Our Team
Meet the dedicated team driving innovation and sustainability at the forefront of our energy initiatives.
Héctor Abruña
AEI Founder
Professor Héctor D. Abruña, Emile M. Chamot Professor of Chemistry at Cornell, is a renowned researcher specializing in electrochemical phenomena with applications in fuel cells, batteries, and molecular electronics. He has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Allen J. Bard Medal and election to the National Academy of Sciences. Abruña has been with Cornell since 1983 and previously directed the Energy Materials Center at the university.
Danielle Hanes
Director of Operations
Danielle Hanes is the Director of Operations for the Abruña Energy Institute. She is also the Center Manager for the US DOE funded EFRC, Center for Alkaline-based Energy Solutions (CABES), which is based at Cornell University, and a partnership amongst 6 other universities and 2 national labs. Danielle is an accomplished research administrator, whose network spans federal, state, and local funding agencies. Her experience spans multiple departments and research centers across two Research 1, land-grant universities.
Paul Mutolo
AEI Advisor
Dr. Paul Mutolo, (Cornell ’94) PhD, is the Executive Director of the Center for Alkaline-based Energy Solutions at Cornell University (CABES) and the Co-Founder and CEO of The Standard Hydrogen Corporation (SHC). As a Strategic Advisor to the Abruña Energy Initiative, Paul brings his understanding and experience with multi-functional electrical energy storage systems to the effort, helping accelerate the living-laboratory that will deliver clean power and clean fuel solutions. He earned his PhD from the University of California Santa Barbara. As a Fulbright Fellow, he conducted two years of his research at the WWU in Münster, Germany. He lives with his wife, and two children, in Ithaca NY, where you can often find them exploring the woods and water.