Speakers

We’re excited to announce the 2025 NAWEA/WindTech speakers.
Be sure to check back frequently as more speakers are announced!

Wednesday - Opening Plenary

Dr. Inga H. Musselman

Dr. Inga H. Musselman joined UT Dallas as assistant professor of chemistry in 1992 and was promoted to professor in 2008. She became acting provost in 2015 and interim provost on Jan. 1, 2017, before being named vice president for academic affairs and provost in December 2017.

Early in her career, Musselman studied mechanisms and limits of contrast in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of molecular adsorbates, with the goal of advancing STM as a chemically sensitive microscopy technique.

More recently, her research interests have focused on the development and application of microscopy and microanalysis methods for the study of materials structure in the areas of gas separations, fuel cells and bionanotechnology.

She has been the primary research supervisor of numerous doctoral, master’s and baccalaureate degree students as well as high school summer students.

Pramod Khargonekar

Pramod Khargonekar was Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 1997 to 2001 and held the position of Claude E. Shannon Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Michigan. From 2001 to 2009, he was Dean of the College of Engineering and Eckis Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida till 2016. After serving briefly as Deputy Director of Technology at ARPA-E in 2012-13, he served the head of the Directorate of Engineering at the National Science Foundation from 2013 till June 2016. He was Vice Chancellor for Research and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine, from 2016 to 2025, where is currently Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He has received numerous honors and awards including IEEE Control Systems Award, IEEE Baker Prize, IEEE Control Systems Society Bode Lecture Prize, IEEE Control Systems Society Axelby Award, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, AACC Eckman Award, Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Service Awards from IIT Bombay, and Inaugural Hall-of-Fame Inductee, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Florida. He is a Fellow of IEEE, IFAC, and AAAS.

Thursday - Deep Dive Speakers

Troy Hartley

Collaborative Research & Innovation: Driving Growth in Wind-Environment Technology"

Troy Hartley, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute (REWI), has 25+ years of experience in collaborative research, team science knowledge integration, and innovation on a range of natural resources and environmental issues. Prior to joining REWI in 2025, he directed the Virginia Sea Grant College (VASG), a federal-state collaborative research, outreach and engagement, and workforce development program. At VASG, Troy led the development of research fellowship and professional development programs. He has a Ph.D. in natural resource and environmental policy (University of Michigan), MA in environmental policy (George Mason University) and B.S. in zoology (University of Vermont).

Charles Meneveau

Introducing JHTDB-wind: a public database containing large-eddy simulation wind farm flow and detailed turbine data

Charles Meneveau is the Louis M. Sardella Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is Associate Director of the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES), and is jointly appointed as Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. He has been on the Johns Hopkins faculty since 1990 and, with his students and collaborators, has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications. His area of research is focused on understanding and modeling hydrodynamic turbulence, with recent emphasis on wind energy related flow physics as well as developing advanced tools to facilitate public access and analysis of large datasets from high-fidelity simulations. He is Deputy Editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Turbulence. Charles Meneveau is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a foreign corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Academy of Mechanics. He received the 2024 Batchelor Prize in Fluid Mechanics, the 2021 Fluid Dynamics Award from the AIAA, and in 2016 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from
the Danish Technical University for his work on turbulence and its applications to wind energy.

Friday - Panelists

Topic: Partnerships and Collaboration in Wind Energy

Panel Moderated by Nick Johnson

Eleni Chatzi

Eleni Chatzi is Full Professor and Chair of Structural Mechanics and Monitoring at ETH Zürich. Her research integrates advanced simulation and monitoring methods for intelligent, data-driven condition assessment and management of engineered systems, with expertise in Structural Health Monitoring, nonlinear System Identification and physics-enhanced Machine Learning. She currently serves as President of the European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE) and Chair of the Swiss Community for Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (SWICCOMAS). Her contributions have been recognized with multiple international awards, including an ERC Starting Grant (2015), the ASCE Walter L. Huber Research Prize (2020), and the SHM Person of the Year Award (2024).

Carlo L. Bottasso

Prof. Bottasso holds the Chair of Wind Energy at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where he is also the founding director of the Wind Energy Institute. Prof. Bottasso received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in Italy. He has over 30 years of experience in research, teaching and consulting in the fields of wind energy and rotary wing technology. Among his professional activities, he has been the President and Vice-President of the European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE), he is the Editor in Chief of the Wind Energy Science journal, and he served on several academic and industrial executive boards and committees. In 2023, he was honored with the EAWE Scientific Award for “his outstanding contributions and pioneering role in the research on modeling and simulation, aero-servo-elasticity, control and design of wind turbine technologies”.

Paul Veers

Paul Veers is the Executive Director of the North American Wind Energy Academy and a Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). For twelve years he was the Chief Editor for the journal Wind Energy and is currently a Chief Editor for Wind Energy Science. Paul received the European Academy of Wind Energy’s Scientific Award 2016, the NREL Chairman’s Award for sustained research excellence in 2018, and an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark in 2025, all for his leadership in wind energy research.

Sanjay R. Arwade

Sanjay R. Arwade is a Professor of Civil Engineering, Director of the ARROW OSW Center and Associate Director of the Wind Energy Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He studied
structural engineering and mechanics at Princeton and Cornell and has been conducting research and education in offshore wind for more than a decade, including work on fixed-bottom and
floating technologies and the impact of hurricanes on offshore wind. His work has been funded by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, BOEM, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and industry.

Ron Grife

Director of Engineering, Leeward Renewables
Ron Grife is the director of engineering for Leeward Renewable Energy where his duties include establishing the technical support functions at Leeward and driving improvements in equipment performance and reliability of the company’s operating fleet. Prior to joining Leeward, Ron served as the manager of Turbine Performance and Reliability at EDPR and was a turbine upgrades project lead for Vestas’ R&D. Ron has served as the chair of the AWEA Wind Standards Committee and is currently chairing the wind turbine foundation maintenance recommended practices update. Before joining the wind industry Ron spent seven years at Bell
Helicopter in the aerodynamics and performance group developing, modeling and testing helicopter technology. Ron received his Master’s Degree in Mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Eleni Chatzi

Paul Veers

Sanjay R. Arwade

Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson is the Laboratory Program Manager for Wind Energy at NREL, where he works with lab leadership and research staff to advance NREL’s wind energy R&D portfolio and lead strategic engagement with DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office. Prior to his current role, Johnson managed a wind energy R&D department at Sandia National Laboratories. Earlier in his career, he was a senior research engineer at NREL’s Flatirons Campus, a loads engineer and project manager at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, and served as wind energy technology manager at DOE.