About the Committee
John Ackerly
John Ackerly is a lawyer by training and delved into his love for wood heat later in life. In 1999, he founded the Alliance for Green Heat, an independent non-profit that promotes cleaner, more efficient wood and pellet heating. In 2011, he founded the Wood Stove Design Challenge, a semi-annual technology competition to advance innovation and automation in wood stove design. He attended Dartmouth College and American University Law School and lives in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Thomas Butcher
Thomas Butcher researches solutions to achieve reduced fossil fuel use in residential and commercial building energy applications. His focus is on biofuel end use, combustion efficiency and emissions, and new system concepts. He conducts research into applications of biofuels and alternative fuels, efficiency in heating/cooling equipment, advanced oil burner development and particulate emissions for wood boilers.
Vi Rapp
As a Research Scientist in the Environmental Technologies Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Vi Rapp leads and directs research for the Reacting Flow Applications Laboratory and the Biomass Stoves Laboratory. Her research includes development of novel, low emissions burner technologies for residential appliances and distributed energy generation; advanced biomass cookstoves for the developing world; and assessing opportunities for combined heat and power and district energy systems using conventional and alternative energy sources.
Rebecca Trojanowski
Rebecca is an engineer within the Energy Conversion group at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her interests focus on research and development efforts to advance building energy systems, reduce fossil fuel dependency, and technical solutions to reduce combustion related emissions. She has focused much of her career on biomass combustion and the related emissions after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and while continuing to pursue her PhD at Columbia University.
