David Heldebrant
Division Director
Dr. David J. Heldebrant is the current director of the Physical Sciences Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He previously served as a Team Lead of the Separations Materials team under the Advanced Energy Systems Group in the Energy Processes and Materials Division and sub-sector manager for Fossil Energy Carbon Management. He is a Research Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at Washington State University.
His work spans both fundamental and applied sciences, where he currently leads programs for the DOE offices of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Industrial Technologies Office, ARPA-E, and the Office of Science. Heldebrant has published 98 papers, co-authored 2 book chapters and has been awarded 23 US patents.
Aaron Appel
Group Leader - Catalysis Science
Aaron Appel is an inorganic chemist with broad interests in chemical reactivity, electrochemistry, and catalysis. He is the team leader for Molecular Catalysis in the Catalysis Science Group within the Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate. His fundamental science research has two primary areas of emphasis: thermodynamic studies of discreet bond forming and bond breaking events, and the design and testing of complexes and catalysts based on the resulting thermodynamic data. This approach has been applied to a variety of transformations, including those of H2 and CO2.
Appel's primary areas of expertise are thermochemical measurements, electrochemistry, catalyst design, synthetic chemistry, and small molecule spectroscopy. He also has a background in CO2 capture research, particularly in developing new methods with higher energy efficiency, such as electrochemically switchable CO2 capture.
Scott Smith
Group Leader - Chemical Physics and Analysis
Scott Smith’s research interests are in the kinetics and dynamics of gas/surface interactions and of supercooled liquids and amorphous solids. His work combines detailed experimental measurements with kinetic models to accurately simulate adsorption, desorption, and reactions at the gas/surface interface. Dr. Smith’s research also involves the characterization of the kinetic behavior of crystalline ice and amorphous solid water, and understanding phenomena occurring in deeply supercooled liquids; he is developing kinetic models to describe the desorption and diffusive behavior of deeply supercooled liquids near their glass transition temperature. Dr. Smith holds a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Utah (1988).
Kevin Rosso
Group Leader - Geochemistry
Kevin Rosso began his scientific career as an entry-level research scientist at PNNL in 1998, and was promoted to its highest rank, Laboratory Fellow, in 2010. He now leads a research group of approximately 35 PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, and staff scientists. Dr. Rosso has published over 300 papers and book chapters, a body of work with an H-index of 56 and over 12,000 citations. He is a regularly invited speaker, with over 100 distinguished lectures delivered at University colloquia, workshops and conferences internationally. Dr. Rosso received his B.S. degree in Geological Sciences from California Polytechnic State University at Pomona, and his MS and PhD degrees in Geochemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Vijay Murugesan
Group Leader - Materials Sciences
Vijay Murugesan is a staff scientist in the Physical Sciences Division and a group leader for the Materials Sciences group. His research focuses on charge/mass transfer across heterogeneous interfaces and materials. He frequently partners with the DOE Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences program, as well as the DOE Office of Electricity and Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy to explore chemical stability and resiliency of energy storage materials. In 2018, he was selected as focus area lead for the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, DOE‘s energy storage hub where he leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists across national labs and academic institutions. Murugesan holds a PhD in Physics from Bharathiar University, India, and MS in Physics from PSG College of Arts and Science, India.
Beth Randle
Division Administrator
Beth Randle is a seasoned administrative professional with over 13 years in the field. Beth supports David Heldebrant and the Physical Sciences Division. Before joining PNNL in 2015, she worked as an account coordinator for a brand and digital agency firm, where she organized specialty business conferences. Previously, she owned and operated her own retail business. Beth holds a BA in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management from Columbia College Chicago.
