Stewart Isaacs

Stewart Isaacs is an MIT-Boeing Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in aeronautics and astronautics whose research is focused on decentralized energy systems for a just and sustainable energy transition. Specifically, Stewart seeks to develop novel energy technologies, including decentralized design and production of solar technologies, that are optimized for community and application-specific use. His doctoral research examined the impact of dust and other aerosols on photovoltaic (PV) systems in West Africa. It yielded a novel mitigation method, shape-enhanced aerodynamic dust removal (SEADR), which leverages aerodynamic shapes to passively remove dust by enhancing natural wind removal, thus improving power output. As a postdoctoral fellow, he will expand this work by conducting wind tunnel and field tests of SEADR, developing machine-learning techniques to assess and optimize PV technologies for decentralized applications, and exploring how concepts of energy democracy can be embedded into energy system design. Stewart’s research has strong potential to offer new energy technologies and systems that perform well in local environments while adhering to local values and contextual requirements, thus helping to sustainably meet global needs for affordable, clean energy.