Board of Directors
The Board includes key stakeholder representatives from the academic sector, from industry and government. The Board has fiscal responsibility for all SBRN funds and final authority over all managerial and funding decision-making in the Network
Andreas Athienitis
Dr. Andreas K. Athienitis is the Scientific Director of the NSERC Solar Buildings Research Network and a Concordia University Research Chair, Tier I in Integration of Solar Energy Systems into Buildings. He obtained a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (1981) from the University of New Brunswick and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo (1985). He is currently a Professor of Building Engineering. His research interests are in solar energy engineering, energy efficiency, optimization and control of building thermal systems, building integrated photovoltaics and daylighting. He is the author of more than 150 refereed papers, the Mathcad electronic book "Building Thermal Analysis" and the graduate level book "Thermal Analysis and Design of Passive Solar Buildings". He is a recipient of several awards, including ASHRAE Willis H. Carrier best paper award. He has served as Associate Editor of the ISES Journal "Solar Energy" and in ASHRAE Technical Committees. He participates in policy-forming government committees and is a consultant to major utilities and government departments. He has played a key role in the engineering design of several award-winning low energy solar houses and green buildings which include building-integrated photovoltaic/thermal systems, geothermal heating/cooling and advanced daylighting. He was recently profiled as one of 25 most important innovators in Quebec by Actualité Magazine (Sep. 15, 2009).
K. G. Terry Hollands, Chair
K. G. Terry Hollands is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo. With degrees in Engineering Physics (BASc, U of T, ’59) and Chemical Engineering (PhD, McGill, 1967), he spent five years (1961-63, 1966-69) researching in solar energy and energy conservation at the Australian government research labs before taking up an academic post at the University of Waterloo at the end of 1969. In 2001 he retired from Waterloo. His main research interests had been in solar thermal energy and heat transfer, publishing about 120 journal articles, sections in several books, making about 100 conference presentations, and editing the international journal Solar Energy. He pioneered in the areas of solar domestic hot water, in solar radiation characterization and modeling, in solar system simulation, and in transparent insulation. Made a Fellow of the ASME and CSME, he won several awards, including the Weeks Achievement through Action Award and the Special Service Award of the International Solar Energy Society, the Chandrashekar Lifetime Service Award of the Solar Energy Society of Canada, the Jules Stachiewicz Medal for Heat Transfer of the CSME, and the Best Heat Transfer Paper Award of the ASME.
Deo Prasad
Professor Prasad has a long standing international reputation for his research, publications and consulting in the field of sustainable buildings. He has published in excess of 150 key publications including a recent book on 'Designing with Solar Power' (Earth Scan) for the IEA. Deo has represented Australia in a number of International energy agency Tasks the most recent being on Photovoltaics Power Systems. Deo has chaired the Australia New Zealand Solar Energy Society and been Director of the Australian Federal Government's Energy research and Development Corporation, Sustainable Energy Industries Council of Australia and the International Solar Energy Society. He chairs the Australian Standards Committee on Energy Efficiency. Deo has been a consultant on numerous projects for the UNEP, WHO and the APEC.
Rejean Girard
Dr. Rejean Girard was appointed Manager (Innovation-Energy Efficiency) in Hydro-Quebec in 2001. He is responsible of a portfolio of innovation projects on energy efficiency in the end-use applications of electricity. These applications are diversified and cover residential, commercial and institutional, as well as industrial sectors. Energy utilization in buildings is one of the most important research axes of his program. Between 1997 and 2001, hewas in charge of the LTE's industrial applications department which specialized in electrotechnologies such as infrared, high frequencies, induction, power electronics and electromagnetic compatibility. Before that, he was acting as a research scientist in the same department. His field of research was related to the industrial applications of dielectric heating. He graduated from McGill University in 1988 with a Ph.D. in theoretical high energy physics.
Raymond Cole
Dr. Raymond Cole is a Professor at the School of Architecture, University of British Columbia, where he has been teaching environmental issues in building design for the past twenty-six years. Dr. Cole heads the environmental research group at the School of Architecture, which is the focus of environmentally related research within the school. He was co-founder of the Green Building Chal1enge- an international collaborative effort to benchmark progress in green building performance and environmental assessment- and has served on numerous national and international committees related to buildings and the environment. Dr. Cole was made an Honorary Member of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, April 1997, in recognition of “significant and dedicated service in the support and advancement of the profession of Architecture and in member institutions”. He was selected as the North American Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture distinguished Professor for “sustained commitment to building environmental research and teaching” in 2001. In 2003, he received the Architectural Institute of British Columbia Barbara Dalrymple Memorial Award for Community Service for “exemplary service in the community of learners in the field of architecture and green building practice”, the US Green Building Council’s Public Sector Leadership Award, and was recognized as a University of British Columbia Distinguished University Scholar.
Jim Robar
Dr. Jim Robar is Director, Technical Research, Policy and Research Division, at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). After receiving his B.Sc. in Physics from Dalhousie University and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Saskatchewan in 1973, he spent much of his career in the Canadian technology industry. During the 1980s he was with the Industrial Research Assistance Program of the National Research Council Canada, serving as its General Manager Laboratory Network. Since joining CMHC in 1992, he has directed programs of technical housing research in areas such as health and housing, sustainable development, industry training, and improving the technical performance of housing. Jim is actively involved in the housing sector, participating on various committees including the Management Board of the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology, the Panel of Energy Research and Development (PERD), Board of Directors for the Healthy Indoors Partnership (HIP) and those of the Canadian Home Builders Association.
Gary Stevens
Gary Stevens is Chief Technology Officer of Spheral Solar Power (a division of ATS) in Cambridge, Ontario. SSP is currently setting up a 20MW factory based on a silicon bead photovoltaic technology that had been developed at Texas Instruments. His responsibilities include leading R&D efforts for new processes and product enhancements as well as management of the IP portfolio for the technology. During the past few years of bringing the pilot line equipment back into operation and helping assemble a team of over 150 people, he has developed many innovations to add to the technology that had been developed in the late eighties and early nineties. He joined Texas Instruments in 1984 and spent several years as Product Engineer for assembly and test of high reliability power transistors and microcircuits for flight systems. In 1989 he joined a small team of researchers with the Spheral Solar™ photovoltaic technology and developed many processes from metallurgical bonding to molten silicon refining. During 1995 Gary helped develop ultra high vacuum sealing processes and equipment for a field emission display project and then moved into the DLP™ projector group. His primary responsibilities in that business involved developing sources of high intensity arc lamps and various optical components. In 1997 Matrix Solar Technologies was formed and acquired Photowatt International S.A in France, through parent company ATS Automation Tooling Systems in Cambridge. He led several projects to reduce consumables in wet chemical processing and silicon wafer cutting and was also responsible for acquisition of North American polysilicon feedstock. In 2000 Gary set up a 2MW module manufacturing line for Matrix in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in 2001 he moved to Canada to help re-start the Spheral Solar™ project at ATS. He holds seven US patents, many of which have also been issued internationally.
Steven Crowell, Vice-Chair
Steven Crowell has been actively involved in innovative construction and design since 1976. He is currently President of Crowell Construction ~ Residential & Commercial Services Inc. and Vice-President of the Nova Scotia Home Builders’ Association. He has received Canada’s Energy Efficiency Award in 2003 and CMHC Housing Award in 2000. His area of expertise focuses on the practical application of affordable high performance technologies, which encompass both the mechanical and structural aspects of residential and small commercial structures. His design philosophy favours an integrated, combination systems approach, utilizing solar, wind, geo-thermal, heat recovery, and heat storage for energy management. And incorporate those energy sources into a high performance envelope. His buildings address a wide range of building and occupant issues such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, health, environmental impact, accessibility, flexibility, affordability and so on. Probably the more notable aspect of his work is that he combines all of the above technical and social considerations into a single structure. Each innovation that is developed is deployed and tested in real life scenarios as well as the market place. He tends to rethink and innovate building design so as to follow a continually evolving leading edge.
Doug McClenahan
Doug McClenahan is Manager, Active Solar R&D program, Natural Resources Canada. His area of expertise is low temperature solar heating applications, solar absorbers, solar water heating and solar drying. He has initiated International Energy Agency tasks on solar drying and he has chaired IEA advanced solar air heating systems working group. Currently he is IEA vice-chairman for solar air heating and cooling program. He developed the first commercial solar heating demonstration for salmon and trout aquaculture. He has also worked as manager for mechanical systems research laboratories.
Bert van den Berg
Bert van den Berg is a portfolio manager in the Research Parternship division, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) since 2002. His responsibilities include CMC, the Chairs in Design Engineering program, as well as processing and administering funding applications and grants. Before NSERC, Mr. van den Berg was Applications Manager at Hymarc Technologies, a small company developing and distributing advanced 3D laser scanner solutions. Over five years, he was involved marketing and customer support, software development, and mechanical design. He also has thirteen years research experience at the National Research Council in the group that helped found the NRC's Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute, eventually as Group Leader for the Integrated Process Control group. This group focused on developing computer integrated manufacturing and inspection tools. Bert has a Bachelors' and Masters' in Mechanical Engineering ('82, '86), as well as an MBA ('96).