Daniels to lead Argonne's Energy Systems Division

ARGONNE, Ill. (Nov. 16, 2005) — Ed Daniels has been appointed director of the Energy Systems Division at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

The Energy Systems Division is a leading center for research and development into energy and environmental issues. Division employees are expert in transportation technologies, industrial processes, applied biological processes and environmental restoration. Current technologies being developed in the division address a number of national priority issues, including:

• Advanced transportation systems, including hybrid electric vehicles,
• Diesel engine efficiency and emissions research at all scales, from light-duty vehicles to railroad diesels,
• Biochips for analysis of biological agents and disease detection,
• Recycling technologies to economically recover materials from post-consumer goods, including auto-shredder residue,
• Advanced separation technologies for the production of chemicals and intermediates from biological and conventional feedstocks,
• Novel materials technologies, such as inert anodes for primary aluminum production and atomic layer deposition for catalysts, and
• Analysis protocols and detection technology for chemical agents.

Daniels has a distinguished record of achievement in technical and economic analyses of advanced energy systems. He has been a leader within the laboratory in developing a broad range of industrial processing and materials recycling technologies for use in the commercial sector. He holds several patents and has written dozens of articles for peer-reviewed publications.

He previously served as the section leader for the division's Process Engineering Team. Daniels' team twice was awarded the Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. Daniels was a co-recipient of an R&D 100 Award in 2000 and the Intellectual Law Property association Inventor of the Year Award in 2003. He received the University of Chicago's Distinguished Performance Award in 1997. Before joining Argonne, Daniels held various positions of increasing responsibility with the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT). At IGT he was responsible for engineering-economic assessments for a range of energy systems, including coal-conversion technologies, alternative hydrogen-production technologies, unconventional gas production, solar-thermal conversion and the HTGR-chemical energy pipeline concept.

The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is managed by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Donna Jones Pelkie (630/252-5501 or djpelkie@anl.gov) at Argonne.