Dr. Matthew Mench received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University in 2000, where he became a professor in 2001 and founded the Fuel Cell Dynamics and Diagnostics Laboratory. In August of 2010 Prof. Mench moved to The University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) where he is Professor of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, and was appointed the Condra Chair of Excellence in Energy Storage and Conversion. Prof. Mench is also a joint faculty at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and serves as faculty in the CIRE program, a joint ORNL/UTK Ph.D. Program in Energy Science. Prof. Mench has published over 100 peer reviewed articles, multiple book chapters, and has several patents. He is the author of a textbook entitled Fuel Cell Engines, published in February of 2008 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., now adopted by Universities worldwide. Prof. Mench serves as the Vice President for Development of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy and an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. In 2006, Dr. Mench received the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award for his fuel cell research, and was also the recipient of the 2009 Penn State Engineering Society Premier Teaching Award for his development of an undergraduate and graduate level curriculum in fuel cell science. Dr. Emin Caglan Kumbur is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the founding director of the Electrochemical Energy Systems Laboratory at Drexel University. He earned his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in 2002. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Prior joining Drexel University, he was a Research Associate and the Associate Director of Fuel Cell Dynamics and Diagnostics Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include materials design and characterization, transport phenomena, performance diagnostics and computational modeling of fuel cells and flow battery technology. He has numerous publications, including technical articles published in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, conference proceedings and presentations, and patent applications. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Electrochemical Society and International Association for Hydrogen Energy. He is also serving as the Associate Editor of International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Dr. Veziroglu, a native of Turkey, graduated from the City and Guilds College, the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, with degrees in Mechanical Engineering (A.C.G.I., B.Sc.), Advanced Studies in Engineering (D.I.C.) and Heat Transfer (Ph.D.).In 1962 – after doing his military service in the Ordnance Section, serving in some Turkish government agencies and heading a private company – Dr. Veziroglu joined the University of Miami Engineering Faculty. In 1965, he became the Director of Graduate Studies and initiated the first Ph.D. Program in the School of Engineering and Architecture. He served as Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering 1971 through 1975, in 1973 established the Clean Energy Research Institute, and was the Associate Dean for Research 1975 through 1979. He took a three years Leave of Absence (2004 through 2007) and founded UNIDO-ICHET (United Nations Industrial Development Organization – International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies) in Istanbul, Turkey. On 15 May 2009, he attained the status of Professor Emeritus at the University of Miami.Dr. Veziroglu organized the first major conference on Hydrogen Energy: The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy (THEME) Conference, Miami Beach, 18-20 March 1974. At the opening of this conference, Dr. Veziroglu proposed the Hydrogen Energy System as a permanent solution for the depletion of the fossil fuels and the environmental problems caused by their utilization. Soon after, the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) was established, and Dr. Veziroglu was elected president. As President of IAHE, in 1976 he initiated the biennial World Hydrogen Energy Conferences (WHECs), and in 2005 the biennial World Hydrogen Technologies Conventions (WHTCs).In 1976, Dr. Veziroglu started publication of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (IJHE) as its Founding Editor-in-Chief, in order to publish and disseminate Hydrogen Energy related research and development results from around the world. IJHE has continuously grew; now it publishes twenty-four issues a year. He has published some 350 papers and scientific reports, edited 160 volumes of books and proceedings, and has co-authored the book “Solar Hydrogen Energy: The Power to Save the Earth.Dr. Veziroglu has memberships in eighteen scientific organizations, has been elected to the Grade of Fellow in the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is the Founding President of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.Dr. Veziroglu has been the recipient of several international awards. He was presented the Turkish Presidential Science Award in 1974, made an Honorary Professor in Xian Jiaotong University of China in 1981, awarded the I. V. Kurchatov Medal by the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy of U.S.S.R. in 1982, the Energy for Mankind Award by the Global Energy Society in 1986, and elected to the Argentinean Academy of Sciences in 1988. In 2000, he was nominated for Nobel Prize in Economics, for conceiving the Hydrogen Economy and striving towards its establishment.
