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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) presented its annual awards during the 2025 Annual Merit Review (AMR) Plenary on June 2, 2025. Each year, VTO recognizes individuals from partner institutions for their overall contributions to the program and their specific achievements in research, development, demonstration, and deployment. Congratulations to all the awardees!
Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Awards
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Krzysztof (Kris) Pupek, Argonne National Laboratory (Posthumous): For a legacy of service and innovation with deep appreciation for his unwavering dedication to advancing the mission of VTO. His vision, leadership, and commitment have left an enduring impact. He will be remembered with respect, gratitude, and admiration.
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Paul Miles, Sandia National Laboratories: For utilizing optical diagnostic and modeling to improve the mixing and combustion process resulting in higher efficiency and reduced emissions in production engines.
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Margo Melendez, National Renewable Energy Laboratory: In recognition of loyal dedication to the Technology Integration Program and commitment to the Clean Cities and Communities mission to improve consumer choices in transportation through widespread sharing of data and insights about transportation options.
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Xiao-Yun Lu, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: For decades of world-class research exploring the impact of automation, connectivity, and emerging technologies on the transportation system. His work has improved the understanding of current Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems and has developed advanced controls for connected and automated light- and heavy-duty vehicles to improve traffic flow, reduce fuel consumption, and enhance safety.
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Christy Cooper, U.S. Department of Energy: In appreciation of dedicated service to VTO and the U.S. Department of Energy. Christy’s leadership over many years in roles both within and in partnership with VTO made every project work better and helped build the culture of excellence that VTO takes pride in.
Distinguished Achievement Awards
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Don Hillebrand, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL): In appreciation of service as VTO’s Partnership Lead to U.S. DRIVE and the 21st Century Truck Partnership. Don has facilitated collaboration on research that improves commercial truck and bus efficiency and costs.
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Andrew Jansen, ANL: In recognition of founding and leading the world-renowned Cell Analysis, Modeling, and Prototyping (CAMP) facility and the leadership of Engineering Research at ANL. CAMP provides performance validation and feedback in multilayer electrode cells for a variety of consortium and research programs. This has helped validate performance improvements and facilitates the commercialization of new technologies.
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Yan (Joann) Zhou, ANL: In recognition of many years of responsive, indispensable technical support for the Analysis team on questions directly impacting American consumers and firms, addressing such topics as transportation affordability, access to transportation mobility options, vehicle fuel savings opportunities, jobs impacts of innovative domestic vehicle technology manufacturing, mapping vehicle technology supply chains for domestically sold vehicles, and more.
Team Awards
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Venkat Aitharaju, George Han, Adam Burley, Roger Ghanem, and Maria Feng; Development of Tailored Fiber Placement, Multi-functional, High-Performance Composite Material Systems for High Volume Manufacture of Structural Battery Enclosure: In recognition of their extraordinary expertise in leading multi-functional composite systems for high-volume manufacturing battery enclosure. The technologies developed in this project will enable cost-effective lightweighting, reduced embodied energy and emissions, and improve the function of various powertrains.
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Chad Baker, Kyle Carow, Robin Steuteville, Jacob (Jake) Holden, Nicholas (Nick) Reinicke, Robert (Rob) Fitzgerald, Jeff Gonder, Joshua (Josh) Hoshiko, Shashi Peddireddy, Natalie Schultz, Balashanmuga Priyan Rajamohan, and Ananta Shrestha; RouteE and FASTSim: In recognition of remarkable ingenuity, collaboration, impactful contributions, and outstanding technical expertise on RouteE and FASTSim, tools that bring fuel saving routing options to the public through open source software releases and integration with Google Maps.
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Adian Cook, Priyash Misra, Xiao-Yun Lu, Hao Liu, Kevin Stutenberg, Qichao Wang, Anye Zhou, Joe Beck, Nate Goulet, Julia Chen, Dominik Karbowski, Eunjeong Hyeon, Lu Zhan, Miriam Di Russo, Jongryeol Jeong, Nicholas Reinicke, Mingyuan Yang, Dimitris Kapsalis, John Spring, Wanshi Hong, Indigo Ladero, Michael Pamminger, Zejiang Wang, Alexander Kuzhanskiy, and Muhammad Waleed Khan; Cooperative Driving Automation (CDA): For recognition of outstanding collaboration between Labs and projects to advance the understanding and implementation of CDA. This technology, which enables vehicles to communicate and coordinate with each other and infrastructure, has the potential to reduce congestion and fuel consumption at the traffic system level while improving safety.
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Qigui Wang, Ronald Petrus, Edward Keating (retired), Sean Campbell, Liang Wang, Jianghuai Yang, Kiran Mistry, Richard Nichols, William Berry (retired), Brian Kaminski, Angela Alksninis, Jared Satkowiak, David Klemstine, William Spruit, Purushotham Kunduru, Hsiao Wong, Richard Metcalf (retired), Roxann Bittner (retired), Amit Shyam, Alex Plotkowski, Allen Haynes, Alan Luo, Emmanuel Chen, Paul Sanders, Shane Anderson, David Weiss, Dan Hoefert, Julian Wallace, Ryan Williams, Scott Tynan, Ryan Nielsen, Nick Smith, and Joseph Kramer; General Motors (GM) Low-Mass High-Efficiency Engine for Medium-Duty Truck Applications Team: The GM team, using advanced materials and combustion technologies, improved heavy-duty pickup truck engine fuel efficiency by 10% while reducing engine mass by 15% relative to a 2015 6.0L V-8 engine. This will help owners reduce their operating costs.
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GM Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Reduction Team: In recognition of GM’s unique achievement in reducing the cost of automotive three-way catalytic converters by reducing their PGM content by half, without compromising performance and durability.
Information about the meeting, including a detailed schedule can be found at https://energy.gov/eere/vehicles/annual-merit-review.
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