Team | MéridaLabs

Dr. Walter Mérida

Walter leads MéridaLabs. He began his career in clean technology working with Ballard Power Systems, British Gas Investments Canada, and universities more than twenty years ago. He was a founder and Board member for General Hydrogen Corporation, and the Institute for Breakthrough Energy Technologies in Vancouver.

He leads the Natural Gas Futures research consortium, and the Transportation Futures Group at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, the Academic Council for the Global Alliance on Powerfuels, and the Climate Change Advisory Board for Toronto Dominion Insurance.

At UBC, Walter has served as director for the Clean Energy Research Centre. He is currently the Associate Dean of Research and Industrial Partnerships in the Faculty of Applied Science, and a Senior Advisor to UBC's President and Vice-Chancellor.

Associates & Staff

Omar is the Senior Program Manager for MéridaLabs. He is a Production Engineering Manager with experience in clean energy/biotech, producing product solutions and taking ideas successfully to market (✉).

Dr. Omar Herrera

Programs

Nadia is the Project Coordinator for MéridaLabs. She has worked internationally in education, media, and the performing arts (London, Madrid), and as an executive with the Humboldt County Film Commission in California (✉).

Nadia Adame

Operations

Julián is working on Electric Vehicle-Grid Integration - from optimal charging strategies to minimize power quality impacts on the grid to machine learning techniques applied to the interaction Building-EV. (✉).

Dr. Julián Fernández

Research

Marco is the Technical Project Manager for MéridaLabs, working on UBC Testbed. He graduated from the Univesity Politecnico di Milano. He developed and managed Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iraq markets related to transmission lines from 33kv up to 800kV. (✉).

Marco Signifredi

Testbed

Kevin is managing the Natural Gas Futures consortium. He has ample experience with grant facilitation, project management, and industrial engagement (✉).

Kevin Wei

Consortia

Researchers

Marta works on heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis and materials characterization. She obtained her PhD in Sustainable Chemistry in 2015 from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Valencia (✉).

Dr. Marta Moreno

Carbon capture

Thomas is working on High-Temperature and High-Pressure Electrochemistry as a next generation hydrogen production technology. He received his PhD from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway (✉).

Dr. Thomas Holm

Hydrogen

Rita is the resident Energy Policy Analyst at MéridaLabs. She received her PhD from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and an MBA student at the University of South Wales, UK (✉).

Dr. R. Onolemhemhen

Policy

Amir leads the research on liquefied natural gas as a fuel for heavy-duty and marine applications, as well as innovative technologies to produce blue and green hydrogen (✉).

Dr. Amir Sharafian

Natural gas

Graduate Students

Jing is a MASc. student in electrical engineering at UBC. She proposed a novel Power Demand Pattern Mining methodology to mine historical power sequences and day-ahead power demand forecasts, and additionally to identify normal and anomalous load patterns. (✉).

Jing Lin

Electrification

Zhihao is a Ph.D. candidate working on the liquefied natural gas project. He received a Bachelor of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Harbin Engineering University and a master of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University, China (✉).

Zhihao Wang (PhD)

Natural gas

Miguel is currently a MASc. student at UBC where he is developing, characterizing and evaluating photoanodes and photocathodes for unassisted water-splitting. He graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico with bachelor’s degree in Chemistry (✉).

Miguel León (MASc)

Solar hydrogen

Ezgi is pursuing her MASc. in Chemical Engineering focusing on electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide. She received their dual Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry from Koç University, Istanbul. She worked as a research assistant at Koç, Bilkent, and UCLA (✉).

Ezgi Kisa (MASc)

Carbon capture

Pegah is currently pursuing her MASc. She is specializing in Data Analytics, Applied Machine Learning and Data Visualization. She received her B.A.Sc in Aerospace engineering from Sharif University of Technology. (✉).

Pegah Zarei (MASc)

EV Analytics

Undergraduate Students

Alumni

Hoda received her PhD. in mechanical engineering from UBC. She developed cost optimization tools for hydrogen fuel supply chains. Hoda is now a Senior Analyst at the Pembina Institute.

Dr. Hoda Talebian

Matthew is refining and developing computer models and software tools that the MéridaLabs team has created to evaluate the role of hydrogen in our energy future. He studied at the University of Waterloo (✉).

Matthew Palmer

Shabab is a co-op student developing software for electric vehicles. He is currently a 4th year computer science student at UBC (✉).

Shabab Khan

Owen is a UBC undergraduate developing EV software for mobile apps. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor in Computer Engineering. (✉).

Owen Guo

Jacques developed sophisticated visualization tools for the hydrogen infrastructure models at MéridaLabs.

Jacques Marais

Angelina worked on Power-to-x-technologies using electricity from renewable energies to make value-added products. She is a PhD student at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology in Oberhausen, Germany.

Angelina Berger

Catalina Ospina

Hadyan graduated with a MASc. in mechanical engineering degree at UBC. He developed a high-volume sampling system to directly quantify methane emissions from the natural gas refueling infrastructure for heavy-duty vehicles.

Hadyan Ramadhan