Jacob Brouwer

Biography

Jacob (Jack) Brouwer, Ph.D., is Professor, Chancellor's Fellow, and Director of the Clean Energy Institute at the University of California, Irvine, with appointments in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Brouwer received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993, where he investigated turbulent mixing and chemical kinetics in combustion systems. He has spent over 26 years studying the science and engineering of renewable and sustainable energy conversion systems, with particular focus on fuel cells, electrolyzers, batteries, and their integration with renewable power sources. His research encompasses steady-state and dynamic modeling of energy conversion devices, renewable hydrogen production and storage, and the dynamics of highly renewable energy systems.

Brouwer has led the establishment and growth of several research centers at UC Irvine, including serving as Director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center from 2018 to 2022 and Director of the Advanced Power and Energy Program from 2020 to 2022. Since 2020, he has directed the Clean Energy Institute, which he conceptualized and initiated in 2023, supporting more than 60 graduate students and 30 staff with annual research expenditures between $12-15 million. His research group has been involved in several first-of-their-kind demonstrations, including the world's first solid oxide fuel cell gas turbine hybrid system, the world's first direct DC powering of a computer server rack with a hydrogen fuel cell, and the U.S. first power-to-gas system converting photovoltaic power into hydrogen for injection into the natural gas system. He has secured over $100 million in extramural research funding from sources including the U.S. Department of Energy, California Energy Commission, and industry partners.

Brouwer has published more than 195 refereed journal articles and has been cited more than 13,500 times with an h-index of 61. He has authored book chapters on fuel cells and hybrid systems and has supervised 67 Ph.D. students and 82 M.S. students to completion. He serves as Associate Editor for multiple journals including the ASME Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage and has received multiple best paper awards from ASME conferences. Brouwer is an elected member of the Fuel Cell Seminar Organizing Committee and has organized numerous conferences on fuel cells and clean energy technologies.

Education

• Postdoc in Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1993
• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1993
• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Irvine (UCI), 1989
• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Irvine (UCI), 1987

Distinctions

• U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Outstanding R&D Achievement, high temperature fuel cell tri-generation, 2014
• Eni Award Nominee, 2013
• National Academy of Engineering, Invited Lecturer, 2004
• Katerva Award Nominee, 2012
• WPI Visiting Professor, International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research, 2016
• Best Paper Award, World Fuel Cell Conference, Ningbo, China, 2024
• Best Paper Award, World Fuel Cell Conference, London, England, 2023
• Most highly cited paper; Applied Energy, 2020
• Best Paper Award, ASME International Gas Turbine Institute, 2017