Technical Leads

RICK DAMIANI
Senior Engineer
NWTC, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Rick.Damiani@nrel.gov

Rick Damiani is a Senior Engineer at the National Wind Technology Center (NREL) where he focuses on aeroelastic modeling of turbines and structural design and analysis of blades and support structures. Rick also supports various technical projects ranging from offshore wind to distributed wind technology (DWT). As a Licensed Professional Engineer and with a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering, Rick has been involved in wind power for almost two decades. His research specialties include Aeroelastic Analysis, Structural Design, Finite Element Analysis, Systems Engineering.

LEE JAY FINGERSH
Senior Electrical Engineer
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Lee.Fingersh@nrel.gov

University of Colorado, M.S. in Electrical Engineering
University of Colorado, B.S. in Electrical Engineering

Mr. Fingersh has spent over 23 years at NREL doing field testing of aerodynamics and controls, dynamometer testing, facility development and other wind-energy related research.

PATRICK J. MORIARTY
SUMR Advisor
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Patrick.Moriarty@nrel.gov

Stanford University, Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering (2000)
Stanford University, M.S. in Aerospace Engineering (1994)
University of Michigan, B.S. in Aerospace Engineering (1993)
University of Michigan, B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1993)

Dr. Moriarty is the lead of the Turbine Modeling and Wind Resource group and has been at NREL since 2001. Dr. Moriarty’s research focuses are wind turbine design, systems engineering, aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of wind turbines and resource assessment for wind plants. Currently, he is leading much of the NREL wind resource assessment work across a range of scales, with much of the focus between mesoscale and turbine scale. He leads an International Energy Agency Task on wind turbine wake model validation. He has published over 100 papers related to wind energy and also serves as associate editor for Wind Energy.

CHAO (CHRIS) QIN

Research Scientist
Mechanical Engineering
University of Virginia
chrisqin@virginia.edu
Resume

University of Virginia, Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (2009 – 2014)
Tsinghua University, B.S. in Thermal Engineering (2004-2008)

Chao (Chris) Qin is a Research Scientist in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. He has a solid background of aerodynamics, structural dynamics, and wind energy technology, with a wealth of experience in CFD simulations. Qin has researched rotor and energy storage technologies for offshore wind turbines, with numerous projects related to loads reduction and cost-of-energy savings. He also works as milestone manager on the ARPA-E wind project and co-manager of Fluids Research and Innovation Laboratory (FRIL) at University of Virginia.

TYLER STEHLY
Energy Analyst/Engineer
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
tyler.stehly@nrel.gov

Northern Arizona University, M.Eng., in Mechanical Engineering (2010-2012)
Northern Arizona University, B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2003-2008)

Tyler is currently a member of the Technology Systems and Sustainability Analysis group in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center. His current research focuses on support and development of U.S. offshore wind turbine cost models. While part of NREL’s Research Participant Program, he supported the NWTC with research on utility-scale wind turbine supply chain and manufacturing issues in addition to wind turbine transportation and logistics studies to develop investment recommendations for DOE. Tyler’s experience includes heavy civil construction cost estimating, wind industry root-cause-analysis, and renewable energy systems analysis and design.