Team

• EDL Team
• Management
•  

Management

Doug Lemon

Interim Director of Energy Dynamics Laboratory

As Interim Director of the Energy Dynamics Laboratory, Dr. Lemon provides strategic guidance and leadership to the organization. Dr. Lemon also serves as a member of the USU Executive Committee and as the President of the Utah State University Research Foundation (USURF).

Prior to joining USURF, Dr. Lemon spent 30 years with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).  As PNNL’s Director of Laboratory Strategy, Dr. Lemon was instrumental in developing an integrated institutional-level strategy for the organization.  Earlier in his career at PNNL, he served as a scientist, program manager, group leader and division director for PNNL engineering organizations that develop leading-edge instrumentation for electro-optic and ultrasonic measurements, millimeter wave imaging, and other custom instrumentation.

As president and CEO of a small business, Dr. Lemon combined advanced science and technologies from PNNL with the capabilities of two existing companies to develop new image processing methods and advanced GPS guidance systems. 

Dr. Lemon is also an active member of the Cache Valley community. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre and the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra.

B.S. Physics, Utah State University
Ph.D. Physics, Utah State University

Jeff Muhs

Director of Strategy & Business Development

In 2010, Mr. Muhs was named a Vice President of the Utah State University Research Foundation (USURF) and Director of the Energy Dynamics Laboratory (EDL). As director, Jeff is responsible for the overall focus, direction, and management of the laboratory. 

Jeff came to the USU system in 2007 as a Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) strategic hire. Initially, he worked with USU faculty colleagues as Executive Director to launch and grow the USU Biofuels Center. He joined the USURF and EDL as Deputy Director in 2009. 

Prior to joining USU, Mr. Muhs spent 18 years at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where he was named “Engineer/Scientist of the Year” and “Science Communicator of the Year” in 1997 and 2004, respectively. Mr. Muhs has over a dozen patents to his credit, three of which are now commercial products: fiber optic splitters used in LANs, a vehicle weigh-in-motion system, and a solar lighting system for which he received a prestigious R&D 100 Award in 2006.

In addition to his work at ORNL, Jeff briefly served as Vice President of Research for Sunlight Direct, Inc., an ORNL spinout. He also served as an energy and science policy advisor in the U.S. Senate, where he drafted several provisions included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the America COMPETES Act. Jeff has testified before the U.S. Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Committee and is widely-known as a leader and champion of transformational energy systems.

B.S., Electro-Optics

Paul D. Israelsen

Deputy Director

Paul Israelsen is Deputy Director at EDL and is a Research Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Utah State University (USU) where he teaches courses in VLSI design and microelectronics. He directs engineering and R&D programs within EDL and the University which have as a goal the commercialization of technology and reducing theoretical research to practice. Paul has been involved in the start-up and successful execution of several companies. He served as Chief Technical Officer of a company he was instrumental in founding from research developed at the university. He is also currently involved in three other startup companies. He is the Board director of the Center for Active Sensing and Imaging and a founding board member of the Institute for Intuitive Buildings. His areas of expertise are in Energy Systems and energy-environment issues, VLSI design, digital and analog integrated circuits, image compression, signal processing, and imaging. He has a number of publications and numerous patents issued and several pending in these areas.

M.S., Electrical Engineering
Ph.D., graduate work through coursework, research, and thesis

Scott Hill

Associate Director

Dr. Hill currently works in the Bingham Energy Research Center (BRC) in Vernal, Utah, where he serves as Associate Director for EDL’s Eastern Utah Operations. Dr. Hill also serves as the eastern region representative for Utah Science Technology and Research and the chairman for the process engineering focus area of Eastern Utah Secure Energy Partnership and Program. In these capacities, his primary responsibility is working with industrial companies, government agencies, and educational institutions to support development of the energy resources in the Uintah Basin in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

Previously, Dr. Hill was instrumental in the development and growth of Combustion Resources, Inc. He currently serves as their vice president. Dr. Hill also worked as research associate in the Advanced Combustion Engineering Research Center (ACERC), which was established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) jointly at Brigham Young University and University of Utah. Dr. Hill also has significant experience in computer simulations of flow, combustion, gasification, and oil shale systems. 

B.S. Chemical Engineering
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering

Kevin Shurtleff

Dr. Kevin Shurtleff leads the Algae Energy Systems branch at EDL. Previously, he was Associate Director of USTAR's Eastern Utah Energy Group. He holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Marriott School of Management, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Brigham Young University. Dr. Shurtleff is the founder and President of Mountain West Energy (MWE), which is developing in-situ vapor extraction for recovering oil from unconventional resources. Dr. Shurtleff was also the founder and President of Trulite Technology and Synexus Energy.

Dr. Shurtleff has been involved with alternative and unconventional energy projects for the past 10 years. Early in his career, Dr. Shurtleff worked as a senior scientist, a project manager, and a product manager at MOXTEK Inc., where he helped this start-up grow into a 40 employee company with $3M per year in revenue. Throughout his career, he has developed innovative, high-tech products and companies.

M.B.A., Marriot School of Management
Ph.D., Brigham Young University

Selma Sierra

Director of Energy and Environmental Policy

Selma Sierra is the Director for Energy and Environmental Policy at EDL. In addition, Selma directs policy for the Eastern Utah Secure Energy Program and Partnerships (EUSEP2).  Prior to joining EDL, Selma was State Director for the Bureau of Land Management in Utah. Recognized for her strong leadership, Selma led a 2009 General Management Evaluation of the Minerals and Realty Program (MRM) for the national BLM office, which strategically aligned program operations to BLM goals and objectives. Additionally, Selma developed a 3-tier organizational structure to enable Utah's BLM to achieve higher performance levels. Under her leadership, an employee scholarship program was established, mass transit subsidies were provided to employees, wellness and employee health were supported, and office space for employees with newborn babies was provided. Prior to Selma's appointment to State Director, she was the Chief of Staff in the national office of the BLM.

Selma has also served as Assistant Director for Communications for the BLM’s national office, Director of External Affairs and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources Management for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Legislative Liaison to the Governor in New Mexico, and Director of Public Affairs for the City of Las Cruces. Selma is a native of New Mexico and a graduate of New Mexico State University.

B.A., Political Science B.A., Journalism

Mike Wojcik

Dr. Michael Wojcik is currently the Branch Chief for Environmental Sensing and Science at EDL where his research interests are remote sensing of wind and aerosols as well as trace level detection of atmospheric gas species using molecular laser spectroscopy. Prior to working at EDL, Dr. Wojcik was a senior scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and worked to develop laser-based chemical sensors for CBRN non-proliferation applications; during this time he acted as a Visiting Scientist at US Army Dugway Proving Ground to provide expertise on chemical and biological warfare agent detection. Dr. Wojcik received a B.S. in Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from University of Idaho and was a post-doctoral fellow at JILA at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO.  Dr. Wojcik is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Karen Wolfe

Director of Public and Private Partnerships

Ms. Wolfe manages the Public and Private Partnerships for EDL. In developing national and international relationships with academia, industry, and policy; EDL is developing its research, development, and commercial activities with other leaders in the field. Ms. Wolfe has a strong background in public relations and technical communications, which lends strength in the partnerships’ ability to convey their message to policy makers and the public. Prior to joining EDL, Ms. Wolfe spent over a decade managing people and research projects for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington.

B.S., Zoology and Molecular Biology