change; environmental regulation
Colin Carter
  • Distinguished Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • Associate Director, UC Agricultural Issues Center
Research Interests: Commodity markets; international trade; China’s rural economy
Andre Daccache
  • Assistant Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Research Interests: Agriculture water management; irrigation & hydraulic engineering; crop & climate change modeling
J.P. Delplanque
  • Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • Director, California Small Hydro Collaborative
Research Interests: Combustion; hydropower; modeling and simulation
Irwin R Donis-Gonzalez
  • Assistant Postharvest Engineering Specialist, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Research Interests: Postharvest engineering, handling, traceability & processing of agricultural commodities; reducing energy consumption
Matt Ellis
  • Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
Research Interests: Control optimization of energy systems
Paul Erickson
  • Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Interests: Heat & mass transfer enhancement of reacting flows; fuel cell, hybrid drive & electric vehicles; energy systems
Zhiliang (Julia) Fan
  • Associate Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
  • Energy Graduate Group Advisor for Science and Technology track
Research Interests: Biofuels; metabolic engineering; fermentation; process modeling
530-754-0317
  • Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis
Research Interests: Transportation, Energy Systems
Beth Ferguson
  • Assistant Professor, Design
Research Interests: Renewable energy; transportation fuels; energy efficiency
Annaleise Franz
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry
Research Interests: Biofuels, catalysis; chemical transformations to produce biofuels
Scott Hardman
  • Professional Researcher, Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Research Center
Research Interests: Low carbon & innovative vehicle technologies
  • Professor of Technology Management, Graduate School of Management
  • Charles J. Soderquist Chair in Entrepreneurship, Graduate School of Management
Research Interests: Energy efficiency design and management
530-752-2277
John Harvey
  • Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Chair, Transportation Technology and Policy Graduate Group
  • Director, University of California Pavement Research Center
Research Interests: Life cycle assessment; pavement engineering; alternative material development
Rebecca Hernandez
  • Associate Professor, Land, Air, Water Resources
  • Director, Wild Energy Center
Research Interests: Environmental aspects of energy; renewable energy; sustainability science
Bryan Jenkins
  • Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
  • Chair/Director, California Renewable Energy Center
Research Interests: Energy systems; optimization; thermochemical conversion
Alan Jenn
  • Assistant Professor, Institute of Transportation Studies
Research Interests: Alternative fuel vehicle adoption; transition to sustainable energy systems; quantitative policy analysis; big data statistical analysis
Tina Jeoh
  • Associate Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Research Interests: Cellulosic biofuels; bioconversion
Katrina Jessoe
  • Associate Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics
Research Interests: Environmental and energy economics; consumer and firm behavior
  • Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Chair, Energy Graduate Group
Research Interests: Life cycle assessment; renewable energy; transportation energy
530-752-5722
Isaya Kisseka
  • Assistant Professor, Land, Air and Water Resources and Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Research Interests: Agricultural hydrology & water management; irrigation engineering; crop modeling & decision support
  • Faculty Director, Energy and Efficiency Institute
  • Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • Chevron Endowed Chair in Energy Efficiency
Research Interests: Building and industrial energy efficiency; industrial decarbonization, process integration and heat pumps; renewable energy
530-752-4909
  • Assistant Adjunct Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
  • Director, Program for International Energy Technologies & D-Lab
  • Associate Director, UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies
Research Interests: Climate neutrality, energy efficiency; consumer behavior; renewable energy technologies
Marina Leite
  • Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Energy harvesting & storage systems; functional properties of materials; materials processing
  • Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC Davis
  • Director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainable Technologies Research
Research Interests: Sustainable manufacturing and engineering
  • Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Director, Center for Water-Energy Efficiency
  • Krone Endowed Professor in Environmental Engineering
  • Energy Graduate Group Advisor for Policy and Management track
Research Interests: Information technology; water/energy nexus; water/health; conservation; sustainable systems & technologies
530-754-2297
Mark Mascal
  • Professor, Chemistry
Research Interests: Integrated biorefinery; renewable fuels and materials; biomass valorization; biomass-derived platform chemicals
  • Adjunct Professor, Environmental Science and Policy
  • Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Energy Graduate Group - Admissions Chair
Research Interests: Energy efficiency; energy demand; economics; behavior and energy use
510-486-4740
  • Faculty Director, Materials Decarbonization and Sustainability Center
  • Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Life cycle assessment; alternative materials development; sustainability and structural design
  • Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design
Research Interests: Multi-benefit climate change adaptation ; Transdisciplinary design practices ; Critical infrastructural studies ; Landscape fieldwork, ethnography, modeling, surveying and geospatial mapping
505-980-1761
  • Associate Director, Western Cooling Efficiency Center
  • Professor Emeritus, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Professor Emeritus, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Interests: End-use energy efficiency; energy distribution systems; building energy management; ventilation and indoor air quality
530-754-7671
Frances Moore
  • Assistant Professor, Environmental Science and Policy
Research Interests: Economic and social impacts of climate change; energy-water-food nexus
  • Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering and Material Sciences
  • Energy Graduate Group Advisor-Science & Technology Track
Research Interests: Solar materials
530-754-8669
Erich Muehlegger
  • Associate Professor, Economics
Research Interests: Regulation and taxation of energy markets; industrial organization; public finance; environmental policy
Jeremy Munday
  • Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Interests: Photovoltaics; hydrogen technologies
  • Sempra Chair in Energy Efficiency
  • Director, Western Cooling Efficiency Center
  • Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Interests: Supercritical CO2; Novel heat-exchanger designs; Waste heat management
Kevin Novan
  • Associate Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • EGG Graduate Advisor-Energy & Policy Management Track
Research Interests: Environmental economics; applied econometrics
530-752-7426
Joan Ogden
  • Professor Emeritus, Environmental Science and Policy
  • Not serving as primary faculty advisor for new students
Research Interests: Alternative fuels; energy transitions; hydrogen and fuel cells; energy infrastructure
Frank Osterloh
  • Professor, Chemistry
Research Interests: Solar energy; photovoltaics; photocatalytic water splitting; hydrogen; nanomaterials
Jae Wan Park
  • Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • Director, UC Davis Green Transportation Laboratory
Research Interests: Efficiency energy systems; fuel cells; batteries; electric grid
Alireza Pourreza
  • Assistant Agricultural Mechanization Specialist, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Research Interests: Agricultural mechanization, robotics & automation; precision agriculture & horticulture; machine vision & remote sensing
David Rapson
  • Associate Professor, Economics
Research Interests: Energy economics; energy markets; energy policy
Pamela Ronald
  • Distinguished Professor, Plant Pathology
  • Professor, Genome Center
  • Director, Grass Genetics, The Joint Bioenergy Institute
  • Faculty Director, Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy
Research Interests: Biofuels; grass genetics; cell wall biosynthesis
Angela Sanguinetti
  • Research Environmental Psychologist
  • Director, Consumer Energy Interfaces Lab
  • Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • Director, Scaled Model Aerospace and Research Laboratory (SMARTLAB)
  • Co-Director, Transportation Noise Control Center (TNCC)
  • Research Interests: Mobile renewable energy harvesting and storage, Autonomous Energy ships, Hybrid solar-wind energy, Flow-structure dynamic interactions
Tyler Scott
  • Assistant Professor, Environmental Science & Policy
Research Interests: Environmental governance systems; environmental policy; land planning
  • Professor, Design
  • Director, California Lighting Technology Center
  • Rosenfeld Chair in Energy Efficiency
Research Interests: Energy-efficient lighting technology and design
Chris Simmons
  • Assistant Professor, Food Science and Technology
Research Interests: Biofuels; waste-to-energy; water/energy nexus
Aaron Smith
  • Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics
Research Interests: Biofuels; residential energy efficiency; energy price dynamics
Edward (Ned) Spang
  • Assistant Professor, Food Science and Technology
  • Affiliated Faculty Member, Center for Water-Energy Efficiency
Research Interests: Water, energy, and food resource systems
Dan Sperling
  • Founding Director, Institute of Transportation Studies
  • Distinguished Blue Planet Prize Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and Policy
Research Interests: Transportation and energy systems; transportation and energy policy
530-752-7434
Gil Tal
  • Director, EV Research Center
  • Director, STEPS+
  • Professor, Environmental Science and Policy
Research Interests: Alternative fuel vehicles; travel behavior; travel demand modeling; transportation planning
530-754-9230
Keith Taylor
  • Assistant Economic Development Specialist, Human Ecology
Research Interests: Energy cooperatives; environmental policy; wind energy
Jesus Velasquez
  • Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Research Interests: Rational design of well-defined dimensionally reduced materials; nanoelectronics, energy conversion devices, and environmental remediation
Stephen M. Wheeler
  • Professor, Human Ecology
Research Interests: Urban and regional planning; sustainability; climate action planning
  • Associate Director, California Lighting Technology Center
  • Professor, Lighting Technology & Design
Research Interests: urban lighting; visual comfort; impact of glare associated with daylighting
Dong Yu
  • Associate Professor, Physics
Research Interests: Solar energy; nanostructure solar cells