{"id":2109,"date":"2009-11-04T13:34:45","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T20:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=2109"},"modified":"2014-01-09T13:31:15","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T18:31:15","slug":"for-%e2%80%9968-alumnus-a-second-%e2%80%9coscar%e2%80%9d-of-sorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=2109","title":{"rendered":"For \u201968 alumnus, a second \u2018Oscar\u2019 of sorts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ed
The buried anode thin-film battery technology developed in part by Edwin Tracy \u201968 was named one of the world\u2019s best new inventions by “R&D Magazine.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every year, the R&D 100 Awards\u2014nicknamed the \u201cOscars of Invention\u201d\u2014showcase the best new technologies from around the world. Most researchers go their entire career without even being nominated. Edwin Tracy <\/strong>(formerly Trzeciak, Class of 1968) just won his second, putting him in elite company and positioning him at the forefront of his field of renewable-energy research.<\/p>\n

Considering he almost didn\u2019t finish college, the accomplishment is that much more remarkable.<\/p>\n

Ed originally enrolled at Rutgers University, but soon discovered the school \u201cwas just too big.\u201d Packed into lecture halls with hundreds of other undergraduates, Ed didn\u2019t get the individualized attention he felt he needed. The final straw came when he failed general physics. He dropped out, and over the next two years took a job as a lab tech and got married.<\/p>\n

But his Polish immigrant father\u2014a man with a third-grade education who nonetheless understood the importance of a college degree\u2014begged Ed to finish his schooling. Ed\u2019s wife Cathy<\/strong> (nee Shaluha, Class of 1973) was attending TSC at the time, and told her husband about the small classes and caring faculty here. Liking what he heard, Ed enrolled at the College in the physical sciences program. Four years later, he graduated magna cum laude.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between having good, dedicated, caring teachers versus that alienation you feel at a larger university where you\u2019re seemingly nothing more than a number\u2014it\u2019s an understatement to say that I\u2019m very satisfied with my experience at the College,\u201d Ed said.<\/p>\n

After college, Ed worked at RCA Labs for 12 years before accepting a position with the Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO. At NREL, Ed has primarily been involved in research and development in the advanced materials field. He holds 30 U.S. patents, nine foreign patents, and has 11 patents pending, with several of his intellectual properties licensed to industry. Tech transfer of Ed\u2019s inventions has spawned two new business enterprises (Eclipse Energy Systems, Inc. and Planar Energy Devices, Inc.). He has authored or co-authored over 104 technical publications, and has been a long-standing member of the ECS, AVS, and SPIE societies.<\/p>\n

At times, the lack of support NREL received from the administration in Washington, DC, made things challenging, Ed said. During his 29 years he has endured two rounds of layoffs and insufficient budgetary support for the scope of the lab\u2019s mission. The eight years under the Bush administration were particularly perplexing in view of the established scientific evidence for global warming, he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us in science were just shaking our heads in disbelief,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe began to realize that you have to reach crisis proportions before anything receives appropriate attention in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things have changed significantly under the Obama administration, though. \u201cIt\u2019s finally becoming accepted that the greatest challenge facing our nation will be the search for an alternative to petroleum energy, and NREL is our nation\u2019s premier laboratory for research and development and deployment of renewable energy inventions into the marketplace,\u201d Ed explained.<\/p>\n

A prime example of this is the buried anode thin-film battery technology he and two colleagues invented, for which they won the 2009 R&D 100 Award. (It was Ed\u2019s second; his first, received in 1996, was for a vacuum-insulated catalytic converter). Ed\u2019s team developed the buried-anode technology, which a venture capitalist firm licensed to produce the PowerPlane UX Microbattery. Designed for use in remote wireless sensors, smart homes, smart cars, and medical sensing devices, the microbatteries are safe and rechargeable, maintain a long life cycle, and function effectively under high temperatures.<\/p>\n

This innovative microbattery based on an inspired digression in the lab is\u00a0 bringing home major awards. But development of this technology holds its greatest promise as a building block for large batteries powering automobiles and storing power generated by wind, solar, and other renewable energy systems. Judging by the acclaim it is receiving, the invention could revolutionize battery technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I can live long enough to see it mature and succeed to collect some royalties on it,\u201d Ed joked, before adding seriously, \u201cHonors, awards, and royalty payments are fine, but the humanitarian goals of moving green technologies forward and contributing to NREL\u2019s mission of a better energy future is my real reward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recently transferred to NREL\u2019s Legal Department, where his vast technical perspectives and experience in the renewable energy field with respect to patent preparation and prosecution are utilized. In addition, he continues to direct research on a number of projects, and this self-described \u201cconsummate experimentalist\u201d said he still feels most at home in the lab.<\/p>\n

He likes to playfully tease his lab colleagues\u2014most of whom hold PhDs from MIT, Harvard, USC, Yale, and Michigan, to name just a few\u2014that whereas their degrees cost them tens of thousands of dollars, his BA from TCNJ cost \u201ca whopping $450 at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so deeply indebted to the College for providing me with such a well-balanced education, which has resulted in career accomplishments beyond my wildest expectations,\u201d Ed said. \u201cI\u2019ve done all of this with nothing more than a BA from the College. I am convinced that I was educated and trained exceptionally well by some of the best teachers in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this regard, he noted, he is highly indebted to Judson Fink<\/strong>, professor emeritus, who \u201ctaught me to enjoy as well understand the sophisticated concepts of physics.\u201d \u201cThat,\u201d Ed added, \u201cmoney can\u2019t buy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that if I went to any other college, I would never have accomplished as much as I have,\u201d Ed continued. \u201cI\u2019m not knocking other institutions, but I hope the students at TCNJ realize that they are attending one of the finest small colleges in the country, and if they are diligent in their academic pursuit, the sky\u2019s the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Ed lowered his voice and made it a point say, \u201cI sure wish my father were alive to see what his son has accomplished with his hard-earned money spent at TCNJ.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edwin Tracy, a senior scientist with the Department of Energy\u2019s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, recently won his second R&D 100 Award\u2014known in the industry as the \u201cOscars of Invention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-november-2009"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}