PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) materials scientist Olga Marina was part of a team recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program at the program’s annual merit review June 7–11.

Marina was one of six contributors in a team of national laboratory, industry, and academic hydrogen experts, consultants, and coordinators who received the award in the category “Hydrogen Technologies—Production.”

The team was recognized for solutions to successfully lead the development of benchmarks and test protocols for advanced water splitting (AWS) technologies, including low- and high-temperature electrolysis, photoelectrochemical, and solar thermochemical water splitting. They coordinated annual, widely attended international workshops of experts from the field and drafted an initial set of protocols that will be published in a high-impact, peer-reviewed journal.

This effort is expected to significantly accelerate AWS technology development by enabling publication of consistent and reproducible results throughout the water-splitting community.

In addition to Marina, team members include Kathryn Ayers, Nel Hydrogen; Ellen Stechel, Arizona State University; Chengxiang Xiang, Caltech; Karl Gross, H2 Technology Consulting LLC; and George Roberts, TechScale Solutions, LLC.

Marina joined PNNL in 1999. She is widely recognized for her technical contributions to developing solid oxide fuel cell advanced electrodes and interconnects and for her understanding of degradation mechanisms in high-temperature electrochemical devices.

In addition, PNNL’s Shank Kulkarni was named runner-up in the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) Postdoctoral Recognition Award, where he was recognized for “exceptional research innovation in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.”

“This is a great achievement for Shank,” said Jamie Holladay, who manages PNNL’s hydrogen and fuel cells programs. “This is a very prestigious award given to the best postdocs among all of the national laboratories funded by HFTO.”

Kulkarni received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research focuses on finite element analysis, peridynamics, solid mechanics, and material modeling. He has been a postdoc at PNNL since 2019.

Adds Holladay, “I congratulate Olga and Shank for the well-deserved recognition they’ve received from HFTO.”