Hanna Breunig
Dr. Hanna Breunig is a Research Scientist in the Sustainable Energy Systems Group in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division. She holds a secondary joint appointment in the Earth Systems and Society Domain in the Climate and Ecosystem Science Division. Hanna specializes in spatially- and temporally-resolved environmental, human health, and economic impact assessment of emerging energy and wastewater treatment technologies. These include waste-to-energy/resource systems, bioenergy, distributed generation, and gas (H2, CO2, CH4) capture, utilization, and management technologies. Currently, she is collaborating with a team of scientist in ETA to develop a roadmap for sustainable, cost-effective utilization of waste biomass for distributed energy generation in California. She holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley.
Education
Awards
2023 Energy & Environmental Science Lectureship: Hanna Breunig - February 8th 2024
The Royal Society of Chemistry awarded Hanna Breunig the 2023 EES Lectureship, which recognizes an outstanding emerging investigator working in an energy research topic within the scope of energy and environmental science, providing a platform to showcase their research to the wider scientific community.
Early Scientific Career Award: Hanna Breunig - November 18th 2021
For exceptional scientific leadership in technoeconomic and environmental analysis of hydrogen storage and net carbon-negative technologies.
Spot: Hanna Breunig - July 24th 2019
Leading the completion of two complex, high-profile CEC bioenergy projects.
Early Career Development LDRD Awards - November 30th 2017
Hanna Breunig and Anna Spurlock, have been awarded new Early Career Development awards, as part of the Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program. The award will fund each scientist’s salary and research expenses for the next two years:
- Hanna Breunig: "Mitigating Fossil Fuel and Microbial Methane With New Materials for Distributed Energy Generation"
- Anna Spurlock: “A Neuroeconomics Experiment to Study Routine Transportation Decision-Making Processes and Drivers”
The Early Career Development track within the LDRD Program is intended to help Lab scientists begin leading their own research, and could help them prepare to compete for DOE-funded awards such as the DOE Early Career Research Program awards.
Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship - March 5th 2014
Breunig is a graduate student researcher in the Sustainable Energy Systems Group's emerging technology analysis group, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, and a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She is one of 16 Schmidt-MacArthur fellows in the class of 2014.
The Schmidt-MacArthur Fellowship is an international postgraduate fellowship on the circular economy for design, engineering and business students. The Fellowship programme, a joint initiative between the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in the U.K. and the Schmidt Family Foundation in the U.S., offers an innovation platform for postgraduate students and academics from leading international design, engineering & business schools to redesign the economy.
As mentor to Breunig, Sustainable Energy Systems Group Leader Thomas McKone was also honored by the Schmidt-MacArthur selection committee.