Sean Lubner

Sean Lubner, core faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), is an assistant professor at Boston University in mechanical engineering and materials science engineering. Before joining BU, Lubner was a research scientist at MIT and a Seaborg Fellow research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was an NSF fellow.

He specializes in nano-to-macro energy transport and conversion, and has worked on a variety of energy-related systems including biomedical devices, electrochemical and thermal energy storage systems, solid state energy conversion devices, machine learning models, and water desalination. Lubner works extensively with both industry and academia, and holds numerous joint patents and publications.

His current interests are most focused on grid-scale long duration energy storage in the form of high temperature heat, to help decarbonize both electricity and industrial process heat; non-invasive in-situ sensors for delicate or harsh environments, such as batteries, biological systems, or fuel cells; and direct air capture of CO2.