ASES Technical Divisions

See Division Chair Bios

ASES Technical Divisions bring together diverse members with similar interests in order to engage, educate and grow the community through an exchange of information. Divisions conduct outreach and ensure that ASES programs and publications are technically accurate.

Membership in any Division is open to ASES Business, Professional, Student, and Life members. 

Divisions Chair: Trudy Forsyth, [email protected]

Divisions Vice Chair: Nir Krakauer, [email protected]

Current ASES Divisions

Education Division

(open to ASES Business, Professional, Student, and Life members – Join ASES)

Chair: John Steele, [email protected] and [email protected]

Started in June 2025, the new ASES Education Technical Division focuses on the distribution of information created and gathered by the Education Division, as well as information from other Divisions on the general topic of education. The intent is to coordinate, evaluate, and distribute information to various educational audiences, including K-12, community colleges, technical schools, universities, and special education programs.

Photovoltaics Division

(open to ASES Business, Professional, Student and Life members – Join ASES)

Chair: Rich Stromberg, [email protected] 
Vice Chair: Kajal Sheth, [email protected]
Communications Officer: Tariq Beidleman, [email protected]

Includes direct energy conversion of the sun’s rays to electricity including photovoltaic (PV) energy technology, concentrating photovoltaic (CPV), and photovoltaic thermal technology (PV/T) that captures heat off the backside of PV arrays, cooling them and thus making more electricity.

Solar Buildings Division

(open to ASES Business, Professional, Student, and Life members – Join ASES)

Chair: Debbie Rucker Coleman [email protected]

Vice Chair: Julian Wang [email protected]

The Solar Buildings Division encompasses a wide range of solar technologies related specifically to buildings:

            Energy-Efficient Building Design

            Passive Solar Heating and Passive Cooling

            Residential Buildings – Single and Multifamily

            Commercial and Institutional Buildings

            Material Research on Glazing, Claddings, and BIPV

            Energy Analysis Design Tools

            Architectural and Engineering Curricula

Solar Thermal Division

(open to ASES Business, Professional, Student, and Life members – Join ASES)

Chair: Bill Guiney [email protected]

Vice Chair: Henry Vandermark [email protected]

Concerned with methods and processes which utilize solar flux for heat-driven applications. Includes solar ponds, desalination of water, agricultural drying, process heat for industry, photo-enhanced processes (hazardous waste treatment), high temperature solar enhanced processes (water decomposition to form hydrogen), materials processing (high tensile strength fiber production by chemical vapor deposition), solar pumped lasers, district heating and cooling, and solar cookers.

Grid Modernization and Storage Division

(open to ASES Business, Professional, Student, and Life members – Join ASES)

Chair: Bill Guernsey [email protected]

Vice Chair:  Emily Moog [email protected]

Focuses on municipal and regional grids, interconnections, microgrids, and storage: evolution of the grid to deliver significantly more energy from intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Emphasis includes grid reliability, resilience, and security in the face of increasing natural and human-caused hazards such as terrorism and climate change. The Division fosters research and education, making curated technical research accessible and answerable to all interested stakeholders, including researchers, regulators, utilities, developers, communities, and household consumers.

Energy Economics Division

(open to ASES Business, Professional, Student, and Life members – Join ASES)

Division Chair: Christian Custode, [email protected]

Division Vice Chair – Daniel Simon,  [email protected]

Communications Officer – Wyldon Fishman, [email protected]

Energy generation involves people making decisions about the production, distribution and consumption and services. Help us all understand how economies work at this time of transition and how to use our resources efficiently. How do businesses and individuals use energy? Who finances the historical transition we face today? Economics includes collecting the data to make social change and feel free to share your analysis.

Sustainability Division

Chair:  Lisa Duan, [email protected]
Vice Chair: Taylor Ryan, [email protected]
Communications Officer: Paulette Middleton [email protected] 

• Provides a community platform for easily sharing innovative information with an ever-growing solar citizen movement dedicated to actions that help shape renewable energy and sustainable living policies and actions.
• Expands the sustainability professional and volunteer workforce through educational opportunities and mentoring activities.
• Reaches out to constituencies that are not already renewable energy advocates or professionals.