Speaker Biographies

Husam Alissa is a Senior Director of Systems Technology in Microsoft’s Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) CTO Office, where he leads the development of next generation infrastructure for cloud and AI at hyperscale. He oversees technology development and vertical integration across software, silicon, servers, cooling, power, networking, sustainability, and full datacenter systems—driving innovations from early incubation to global fleet and deployment readiness. A recognized industry leader, Husam has pioneered advances in liquid cooling, microfluidics, cryogenic systems, high temperature superconductors, lifecycle sustainability, and AI era performance architectures. His work has contributed to shaping Microsoft’s hardware and datacenter roadmap and has been highlighted by major media outlets including Bloomberg, Reuters, The Seattle Times, The Verge, Latitude Media, and IEEE Spectrum. Husam has more than 150 filed and granted patents, over 70 peer reviewed publications, and a published book. He is a frequent speaker at DataCenterDynamics, the OCP Global Summit, and leading technical and commercial forums. His innovations have earned top honors including the DCD Mission Critical Tech Innovation Award, IEEE Micro Top Picks, and the ASME InterPACK Outstanding Paper Award.

Ehab Amin is the Founder and CEO of Cloudology Inc., bringing more than 30 years of experience in information technology, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure, including 15 years focused on data centers. Most recently, he led large-scale hyperscale data center development and delivery initiatives at Oracle, overseeing approximately 100 MW of infrastructure capacity and navigating complex challenges involving power, cooling, construction, commissioning, and operational readiness. Throughout his career, Ehab has contributed to major enterprise technology and cloud transformation initiatives for organizations including BNP Paribas, Capital One, MetLife, and Vanguard. Today, through Cloudology, he advises organizations on AI infrastructure, data center development, emerging technologies, and strategies for accelerating capacity delivery. He is also passionate about responsible data center development, advocating for stronger collaboration between developers, utilities, local governments, and surrounding communities to ensure that infrastructure growth creates meaningful, long-term benefits for everyone involved.

With 13 years of experience driving innovation in advanced vehicle development and leading commercial teams, Tyler Andrews serves as Vice President at Echion Technologies to help build the next generation of resilient and high-performance battery solutions. With a passion for practical technology disruption, Tyler leads strategic partnerships with OEMs in sectors across defense, mining, and automotive; integrating cutting-edge hybrid and full electric powertrains that redefine the limits of current gen solutions. Based in Washington, he loves spending his free time outdoors with family, hitting the ski slopes, mountain biking, or playing baseball.

MJ Ayyampudur is a Senior Mechanical Engineer on the Field Services Engineering team at Amazon Web Services, where he leads mechanical engineering for AMER-East data centers. A licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer, he brings 10+ years of experience across commercial and mission-critical facilities, specializing in chillers, adiabatic coolers, DX systems, and liquid cooling. He partners with design, operations, and leadership teams to turn field failures into fleet-wide engineering standards.

Sue Babinec is the Program Lead – Stationary Storage at Argonne National Lab where she is tasked to establish a sustainable growth strategy towards stationary storage for grid applications. Babinec previously served six years in Washington DC as senior commercialization advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) where she co-managed the energy storage portfolio for both transportation and grid. Prior to ARPA-E she led several research groups focused on design and scale-up of Li-ion technologies as a technical director for A123 Systems, Inc. at its Ann Arbor Michigan, site. Babinec spent the first two decades of her career in Midland at The Dow Chemical Corp., where she was the Senior Electrochemist, a member of the Corporate VC group, was awarded the Inventor of the Year Award, and was the company’s first woman Corporate Fellow. She was also co-inventor of a low-cost display technology that was spun out as the venture-funded start-up, holds more than 45 patents, and has authored or coauthored dozens of journal articles and book chapters.

Kimberly is an independent consultant specializing in energy transition materials and related commodities working with firms such as Avicenne, Positive Materials and the World Bank Group. She has researched, written/co-written, and published numerous major papers and reports on lithium-ion and next-gen battery technologies, alternative fuels, electric vehicles, stationary power storage and the de-globalisation of battery supply chains. Previously, she worked at BMO Capital Markets and developed the firm’s proprietary industry knowledge around energy transition technologies.

Scott Charter leads data center go-to-market at Physical Superintelligence (PSI), bringing the company's AI-enhanced multi-physics engine to terrestrial and orbital data centers. Scott has spent over 30 years in the IT and digital infrastructure industry, with executive leadership, business development, and engineering roles spanning data wholesalers, carriers, and a hyperscaler. He has co-founded several IT start-ups later acquired by larger firms and led international business development for ventures focused on energy management for large power users. Most recently, he served as Director of AI Strategy for Oracle North America. Scott is known for an integrated view of AI, cloud, and physical infrastructure, with expertise extending into geothermal energy, battery energy storage chemistries, perovskite solar, non-traditional water treatment, as well as semiconductor optimization for AI; these are the physical systems increasingly critical to modern data centers. He has shared this perspective as a keynote speaker at major technology conferences around the world. He serves as an Ambassador for the Nomad Futurist Foundation, helping educate the next generation of data center professionals, and leads national innovation initiatives for Infrastructure Masons (iMasons), a global, non-profit professional association for the digital infrastructure industry. Scott holds a JD from the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law and a bachelor's degree from Old Dominion University. When not walking data centers, Scott can typically be found chasing his two dogs on trails throughout the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

Corydon Coppola, CPESC, is Founder and President of OurWaters | OurSoils, a water infrastructure and watershed technology company focused on distributed treatment, reuse, recharge, and measurable water-quality outcomes. With more than 24 years of experience in stormwater, erosion control, water quality, and watershed management, he works at the intersection of infrastructure, treatment technology, and strategic water planning. His current work includes connected watershed systems, source-water protection, nutrient management, water reuse, data-center water strategy, and AI-enabled approaches to managing water infrastructure and watershed performance.

Gabriel Cowles is CEO of Urban Electric Power (UEP), a Pearl River, NY-based manufacturer of zinc-manganese dioxide battery energy storage systems. He brings nearly twenty years of experience across clean energy technology commercialization, large-scale program development, capital raising, and international business. Prior to UEP, developed and managed large scale energy initiatives at the New York Power Authority and Willdan Energy Solutions. He serves on the board of UEP, and as a long-term mentor and recurring speaker in Columbia University's MPA-ESP program. A City & State New York 40 Under 40 honoree, Gabe holds an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Mona is a partner and the co-chair of Cooley's infrastructure, energy and real estate practice. Dual-qualified as a lawyer in the US (New York and Illinois) and in England and Wales, and as a licensed professional engineer, she brings a distinctive combination of legal and technical experience to complex energy and infrastructure transactions. Over a 25-year career, she has led some of the largest and most complex energy and infrastructure transactions globally, with a focus on project finance and development, mergers and acquisitions, and tax equity and corporate finance.

After he joined Matsushita electric Co., Ltd in 2001, Mr. Fujikawa started his career as material and safety technology researcher of lithium-ion batteries. In 2015 he transferred to business department and led cylindrical lithium-ion battery developments , especially for automotive use. From 2025 he is managing R&D Center of Panasonic Energy Co., Ltd. As a director he is leading technology developments for future lithium-ion batteries including materials, mechanical design, process development, and post LIB technologies.

Rishab Vardhan is an accomplished engineering and operations leader recognized for driving large-scale innovation across data center, automation, and logistics infrastructures. With global experience spanning Oracle, Amazon, and AWS, he has led transformative programs exceeding $100B in value and delivered measurable advances in efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. At Oracle, Rishab leads networking product strategy for Project Stargate, shaping next-generation cloud infrastructure. Previously at Amazon, he redefined its global supply chain - reducing delivery times from days to hours and boosting capacity by up to 70%. At AWS, he spearheaded the adoption of liquid cooling and implemented sustainabe technologies across 400+ data centers in 25+ countries and setting new industry benchmarks. An IIT-Madras and Purdue University graduate, Rishab is also an active startup mentor and investor, supporting early-stage ventures across India and the US.

Dr. Troy Hayes has over 19 years of experience in Li-ion battery failure analysis and manufacturing, investigating thousands of battery failures of batteries of all shapes and sizes ranging from implantable medical devices to grid scale storage prior to joining Tesla. He is now serving as the Director of Quality for Tesla’s 4680 battery program, where Tesla is leading the efforts to produce fully dry electrode-based Li-ion batteries.

In my capacities as a professor, author and President of Boston Strategies International, I help asset owners, investors and operators of strategic power and transport projects achieve lowest total supply chain cost, considering risk, risk and agility. My clients have included the US Department of Transportation, the US Department of Energy, Mercedes-Benz, BP, Saudi Aramco, BASF, Alcoa, Iberdrola, Vattenfall, FedEx, UPS, CSX, Maersk, Iron Mountain, Siemens, Raytheon, Valeo, and the City of New York, to name a few. I teach Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and Decarbonizing Global Supply Chains at NYU’s graduate business and engineering schools and at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school and graduate environmental studies program, and I've written eight books on supply chain, operations management, and supply chain decarbonization. Occasionally I help to mediate operations-related contracts, claims and disputes.

Yasar Ayhan Kaya is Senior Director of Datacenter Capacity, Power and Efficiency at Microsoft, where he leads the programs that recover power and capacity across Azure's AI and cloud datacenter fleet. His work covers power oversubscription, capacity recovery, and AI workload efficiency, and the programs he has led have saved hundreds of megawatts of datacenter power during the surge in AI demand. He has spent 18 years on the provider side of capacity and infrastructure, including roles at Meta and Amazon before Microsoft. He writes on datacenter power efficiency metrics beyond PUE, spoke on the power session and moderated the operations session at the AI Infra Summit 2026, and contributes to Microsoft's Sustainable by Design series. He is based in Seattle.

Dr. Brandon Kelly is the Chief Scientist at Peak Energy, leading the scientific strategy and industrialization roadmap for sodium-ion battery systems. With a Ph.D. from Colorado State University and a career defined by leading cell engineering at Solid Power and Peak Energy, Brandon specializes in the transition of lab-scale innovations into industrial-grade products. He currently oversees the long-term technical direction and development systems that ensure the performance, reliability, and manufacturability of Peak Energy’s domestic battery solutions.

Dr. Jiyoon Kim is a research scientist at SandboxAQ working at the intersection of computational materials science and artificial intelligence for battery development. Her research focuses on data generation with Density Functional Theory, machine-learning interatomic potential development, and novel materials discovery for solid-state batteries. Before joining SandboxAQ, she was advised by Professor Kristin A. Persson at the University of California, Berkeley, researching beyond lithium technologies and multivalent-ion diffusion mechanisms.

Recognized for more than 25 years of developing and commercializing lithium-ion batteries, Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud is Founder and CEO of Cadenza Innovation, a growth-stage company transforming energy storage for grid, EV, commercial and industrial, and urban battery deployments. Previously, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud was Founder, CEO, and International Chairman of Boston-Power, a battery company providing products to the consumer electronics, transportation, and other end markets. Earlier in her career, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud held executive positions with Bridgewater Associates and Arthur D. Little, where she led the world’s largest non-captive battery lab. A two-time World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and former co-chair of its Global Future Councils, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud is a co-chair of Li-Bridge, a public-private alliance convened by the U.S. Department of Energy to accelerate the creation of a robust domestic manufacturing base and supply chain for lithium-based batteries. She is also a former board director with the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST) Consortium, a coalition working to build a vibrant, world-class, advanced battery and energy storage sector in New York State. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud holds a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Uppsala University, Sweden, conducted post-doctoral work at MIT and currently sits on MIT’s Chemistry Department Visiting Committee.

Seasoned engineer, data center SME, trusted advisor and entrepreneur with 25+ years specializing in data center physical infrastructure. Extensive expertise in planning, site selection, design, audits, technology-to-market, and strategic consulting. Founder and CEO of engineering firms, driving successful projects across different verticals. Deeply engaged in advanced research on next-generation data center infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on power and cooling, leveraging a PhD and years of influential contributions. Researcher, contributor to standards and best practices, author of numerous publications, and speaker at major data center conferences.

Mr. Lu graduated from Department of Business Administration in National Cheng-chi University, Taiwan, and continued to acquire an MBA degree from National Sun Yat-sen University. His first job concerned with the optical film in China for two years, then came back Taiwan to serve Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) as an analyst in Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center (ISTI) until now. As a certified industrial analyst of the biggest think-tank in Taiwan, he is responsible for the research about Taiwan battery-related industry, including material, cell, pack and related applications. Not only handling the official government statistics about Taiwan battery industry, sometimes he also plays a role to provide consulting suggestions for Taiwan government and firms. From 2010 to June 2020, he served as the secretary-general of the Taiwan Battery Association.

Alex Manoloff leads up Barclays’ efforts to cover the battery industry, within the Investment Bank’s Energy Transition Group. She covers battery companies across the value chain ranging from materials processing, through active material, cell manufacturing and assembly. Before covering the battery space, Alex covered various aspects of climate technology, healthcare and leveraged finance within investment banking, and prior to that she worked in various government positions including NASA. She holds a Bachelor of Science & Engineering from Princeton University.

Professor Y. Shirley Meng received her Ph.D. in Advance Materials for Micro & Nano Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2005, after which she worked as a postdoc research fellow and became a research scientist at MIT. Shirley currently holds the Zable Endowed Chair Professor in Energy Technologies and is Professor of NanoEngineering and Materials Science, University of California San Diego (UCSD). She is the founding Director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center (2015-2020) and was named as inaugural director of the Institute of Materials Discovery and Design. Professor Meng received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2011, UCSD Chancellor’s Interdisciplinary Collaboratories Award in 2013, C.W. Tobias Young Investigator Award of the Electrochemical Society (2016), International Coalition for Energy Storage and Innovation (ICESI) Inaugural Young Career Award (2018), American Chemical Society ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Young Investigator Award (2018), a Finalist for the Blavatnik National Award (2018), International Battery Associations Research Award (2019) and Royal Chemical Society Faraday’s Medal (2020). She is the author and co-author of more than 225 peer-reviewed journal articles, 2 book chapter and 5 issued patents. Professor Meng serves on the executive committee for battery division at the Electrochemical Society and she is the Editor-in-Chief for MRS Energy & Sustainability. She is an elected fellow of the Electrochemical Society (FECS) and fellow of the Materials Research Society (FMRS).

Chris Mi is a fellow of IEEE and SAE, a Distinguished Professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Director of the US DOE-funded GATE Center for Electric Drive Transportation at San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA. He was previously a professor at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, from 2001 to 2015. He received his BS and MS degrees from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, and his PhD degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, all in electrical engineering. Previously, he was an electrical engineer with General Electric Canada, Inc. He also served as the CTO of 1Power Solutions and EV Safe Charge Inc. Dr. Mi is the recipient of the “Distinguished Teaching Award” and “Distinguished Research Award” of the University of Michigan, Dearborn. He is a recipient of the 2007 IEEE Region 4 “Outstanding Engineer Award,” “IEEE Southeastern Michigan Section Outstanding Professional Award,” and the “SAE Environmental Excellence in Transportation (E2T) Award.” He received three Best Paper Awards from IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and two Power Electronics Prize Letter Awards. In 2019, he received the IEEE Power Electronics Emerging Technology Award. In 2022, he was named Albert W. Johnson Lecturer and Distinguished Professor of San Diego State University, the highest honor given to any SDSU faculty, and only one award is given each year. In 2023, he received the IEEE PELS Vehicle and Transportation Systems Achievement Award, the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications Best Paper Award, and the SDSU Innovator of the Year Award. In 2024, he received the prestigious Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award from SDSU. Most recently, he received the Wang Family Excellence Award from the California State University System. In 2026, he received the IEEE Transportation Technologies Award. He served as an editor, editor-in-chief, area editor, and editor of over 20 journals and special issues of IEEE Transactions. He has served as the general chair or program chair of over 20 conferences. He has published more than 350 journal and conference papers, owns 20+ issued and pending patents, and delivered over 200 keynote speeches worldwide.

Daniel Parr MPhys is a Technology Analyst at IDTechEx. He started in 2024 and has focused on topics in the energy storage sector, especially batteries, supercapacitors and adjacent technologies. Daniel's previous report areas include Lithium-Ion Batteries, AI-Driven Battery Technologies and Supercapacitors for Data Centers. Daniel regularly attends events and has spoken on his topics, including at the Battery Show Europe 2026, as well as frequently presenting to IDTechEx’s customers and subscribers.

Parth is a High Voltage Electrical Engineer in R&D at XP Power with professional experience in power electronics, high-voltage power conversion, energy systems, engineering design, testing, and product development. His previous industry experience includes wireless electric vehicle charging and advanced power electronics applications. He holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University and have authored and co-authored multiple technical publications presented at IEEE conferences. His research has received an IEEE conference Best Paper Award, and he is a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). His work focuses on developing practical, reliable engineering solutions while contributing to research, technical evaluation, and the broader power electronics community.

Dr. Ryan Spray is a Principal Scientist in Exponent’s Materials Science & Electrochemistry practice where for over 16 years he has worked with clients on the development, performance, safety and failure analysis of various batteries and systems. Ryan helps clients on battery issues spanning industries such as consumer electronics, medical devices, aerospace, transportation and utility-scale energy storage. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University, and is a member of industry organizations technical subcommittees including NAATBatt and the Volta Foundation, regarding Battery Safety, BESS and AI Data Center Infrastructure.

Roger Strukhoff is Chief Research Officer and Editor-in-Chief of the International Data Center Authority (IDCA). During his career, he has served as Conference Chair of Cloud Expo, VP at International Data Group (IDG), Director of Communications at Linux International, Director of Research at Altoros, and Director of Global Research at TIBCO Software.

Venkatesh Janakiraman, PE, LEED AP BD+C, is Associate Principal, Compute Electrical, at LJC Design & Engineering, the engineering practice within Clayco. He has served as Electrical Engineer of Record for close to 800 MW of data center capacity across hyperscale and AI workloads. His work focuses on how rising rack densities are changing the full power chain, from utility interconnection through conversion and distribution to the rack, and challenging conventional approaches to redundancy, backup power, and energy storage. He brings a design-build perspective that balances system performance with constructability, cost, and schedule.

Craig currently serves as the General Manager of Cambridge EnerTech with primary responsibilities for scientific conference organization and program development within energy market sectors with conferences based in the United States, Asia, Australia and Europe. Prior to that and since 2014, Craig served as Executive Director of Conferences for Cambridge Enertech. Previously to joining CII and forming Cambridge EnerTech, Craig was the Founder and President of the Knowledge Foundation, a scientific conference and publishing company until it was acquired by CII in 2014. Additionally, Craig was a Director at IBC USA (now Informa), and has previous experience in conference development, publishing and technical marketing.

Bob is a solution architect at Keysight Technologies, where Bob is responsible to create Keysight’s battery testing solutions roadmap by researching customer and industry trends and developing plans to meet emerging customer needs. During his 35 years with Hewlett-Packard, Agilent, and now Keysight, Bob has been part of the company’s marketing and R&D organizations for power supplies, electronic loads, power analysers, data acquisition equipment, and test systems. He has also managed Agilent’s power supply test systems business, wireless power business, and battery test systems business. Bob holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA.