Host Institutions for Marine Energy Fellowship

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Marine Energy Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), provides funding for current graduate students or post-graduates to work at selected host facilities for up to 12 months. Eligible current graduate students must be enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program and conducting research in a marine energy topic as part of their thesis or dissertation. Eligible post-graduates must have finished a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral program within the last 24 months.

Host facilities and the fellow will work together on a research plan (fellows who are current graduate students) or position description (for post-graduate fellows) that must be submitted at the time of the application.

The host facility may be a government research facility, industry site (including but not limited to technology developers), or other facility approved by WPTO as a host facility. Fellows and mentors are responsible for coordinating the appointment start and end dates. Normally, appointment periods will be for 12 months and can be virtual or in person, depending on the nature of the research.

Applicants are not limited to this list of host facilities. It is designed to serve as a starting point for those who need assistance in identifying a potential host facility. Fellows can reach out directly to the host facility contacts listed below if they are interested in working with them.

Please direct any questions about this program to DOE-RPP@orise.orau.gov.

Army Research Laboratory

Department: Spectrum Dominance Team
Mentor: Andre Slonopas; andrew.slonopas2.civ@army.mil
Area of Expertise: Advanced functional materials.
Primary Research Area(s): Semiconductors that can be leveraged for energy harvesting.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: No preference

Blackfish Engineering

Department: N/A
Mentor: Marcus Oliver Gay; marcus.gay@blackfishengineering.com
Area of Expertise: Innovation, new product development, and engineering design of tidal and wave energy devices.
Primary Research Area(s): Blackfish Engineering works on behalf of many ocean renewable energy technology developers to develop, design and test devices at full-machine, system, and sub-system scales. The company has led the design and manufacture of ocean renewable energy machines ranging from 20 kilowatts to 1 megawatt.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Remote
Location: No preference but open to domestic and international travel supporting U.S., UK, and EU projects.
Open to post-graduate fellows

CalWave

Department: N/A
Mentor: Marcus Lehmann; marcus@calwave.energy
Area of Expertise: Systems engineering, original equipment manufacturer of wave energy converters
Primary Research Area(s): Techno economics; systems engineering; design tradeoffs informed by end-user interviews and market research; and market entry strategies including end-user engagement with Tribal nations, corporations, project developers, microgrid and offshore wind project developers and operators, utilities, cooperatives, and others.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: Alameda, California
Open to post-graduate fellows

Department: N/A
Mentor: Thomas Boerner, PhD; thomas@calwave.energy
Area of Expertise: Control methods, system identification, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, time domain simulations, feedback systems.
Primary Research Area(s): Implementation of reinforcement learning methods into ocean wave energy converter control. Application of machine learning methods for ocean wave prediction for applications in wave energy converter control.
Fellow Start Date: Spring (May–June)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Remote
Location: N/A
Open to post-graduate fellows

C-Power

Department: N/A
Mentor: Zhe Zhang; zzhang@cpower.co
Area of Expertise: C-Power makes wave power systems that tap the world’s largest battery – our oceans – to supply cost-effective, dependable, and predictable energy to reduce operational cost and complexity and unleash innovation and decarbonization in the global economy.
Primary Research Area(s): C-Power's product development covers a broad range of engineering work but specific areas of interest for a Fellow include advanced controls strategy, differentiating WEC designs (e.g., subsurface expression), PTO/electric plant, and power flow optimization.
Fellow Start Date: Spring (May–June)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid or remote depending on candidate and research focus.
Location: Corvallis, OR
Open to post-graduate fellows only

Deep Anchor Solutions Inc.,

Department: Marine Anchor Systems Division
Mentor: Junho Lee; deepanchorsolutions@gmail.com
Area of Expertise: Expertise in designing and optimizing marine anchor systems for floating marine energy platforms under extreme conditions.
Primary Research Area(s): We develop and optimize marine anchor systems for floating marine energy platforms, covering concept design to commercialization. Our research includes numerical modeling (FE or CFD), laboratory testing, and field experiments to evaluate anchor performance in various soil types and severe loading conditions. A fellow can specialize in areas such as modeling, field testing, or techno-economic analysis based on fellow's interests, with guidance from experienced mentors. There are opportunities for professional networking, industry collaboration, and contributing to research publications or presentations, providing a fellow with a well-rounded and industry-relevant experience.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid or Remote: No Preference
Location: Houston, TX

Idaho National Laboratory

Department: N/A
Mentor: Bikash Poudel; bikash.poudel@inl.gov
Area of Expertise: Technoeconomic analysis and power infrastructure evaluation of marine energy microgrids with wave energy converters and tidal resources for coastal and island communities.
Primary Research Area(s): Microgrids incorporating marine energy have the potential to supply reliable and carbon-neutral power to remote communities, thereby reducing challenges such as power instability and reliance on external supply chains. Utilizing the marine energy microgrid deployment toolkit, previously developed with support from WPTO, research efforts focus on feasibility studies, scoping, and pre-deployment activities for microgrids that include marine energy as a core component. The project is divided into three major tasks: community selection and engagement, toolkit development and net-zero analysis, and pre-deployment infrastructure evaluation and operations analysis. Additionally, this research will enhance the toolkit to incorporate new marine energy technologies, such as tidal and ocean current systems.
Fellow Start Date: Fall (July–September)
In Person, Hybrid or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Energy Systems Laboratory at Idaho National Laboratory

Integral Consulting

Department: N/A
Mentor: Samuel McWilliams; smcwilliams@integral-corp.com
Area of Expertise: Research on marine energy projects and their environment.
Primary Research Area(s): Integral Consulting focuses on multiple stages of marine energy project research from resource characterization, marine spatial planning, environmental impacts due to the presence of a device or array, and environmental monitoring of devices. The company utilizes numerical modeling tools and a range of field instrumentation, including acoustic doppler current profilers (ADCPs) and hydro-acoustic sensors, to conduct research in support of marine energy projects.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: No preference. If the fellow prefers in person, facilities in Santa Cruz, California, focus on marine energy projects.
Open to post-graduate fellows

IProTech

Mentor: Nicholas Wynn; nick.wynn@iprotechwave.com
Area of Expertise: With technical support from the Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research program (which involved numerical modeling by National Renewable Energy Lab) and funding from the Small Business Innovation Research program, IProtech is designing, building, and testing a proprietary wave energy converter.
Primary Research Area(s): Numerical modeling using the Wave Energy Converter SIMulator/Python to predict performance, and using Fusion 360 or Solidworks for 3D modeling. IProtech is building a prototype wave energy converter for testing at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s large-amplitude motion platform and open-water testing with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at Clallam Bay, Washington.
Fellow Start Date: Spring (April–June)
In Person, Hybrid or Remote: No preference
Location: Redwood City, California

Kelson Marine Co.

Mentor: Tobias Dewhurst; Toby@KelsonMarine.com
Area of Expertise: Ocean engineering, including hydrodynamics, system integration, and design optimization of wave and current energy technologies.
Primary Research Area(s): Kelson Marine's mission is to help humans use the ocean for good. The company aims to bring advanced, model-based ocean engineering research and development to low-margin blue economy industries like ocean renewable energy. Current and recent projects include the control co-design and testing (including wave tank and field tests) of a multibody wave energy converter, the development of a modular, low-cost hydrokinetic turbine system, and enhancement of open-source software packages for ocean energy arrays.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid or Remote: In person
Location: Portland, Maine
Open to post-graduate fellows

Littoral Power Systems, Inc.

Department: N/A
Mentor: David Duquette; dduquette@littoralpower.com
Area of Expertise: Current energy conversion and wave energy conversion.
Primary Research Area(s): In-current hydrokinetics. Littoral Power Systems, Inc. is developing two different current energy converter devices—one for deployment in mid-water column, non-reversing-current sites and one with a surface expression for prosecuting tidal sites. The company is also developing a processing code for rapid characterization of potential sites. For wave energy, the company is developing an artificial intelligence-informed control technology for wave energy converters with the goal of enhancing their efficiency in diverse sea states.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: New Bedford, Massachusetts
Open to post-graduate fellows

MarineSitu

Department: N/A
Mentor: James Joslin; james@marinesitu.com
Area of Expertise: Environmental monitoring using integrated instrumentation systems and artificial intelligence data analysis.
Primary Research Area(s): MarineSitu provides environmental monitoring technology and services for marine energy deployments. This includes customized hardware developed for long-term, continuous monitoring in harsh marine environments, software for data collection, and automated data processing using custom-trained machine learning models. The company is currently developing new, lower-cost hardware systems and providing data management services for several marine energy system deployments.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Seattle, Washington
Open to post-graduate fellows

MITRE

Department: BlueTech Lab – Advanced Maritime Technologies
Mentor: Nicholas Rotker; nrotker@mitre.org
Area of Expertise: Resilient energy systems.
Primary Research Area(s): MITRE engages in research across the spectrum of maritime technology prototypes. This includes developing novel solutions for sensing, autonomy, and energy systems in the marine environment.
Fellow Start Date: Spring (May–June)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: In person
Location: Bedford, Massachusetts
Open to post-graduate fellows

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Department: Marine Energy R&D: Techno-Economic Analysis
Mentor: Elena Baca; elena.baca@nrel.gov
Area of Expertise: Evaluating the performance and economic potential of marine energy systems through techno-economic analysis.
Primary Research Area(s): Tool/code development, power performance modeling, cost modeling, and metrics development.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Flatirons Campus, Arvada, Colorado
Open to post-graduate fellows

Department: Water Power R&D group and Applied Research for Communities in Extreme Environment (ARCEE)
Mentor: Michael Lawson; Michael.Lawson@nrel.gov
Area of Expertise: Michael Lawson leads the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's marine energy team, focusing on wave and water current energy research and development.
Primary Research Area(s): Michael Lawson, a senior research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), leads the water power group, focusing on advancing marine energy technologies. Since joining NREL in 2010, his research has emphasized numerical modeling and system design for marine and wind energy applications. Lawson has contributed to the development of the WEC-Sim (Wave Energy Converter SIMulator) tool, which models the dynamics and performance of wave energy converters. His work also includes assessing marine energy resources across the United States, aiding in the identification of opportunities for harnessing wave, tidal, and ocean current energies.
Fellow Start Date: Fall (July – September)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: N/A
Open to post-graduate fellows

Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC)

Department: Wave Energy Department
Mentor: Ramya Shah; ramya.r.shah.mil@us.navy.mil
Area of Expertise: Wave Energy Converters
Primary Research Area(s): Our research is primarily focused on harnessing wave renewable energy through novel technologies and utilizing it to support the U.S. Navy in various military use cases.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, CA

Department: Advanced Ocean Technology
Mentor: Jefrey Newgard; jeffrey.t.newgard.civ@us.navy.mil
Area of Expertise: Offshore Geotechnical Engineering
Primary Research Area(s): Anchors for water power systems must be installed in a challenging environment and are subject to variable cyclic loads over their lifetime. Our research is focused on improving the reliability of novel anchoring devices, typically via physical testing at our facility and occasionally, at sea. We foresee a need for a fellow to assist with data acquisition/controls/actuator protocols in running tests, and/or to perform numerical modeling and interpretation of the results.
Fellow Start Date: Spring (April- June)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, CA
Open to graduate and post-graduates

Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific

Mentor: Yolanda Meriah Arias-Thode; Yolanda.m.arias-thode.civ@us.navy.mil
Area of Expertise: The use of microbial fuel cells to extract power from mud to power sensors underwater.
Primary Research Area(s): The Benthic Enabled Autonomous Collaboration Operations Notification System (BEACONS) Lab focuses on extracting energy from mud to power sensors underwater. This requires electrical engineers to optimize extracting electrons from 0.4 volts and stepping up the voltage to 12 volts. Mechanical engineers aim to increase surface area and develop form factors that can be easily deployed. Environmental microbiologists, chemists, and material scientists help understand the mechanistic processes, improve power density, and model current and future power generation.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: In person
Location: Point Loma, San Diego, California

Naval Sea Systems

Department: Command
Mentor: Peter McCauley; peter.f.mccauley.civ@us.navy.mil
Area of Expertise: Energy conservation; propulsion; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; and generation.
Primary Research Area(s): Reducing the energy consumption of legacy and future naval platforms by developing efficient architecture and integrating energy conservation alternatives onto existing platforms.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
Open to post-graduate fellows

Department: Command
Mentor: Dr. John Heinzel; john.m.heinzel.civ@us.navy.mil
Area of Expertise: Future power and energy storage systems.
Primary Research Area(s): The integration of batteries with advanced power conversion to support current and future loads. The integration includes controls, safety, conversion, and circuit protection of current and advanced batteries.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
Open to post-graduate fellows

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Department: Energy Systems Development Group, Advanced Reactor Engineering and Development Section, Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division
Mentor: Thien D. Nguyen; nguyen@ornl.gov
Area of Expertise: Experimental and computational thermal-hydraulics.
Primary Research Area(s): Dr. Nguyen's research centers on thermal-fluid dynamics, combining experimental measurements and numerical modeling for applications in mechanical, aerospace, civil, chemical, and nuclear engineering. With extensive experience in advanced instrumentation and innovative measurement techniques such as LDV, LIF, PIV, high-speed thermography, shadowgraphy, and Schlieren imaging, Dr. Nguyen also has a strong background in computational fluid dynamics (RANS and LES). Their work focuses on investigating safety-related phenomena, systems, and component designs in nuclear, mechanical, and aerospace engineering, including studies of various flow types and conditions. Dr. Nguyen is also an expert in turbulent flow analysis using mode decomposition, validation and verification, and uncertainty quantification.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Department: Materials Science and Technology Division
Mentor: Jun Qu; qujn@ornl.gov
Area of Expertise: Tribology and lubrication of marine turbomachinery.
Primary Research Area(s): Development of environmentally acceptable lubricants for marine turbines
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: In person
Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Mentor: Nicholas Ward; nicholas.ward@pnnl.gov
Area of Expertise: Biogeochemistry of coastal ecosystems to understand both natural ecosystem function and applied technologies such as marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR); marine energy might play a key role in scaling such technologies.
Primary Research Area(s): Establishing a baseline understanding of how ecosystems function naturally and predict the influence of disturbances and human activities on hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological processes. Building on this baseline, explore how human interventions, such as mCDR, can improve the ability for natural ecosystems to mitigate climate change by amplifying atmospheric carbon uptake. Certain mCDR technologies, such as ocean alkalinity enhancement, rely on energy-intensive processes that will require renewable energy to result in net-negative CO ₂ Research seeks to explore connections between mCDR and marine renewable energy.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: In person
Location: Sequim, Washington

Department: Coastal Sciences Division
Mentor: Lysel Garavelli; lysel.garavelli@pnnl.gov
Area of Expertise: Environmental effects of marine energy.
Primary Research Area(s): Ocean Energy Systems-Environmental brings together the collective knowledge of the international marine energy community to decrease the uncertainty around environmental effects of marine energy and engages with stakeholders to provide access to information to reduce critical environmental and regulatory barriers to deployment. OES-Environmental seeks to support the development of transformative, reliable, and cost-competitive marine energy technologies by providing access to the information needed to reduce critical deployment barriers and deliver predictable and affordable power from offshore resources. Ongoing research under OES-Environmental encompasses environmental acceptability of marine energy devices, environmental effects of off-grid applications, socioeconomic effects of marine energy, and systems-wide effects.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Seattle, Washington

Department: Coastal Sciences Division: Marine Technology Team
Mentor: Christopher Rumple; chris.rumple@pnnl.gov
Area of Expertise: Applying experimental fluid mechanics and structures for energy production from bio-inspire tidal turbines to vortex-induced vibration methods.
Primary Research Area(s): Environmental assessment for offshore wind and tidal power. Research focuses on developing techniques to remove the effects of flow noise on passive acoustics to effectively assess biological target passage through a tidal channel. Work for offshore wind has encompassed the development of a radar system that can compensate for buoy motion while scanning the sky for birds and bats over open water. Research is moving toward studying a lift-based, low cut-in, bio-inspired turbine for use in tidal power.
Fellow Start Date: Spring (April–June)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Sequim, Washington

Department: Coastal Sciences Division
Mentor: Ruth Branch; branch@pnnl.gov
Area of Expertise: Powering aquaculture operations and ocean observations with wave and current energy.
Primary Research Area(s): The goal of the project is to help decarbonize the aquaculture industry. The project would be a feasibility study of the co-location of aquaculture and marine energy. The feasibility study would examine the potential for wave and tidal energy converters to power operations at aquaculture sites in Maine and Alaska.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No Preference
Location: No preference

Department: Coastal Sciences Division
Mentor: Karthik Balaguru; Karthik.Balaguru@pnnl.gov
Area of Expertise: Hurricanes and their impacts on energy infrastructure.
Primary Research Area(s): Balaguru is a climate scientist and team lead for coastal modeling and resilience at PNNL. Their research interests encompass upper-ocean dynamics, air-sea interactions, and salinity processes in relation to the hydrological cycle. A significant focus of Balaguru’s work has been on tropical cyclones and their interaction with the ocean and climate. At PNNL, they also lead the development of the Risk Analysis Framework for Tropical Cyclones (RAFT), a comprehensive pipeline for modeling both the physical aspects of tropical cyclones and their socio-economic impacts.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: No preference
Location: Seattle, Washington

Palaemus Oceanic

Department: Tech Transfer
Mentor: Jeremy Reid; jreid@palaemus.com
Area of Expertise: Integration and engineering of early-stage marine energy tech into dual-use systems for the maritime space.
Primary Research Area(s): Palaemus is currently working with University California San Diego on an electrokinetic energy harvesting technology that may have broad application in marine energy. The goal is to take this tech from the lab to the field and demonstrate it as a suitable environmental power source for subsea and offshore maritime sensing instruments, as well as at a larger form factor to one day support utility-scale levels of ocean energy through wave, current, and tidal flows.
Fellow Start Date: Spring (April–June)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Remote
Location: Mostly remote with occasional travel likely to San Diego, California, or a to-be-determined test site.

Sandia National Lab

Department: Semiconductor Material and Device Science
Mentor: Todd Monson; tmonson@sandia.gov
Area of Expertise: Magnetic materials for marine energy.
Primary Research Area(s): Monson works on the synthesis and fabrication of new soft and hard (permanent) magnets. These materials can be used in different electric generator topologies to create energy in marine environments.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: In person but willing to consider hybrid and remote options
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Sitkana

Department: Semiconductor Material and Device Science
Mentor: Lance McMullan; lance@sitkana.com
Area of Expertise: mechanical engineering and large-scale renewable operations
Primary Research Area(s): Sitkana is developing a modular approach to tidal energy generation for Southeast Alaska. Sitkana is an equipment manufacturer at a TRL level of 6. Our patented rotor has been analyzed for power by the University of Washington. We are working closely with the Alaskan village of Kake on a pilot project installation. The next steps of development are to build and test a full-scale system.
Fellow Start Date: Fall (July-September)
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: In person
Location: Juneau, AK

Triton Systems, Inc.

Department: N/A
Mentor: Tyler Robertson; trobertson@tritonsys.com
Area of Expertise: Leading development of a small-scale wave energy converter funded by DOE’s Small Business Innovation and Research program.
Primary Research Area(s): Triton is developing a small-scale wave energy converter for blue economy applications. The company is currently in the full-scall demonstration phase, with several open water deployments scheduled over the next 12 months. The company is constantly iterating its design through mechanical power take-off improvements, electrical power conversion optimization, and modeling with WEC-Sim.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: Hybrid
Location: Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Open to post-graduate fellows

U.S. Army Construction

Department: Engineering and Research Laboratory
Mentor: Thomas Bozada; thomas.a.bozada@usace.army.mil
Area of Expertise: Advanced microgrid architectures for mobile and fixed, low- and medium-voltage applications.
Primary Research Area(s): Development of model-based engineering solutions for planning and deployment of advanced mobile and fixed, low- and medium-voltage microgrids for military forward bases, installations, and remote communities. The research utilizes electrical infrastructure digital twins and resource optimization tools to integrate new power generation resources, investigate upgrades and other changes to existing electrical infrastructure, and determine the optimal mix of power resources (generation and energy storage) to meet microgrid reliability and resilience objectives. A key objective of this team is the design and creation of flexible microgrids that can utilize any available power resources. The project is looking to integrate marine energy resources into existing, land-based microgrids for both portable and fixed power requirements.
Fellow Start Date: No preference
In Person, Hybrid, or Remote: In person
Location: Champaign, Illinois
Open to post-graduate fellows

Host Institutions for Marine Energy Fellowship

Additional Information