Haroon Stephen

Dr. Stephen has diverse research experience in the areas of Remote Sensing, GIS, and GPS applications. His Ph.D. research involved the modeling of microwave scattering and emission behavior of electromagnetic waves over Saharan sand surfaces and Amazon vegetation. His ongoing research interests include applications of remote sensing and GIS technologies to water resource mapping; drought study; and climate change study. Presently, he is involved in several Federal and State sponsored research projects involving geospatial data research and applications. I am also developing a geovisualization facility at UNLV that will provide state-of-the-art visualization for the research and educational needs of UNLV and the region.

His research involves development of Remote Sensing and GIS technologies and their application to Natural Resource Mapping. This includes modeling of microwave remote sensing measurements of backscatter and radiometric temperature to understand spatial and temporal interconnections of geomorphology, vegetation, hydrology, ecology, and water resources.

Sage Hiibel

Dr. Hiibel received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Colorado State University in 2008. After a short post doc at Texas A&M in 2008-2009, he returned to UNR and was a post doc in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department from 2009 – 2012 before joining the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department as a Research Assistant Professor. Funding for his research has come from the EPA, DOD, DOE, and NSF. Dr. Hiibel’s research interests include renewable and sustainable energy systems, membrane separations in environmental applications, and novel membrane bioreactor systems.

M Sami Fadali

M. Sami Fadali earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University in 1974, an MS from the Control Systems Center, UMIST, England, in 1977 and a Ph. D. from the University of Wyoming in 1980. He was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of King Abdul Aziz in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia 1981-1983. From 1983-85, he was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Colorado State University. In 1985, he joined the Electrical Engineering Dept. at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is currently Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 1994 he was a visiting professor at Oakland University and GM Research and Development Labs. He spent the summer of 2000 as a Senior Engineer at TRW, San Bernardino. His research interests are in the areas of fuzzy logic stability and control, state estimation and fault detection, and applications to power systems, renewable energy, and physiological systems.

Mehdi Etezadi-Amoli

Mehdi Etezadi-Amoli is a professor of electrical and biomedical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Etezadi worked as an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering at New Mexico State and the University of New Mexico during 1975-1979. From 1979-1983 he worked as a Senior Protection Engineer at Arizona Public Service Company in Phoenix, Arizona. He worked at NV Energy (formerly Sierra Pacific Power Company) during summers 1985-1998. In 1983 he joined the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Reno where he is responsible for the power system program. Dr. Etezadi served as the chairman of the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Department during 2010-2015.

He is the author/coauthor of more than 100 technical papers dealing with power systems planning, distribution, protection, transient analysis, and renewable energy.

Yahia Baghzouz

Dr. Baghzouz is the Co-Director, Center for Energy Research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  Dr. Baghzouz’s area of interest is in electrical power systems. His field of expertise within this branch of electrical engineering focuses on electric power quality and renewable resources. He worked on related projects sponsored by Louisiana Power and Light, Gulf-States Utilities, Western Area Power Administration, Cray Research Inc., Nevada Power Co. and Loudon Engineering Co. He served as Conference Chairman for the IEEE 7th Int. Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power held in 1996 in Las Vegas, NV. He presently co-chairs the executive committee of IEEE- ICHQP. Dr. Baghzouz authored/co-authored over 100 articles on power quality, machine modeling and distributed generation. He teaches courses in power system engineering, power electronics, and circuits at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Jacimaria Batista

Dr. Jacimária Batista is a professor of environmental engineering at UNLV. Her research involves technology development for water and wastewater treatment. She has built an international and national reputation for her pioneering work on treatment technologies to remove the contaminant perchlorate from waters. Dr. Batista is the inventor of a hybrid technology for perchlorate removal (U.S. patent #7407581). In addition to her work on perchlorate, Dr. Batista investigated the removal of several contaminants by ion-exchange, the treatment of ion-exchange brines, and biological phosphorus removal.  Dr. Batista’s research is collaborative and multidisciplinary and has attracted funding from industry, federal, state, and local agencies, including U.S. EPA, AWWARF, NSF, NDEP, Clark County Reclamation District, Clark County Health Department, Clark County Flood Control District, Las Vegas Valley Water District, and water utilities in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Her research has been disseminated broadly.  Dr. Batista is an accomplished and student-focused instructor; She is the recipient of various teaching awards. Her teaching evaluations are consistent with the highest standards of her department and college. Students praise her enthusiastic teaching style, high academic expectations, quality of the courses, and approachability. She teaches senior level and graduate level courses on water and wastewater treatment and solids and hazardous waste engineering. Dr. Batista works closely with her Ph.D., Masters, and undergraduate students motivating them to excel at all levels. Dr. Batista has served her profession, university, college and department extensively. She is a resourceful problem-solver and an active member of the department in matters of curriculum and academic priorities. She is a sought-after environmental engineering consultant to the water industry of California, Nevada, and Arizona.

Jaeyun Moon

Jaeyun Moon is an Assistant Professor at the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her area of expertise is advanced materials for energy applications.

Nanomaterials Design for Renewable Energy Technologies

-High Temperature Concentrating Solar Power(CSP)
-Highly efficient light absorbing coatings for high temperature CSP

Thermoelectrics

-Fabrication and evaluation of thermoelectrics nanocomposites

Hybrid Materials

-Additively manufactured thermoelectric devices

-3D printable functional materials

Materials for Water Treatment

-Solar water distillation

-Nanomaterials for water purification

Kwang Kim

Kwang Kim’s Laboratory, namely Active Materials and Smart Living (AMSL) Laboratory, provides an academic environment to UNLV students and researchers to learn and develop necessary engineering skills and attitudes that are needed to become great innovators throughout the course of their career. The laboratory is adequately setup to study engineering science in connection with Energy and Matter that has the broader economic-and-sociological impact on “sustainability and health engineering”.  Kwang J. (Jin) Kim is NV Energy Professor of Energy and Matter at the Mechanical Engineering Department of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

Biswajit Das

Dr. Biswajit Das is an internationally reputed researcher in the field of nanotechnology with international recognition for his seminal work on spintronics and as the co-inventor of the Datta-Das transistor. Dr. Das is the director of the Nevada Nanotechnology Center and is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Nevada. Dr. Das received his PhD degree from Purdue University in 1989 and has been a faculty member of Electrical Engineering at University of Notre Dame and West Virginia University. He came to UNLV in 2003 with the objective to develop a world class program in nanotechnology. Dr. Das has over twenty five years of research experience in nano- and micro- technologies and has made many original contributions in these fields, and has been involved in the development of multiple research facilities at previous institutes. His current research focus is on the development of CMOS-compatible nanofabrication tools for the commercial manufacturing of nanoscale devices and integrated circuits.

Yi-Tung Chen

Dr. Yi-Tung Chen is the Co-Director, Center for Energy Research at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Unmanned Aerial Systems Expertise: Computational fluid dynamics; Fluid-structure interaction; Smart wing design; Aircraft Maneuver; Aerodynamics; Biomimic Simulation