October 2, 2024
By Alba Garcia-Sarabia
Madeline Morrell, a graduate student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) to receive the Innovation in Buildings (IBUILD) Graduate Research Fellowship for 2024.
IBUILD Fellows receive a $35K stipend along with research and educational support to conduct innovative research in an area related to building decarbonization. The fellowship also provides opportunities for professional development, mentoring, and networking.
Morrell is a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student whose research focuses on thermochemical energy storage systems for decarbonizing buildings. She is a member of the Water-Energy Research Lab (WERL) directed by Assistant Professor Akanksha Menon.
Morrell previously worked at the Energy Transport & Conversion Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she assisted in designing a modular testing facility for thermophotovoltaics. After studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark and seeing how building spaces were being utilized abroad, Morrell felt that more research needed to be done to improve building technologies for the U.S.
When she started the Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech, Ph.D. candidate and former IBUILD fellow Jordan Kocher, who served as one of Morrell's mentors in the WERL, made her aware of the fellowship program that is focused on fulfilling the BTO’s mission.
“Receiving this fellowship has meant a lot to me as it allows me to continue working on thermochemical energy storage building integration to address our residential heating, cooling, and dehumidification thermal loads," said Morrell. "I'm looking forward to participating in this fellowship and learning more about what other IBUILD fellows and engineers within the BTO are doing to address various building challenges.”
When asked about Morrell’s award, Menon said, “I am thrilled that Maddie has been awarded the IBUILD Fellowship, and her proposed research is synergistic with another project in my group that is funded by the DOE Building Technologies Office. This fellowship will also give her access to an excellent network of mentors and peers working to decarbonize the buildings sector, which is exactly the kind of professional development opportunity students benefit tremendously from.”
The IBUILD Graduate Research Fellowship, managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, aims to strengthen the pool of well-trained, diverse Ph.D. scholars who are equipped for research-intensive building technologies careers in academia, industry, and national labs.