CONTACT INFORMATION :
 

Energy Analysis Program MS 90-4000 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Road Berkeley, CA 94720,  U.S.A. Tel: 1-510-495-2310 FAX: 1-510-486-6996

3217 College Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705 U.S.A. Tel:  1-510-596-8869 http://www.punchdown.org/rvb

SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE & SKILLS:

• Diverse academic, consulting, applied research, computational, and computer networking experience obtained through practical projects and business activities in the U.S., Central America, Africa, and Asia.
• Economic and policy analysis for energy efficiency regulation.
• Research and research management in the areas of efficiency and renewable energy project evaluation resource assessment.
• Over ten years work in computational fluid dynamics and numerical modeling.
• Research activities in remote sensing methods and image processing.
• Teaching in Physics and Engineering.
• Broad computer/programming experience including Unix system administration, TCP/IP networking, FORTRAN, Perl, HTML, UUCP, SMAIL, etc.

Ph.D. Physics, 1991 Harvard University
M.A. Physics, 1986 Harvard University
B.A. Physics & Mathematics, 1984 Univ. of California, Berkeley

Scientist: February 2000 - Present, Energy Efficiency Standards Group, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

Planning, development, and production of energy and energy efficiency policy analysis. Development of policy analysis models, software and spreadsheet tools. Applications include the economic feasibility analysis of appliance efficiency standards and programs in the U.S. and internationally. Supervision of research in the economics of policy impacts, costs and benefits. Policy analysis for the Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP), an international appliance efficiency technical support program. Development of integrated economic, meteorological, and air quality models for air quality policy analysis.

Project Organizer(Volunteer): December 1998 - Present, Eritrea Technical Exchange/ICSEE, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Organization and development of technology transfer and development projects. Technical support of traditional stove efficiency improvement, promotion, and dissemination programs. Pilot testing and analysis of ultraviolet water disinfection technology applied to village-level drinking water supply. Supervision, and organization of post-graduate meteorological training for staff from the Eritrean Meteorological Services and Department of Energy. Research and development of climate, renewable energy, and natural resources information systems. Technical support for Eritrean computer communications infrastructure development. In-country technical training of computer systems operation and administration staff in Internet technologies. Supervision and organization of ISO/IEC 10646-1 compliant multi-lingual software development.

 Duties include advising Meteorology Masters students on masters research topics. Thesis topics advised include: (1) Estimation of weather impacts on transformer losses and efficiency, (2) Application of the MM5 model to air quality analysis in Central California, and (3) Analysis of sea breeze return flow dynamics in complex topography using the RAMS meso-scale model.

Principal Research Associate: March 1999 - February 2000, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

Primary responsibilities include development of policy analysis tools for evaluation of appliance efficiency standards. Includes development of econometric models to forecast appliance sales, national energy savings, manufacturer impacts, and the net benefits and costs of a variety of regulatory alternatives. Analysis tools are primarily developed as Excel spreadsheets and application macros in Visual Basic. 

 Duties include advising Masters students and developing informational resources on renewable energy management and development potential. Research in renewable energy, traditional stove efficiency, and information systems for Eritrea, East Africa. (http://www.punchdown.org/rvb)

Project management of Internet Protocol (IP) telephony network development and services. Also ISP management and Experience includes HTML, CGI, Perl, DNS, NFS, Sendmail, Linux, Windows NT/95, Sun Netra, & Cisco routers.

Initiated research programs for the Energy Research and Training Division of the Eritrean Department of Energy. Organized and supervised on-going research programs in: 1) Biomass Energy Assessment; 2) Solar Radiation Mapping; 3) Stove Efficiency Evaluation and Improvements; 4) Wind Energy Resource Assessment. Conducted training in meteorological monitoring and remote sensing for Department of Energy and related ministries.

Co-founded, organized, and developed national electronic mail system for Eritrea as in-country volunteer developer (See http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/email)

Activities include instruction for undergraduate physics courses (2-3 separate courses per semester), research organization and development, instigation of department seminars in Physics, and assistance and advising of University library staff on library organization and donor development as chair of the Library Committee. Student rating in courses: 4.5/5.

Founded and organized Eritrean university/government collaborative research project. Set up university-government collaboration with the Department of Water Resources and the Meteorology Department of the Civil Aviation Authority. Organized team of five research assistants and three collaborators on joint research and data collection. Research at the University of Asmara was supported by the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC).

Duties included numerical modeling of groundwater and surface water systems. Developed and analyzed groundwater recharge alternatives for the San Xavier Indian Reservation. Formulated initial Conceptual Water Development Plan for the Tule River Indian Reservation. Performed comprehensive review of hydrographic survey reports prepared by Arizona Department of Water Resources.

Investigation of the Fluid Dynamics of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter through numerical solution and analysis of the relevant partial differential equations. Developed new accurate and efficient algorithms for solving mathematical equations, and analyzed numerical results using simplified physical models.

Conducted discussion sections and personal homework consultations for Fluid Mechanics, and Applied Fluid Mechanics (pumps and turbines) students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Implemented improved algorithms for calculating transonic flows over airfoils.

Habtetson, S., Ghebrehiwot, D., Van Buskirk, R. & Lebassi, B. (2002) "The Potentials of Wind Energy Applications in Eritrea", World Renewable Energy Congress VII, 29 June - 5 July, 2002, Cologne, GERMANY. URL: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/wind/AFREPRENArtcl200207.html

Coughlin, K. & Van Buskirk, R. (2002) Efficiency policy analysis with temporally and regionally varying energy costs. IEECB-RL5 Conference, May 28-31, 2002, Nice, FRANCE.

Coughlin, K & Van Buskirk, R. (2001) "Boom/Bust Cycles in Electricity Infrastructure Development," EPRI 13-th Forecasting Symposium: Price and Load Forecasting in Volatile Energy Markets, November 13-15, 2001, Nashville, TN.

Van Buskirk, R, Coughlin, K. & Rendek E. (2001) "Modeling Price-Load Relationships in Electricity Markets," EPRI 13-th Forecasting Symposium: Price and Load Forecasting in Volatile Energy Markets, November 13-15, 2001, Nashville, TN.

Van Buskirk, R. & Coughlin, K. (2002) Measuring National and Regional Trends and Transformations in Electricity Use, Efficiency, and Conservation. IEECB-RL5 Conference, May 28-31, 2002, Nice, FRANCE.

Rosenquist, G., Chan, P., Lekov, A., McMahon, J, & Van Buskirk, R. (2002) "Consumer Life-Cycle Impacts of Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential-Type Central Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps," ASHRAE Winter Meeting, January 12-16, 2002, Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Habtegiorgis, Mengsteab & Van Buskirk, Robert (2001) "Development of a National Climate and Resources Information System for Eritrea," paper presented at: Independent Eritrea: Lessons and Prospects July 22-26, 2001 Asmara, Eritrea Studies Association & the University of Asmara, Asmara Eritrea. URL: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/papers/EriPaper6C.html.

Wright, Marcus, Briggs, William, Van Buskirk, Robert & Harmer, Craig (2001) "The use of international encoding standards for local language computer software, documents and data," paper presented at Independent Eritrea: Lessons and Prospects July 22-26, 2001 Asmara, Eritrea Studies Association & the University of Asmara, Asmara Eritrea. URL: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/papers/EriPaper3C.html.

Van Buskirk, Robert (2001) "Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Development: Building national energy sector capital," accepted for Independent Eritrea: Lessons and Prospects July 22-26, 2001 Asmara, Eritrea Studies Association & the University of Asmara, Asmara Eritrea. URL: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/papers/EriPaper2C.html.

Gebrehiwot, Debesai, Baire, Samuel, Habtetsion, Semere & Van Buskirk, Robert (2001) "Cost-effective applications of the Clean Development Mechanism in Eritrea, East Africa," ECEEE 2001 summer study proceedings, European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Mandelieu, France, paper 6,178, pp523-33, June 11-16, 2001.

Malié, Chloé and Van Buskirk (2001) "Incremental distribution chain costs and markups for energy efficient consumer products," ECEEE 2001 summer study proceedings, European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Mandelieu, France, paper 1,179, pp204-11, June 11-16, 2001.

Van Buskirk, Robert (2000) "Econometric modeling of the effects of energy efficiency standards on appliance shipments," In Proceedings 2000 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 9.371, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Washington D.C..

Chaitkin, S., Rosenquist, G., Dunham Whitehead, C., Van Buskirk, R. and McMahon, J.E. (2000) "Estimating and applying marginal energy prices in the analysis of proposed appliance energy efficiency standards in the residential sector," In Proceedings 2000 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 9.25, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Washington D.C.

Van Buskirk, Robert, Teclai, Haile, & Negusse, Ezana, "The effect of clay and iron cooking plates on mogogo efficiency and energy use: Experimental results," Eritrean Studies Review 1998/99, Vol. 2 No. 2. URL:http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/mogr0498b.html

Rosen, K., Garbesi, K., & Van Buskirk, R., "Wind energy potential in coastal Eritrea: An analysis of sparse wind data," accepted for publication in Solar Energy, 1998.

Van Buskirk, R., Garbesi, K., Rosen, K., "Wind Resource Assessment of Eritrea, Africa: Preliminary Results and Status," Journal of Wind Energineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 1998, Vol. 74-76, P. 365.

Garbesi, Karina, Rosen, Karen, & Van Buskirk, Robert, "Wind power in Eritrea, Africa: A preliminary resource assessment." Presented at Windpower '97, Austin, Texas June 15-18, 1997.

Van Buskirk, Robert, Garbesi, Karina & Rosen, Karen, "Wind resource assessment of Eritrea, Africa: results and status," proceedings of the 2nd European & Conference on Wind Engineering, edited by G. Solari, Italy, June 1997. URL:http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/wind/ITPAPER2.html

Van Buskirk, R. D. & Marcus, P.S. "Spectrally contour dynamics," J. Comput. Phys., V115 N2:302-318, 1994.

Van Buskirk, R. D. Quasigeostrophic Vortices in Zonal Shear, Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University (1991).

Van Buskirk, R. D. & Jeffries C. "Observations of dynamics of coupled nonlinear oscillators," Physical Review A 31, 3332-3357 (1985).

Goorjian, P. M. & Van Buskirk, R., "Second order differencing for the transonic small-disturbance equation," AIAA paper 84-0091, Reno, Nevada (1984).

Goorjian, P. M., Meagher, M. E. & Van Buskirk, R. D., "Monotone implicit algorithms for the small-potential equation applied to transonic flows." AIAA paper 0371, Reno, Nevada (1983).

Goorjian, P. M. & Van Buskirk, R. D. "Implicit of transonic flows using monotone methods," AIAA paper 0331, St. Louis, Missouri, 1981.

Design, Promotion, and Dissemination of Energy-Efficient Stoves: Project Evaluation Report, August 2001, Eritrea Technical Exchange Project of the International Collaborative for Science Education and the Environment (ETEP/ICSEE) 110 Clayton St., San Francisco, CA 94117, August 2001. URL: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/MogogoEval200108.html

Improving Traditional Stove Efficiency in Eritrea: Efficient Stove Testing and Promotion Benefits, Eritrean Energy Research and Training Center P.O. Box 5285, Asmara, Eritrea, March 2000. URL: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/StoveEff032000.html

Electric and gas mogogo efficiency for clay and iron plates: Experimental results, Department of Energy, P.O. Box 5285, Asmara, Eritrea, August 1997. URL: http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/mogr0498b.html

Woldu, Tamrat, Remote sensing of biomass production, radiation distributions, and rainfall patterns, Senior Thesis Report, advisor: Robert Van Buskirk, University of Asmara, Asmara, Eritrea, June 1997. URL:http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/remote/tamrat.html

Zerom, Petros, Single layer wind and temperature modeling of daily climate variations in Eritrea, Senior Thesis Report, advisor: Robert Van Buskirk, University of Asmara, Asmara, Eritrea, June 1997.

Aseb Wind Prospecting Report, Research and Training Division, Department of Energy, P.O. Box 5285, Asmara, Eritrea, April, 1997.

Negusse, Ezana & Van Buskirk, Robert, Electric Enjera (Mogogo) Efficiency, Energy Research and Training Division Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Water Resources, October 1996, 12 pp. URL:http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo/mogr1096.html

Garbesi, Karina, Kello, Karen, & Van Buskirk, Robert, Preliminary Wind Energy Resources Assessment for Eritrea, Energy Research and Training Division, Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Water Resources, August 1996, 53 pp. URL:http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/wind/WINDREP796.html

Van Buskirk, Robert, Meteosat-Rainfall Correlations for the Eastern Escarpment of Eritrea: a preliminary analysis, University of Asmara, June 1994.

Van Buskirk, Robert & Araia, Amare, Rainfall Statistics of Eritrea, University of Asmara, September 1994, 40 pp.

Natural Resources Consulting Engineers, Conceptual Water Development Plan: Tule River Indian Reservation, August 1992.

Natural Resources Consulting Engineers, Design and cost estimates for groundwater recharge on the San Xavier District, (Confidential Draft Report) June 1992.

Natural Resources Consulting Engineers, Eritrea: Water Resources and Water Development, May 1992.

Eritrea Technology and Resource Assessment (1998 - 2002)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb

Eritrea Traditional Stove Efficiency (April 1998 - August 2001)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/mogogo

energycrisis.lbl.gov: Real-time electricity supply, demand and prices in the U.S. (2001 - present)
http://energycrisis.lbl.gov

currentenergy.lbl.gov: Real-time electricity supply, demand and prices in the U.S. (2002 - present)
http://currentenergy.lbl.gov

Eritrea Biomass Production Maps (July 1998)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/biomass/mapindex.html

Eritrea Solar Resource Maps (November 1998)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/radiation/mapindex.html

Eritrea Temperature Maps (September 1998)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/temps/mapindex.html

Eritrea Average Annual Rainfall (October 1998)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/rain/rainann.html

Eritrea Hi-Resolution Average Monthly Rainfall (April 2000)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/rain/rainall.html

South Red Sea Wind Maps (October 1998 - February 1999)
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/wind/RSWindex.html

Wiring Africa's Newest Country: Email in Eritrea (September 1998) http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/email/Wiring-Eritrea.html

Outstanding Performance Award, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, October 2001
J. William Fulbright Lecturer Award, September 1993 - September 1994
National Science Foundation Fellowship, September 1984 - August 1987
Department Citation, Physics, U.C. Berkeley, June 1984
American Physics Society Finalist, June 1984
Bachelor's Degree conferred with Highest Honors

Spanish fluency, conversational Tigrigna, reading of basic technical Italian.