Jack Brouwer is Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Associate Director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) and Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).
Science and engineering of energy conversion with coupled mass, energy and momentum conservation, chemical and electrochemical reaction and heat transfer; steady-state and dynamic modeling of fundamental processes that govern energy conversion devices such as fuel cells, electrolyzers, and gas turbine engines; solid-state ionics and electrochemistry; fuel processing; synthesis and experimental investigation of novel fuel cell materials sets; analyses of integrated energy systems comprising fuel cells, photovoltaics, fuel processing, gas turbines, and wind turbines; experimental analyses and model validation; renewable energy; life cycle analyses of energy conversion technologies.
Through Dr. Brouwer’s leadership, NFCRC and APEP are focusing research, education, beta testing, and outreach on high-efficiency, environmentally preferred energy conversion and power generation technology advancement with fuel cell and gas turbine systems as the principal targets. Current research projects address ultra-high efficiency and ultra-low emissions high-temperature fuel cell systems, integrated hybrid fuel cell gas turbine systems, renewable power intermittency and integration, battery electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle evaluation and infrastructure development, advanced fuel cell and gas turbine dynamic operations, hydrogen and electricity infrastructure development, and power electronics and energy conversion devices for the smart grid. Before joining UCI, Dr. Brouwer was on the faculty at the University of Utah, a senior engineer at Reaction Engineering International, and a staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories.
Jack Brouwer obtained his M.S. and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCI and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Post-Doc in Chemical Engineering at MIT.