Walter Mérida, PEng, a UBC mechanical engineering professor, has received a Wall Scholar Research Award from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
Recognizing UBC faculty members with exceptional research records and a demonstrated interest in interdisiplinary research, the award provides recipients, who may belong to any academic discipline, a one-year residency at the Wall Institute and $20,000 for research-related expenses. The objective of the award is to create “a dynamic and diverse intellectual community at the Institute.”
One of ten Wall Scholars selected this year, Mérida will begin his residency on August 1. His award citation reads:
Walter has worked on clean energy solutions for more than twenty years. In 1996-1999, he managed projects between Ballard Power Systems, British Gas Investments Canada, University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University.
He was a founding Board member for General Hydrogen Corporation (1999-2000) and he joined UBC in 2002. Walter was a visiting professor at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (2010), and he worked at the National Research Council from 2002 to 2011. He leads the Transportation Futures Group at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, and he has developed industry-led consortia on clean energy technologies.
Walter serves on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium, the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, and the Institute for Breakthrough Energy Technologies. In 2016, he was recognized as one of Canada’s Clean50. Walter is currently the director of UBC’s Clean Energy Research Centre.
During his term at the Peter Wall Institute, Walter will explore the ethical, economic and social dimensions for advanced transportation systems in a low-carbon economy. As vehicles and road infrastructure become integrated, many new business models become possible. Civil infrastructure assets (buildings, parkades) may become active participants in city-scale energy management schemes. Intelligent recharging schedules (and membership programs) can improve the utilisation of electric vehicles. Electric or zero emission car-share programs and bi-directional vehicle recharging will change the current ownership and financing models.
Original Story by APSC News.