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Nathan Johnson

Nathan Johnson

Assistant Professor, The Polytechnic School, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

nathanjohnson@asu.edu

480-727-5271

The Polytechnic School
Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus
7171 E Sonoran Arroyo Mall, Peralta 330
Mesa, AZ 85212

Titles

  • Senior Global Futures Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory
  • Assistant Professor, The Polytechnic School, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Biography

Nathan Johnson is an assistant professor in the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University and the director of the Laboratory for Energy And Power Solutions (LEAPS). His 20-person research team takes energy innovations from concept to construction with a focus on distributed energy resources, smart networks, microgrid controls, and off-grid solutions. Johnson manages a one-acre microgrid test bed to combine simulation-based design with hands-on fabrication and testing to create next-generation solutions to current market needs. Before joining ASU, he spent 10 years in industry and academia working in business development for the energy sector. He now helps start and advise small businesses. Johnson is also an active educator with training and capacity building programs both inside and outside standard university curricula. In his spare time, he runs marathons and regularly paces the Boston qualifying time to help individuals meet their personal goals. 

Johnson is also a member of the graduate faculty in the School of Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy and the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. He is a senior sustainability scientist with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and an affiliate faculty member with the Consortium for Science, Policyand Outcomes at ASU. 

Education

  • PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, 2012
  • MS, International Development, Iowa State University, 2008
  • MS, Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, 2005
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, 2004

Expertise

External Links

Journal Articles

2022

Ahmad, N., M. V. Chester, E. Bondank, M. Arabi, N. G. Johnson and B. L. Ruddell. 2022. A synthetic water distribution network model for urban resilience. Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure 7(5):333-347. DOI: 10.1080/23789689.2020.1788230. (link )

Bondank, E., M. V. Chester, A. Michne, N. Ahmad, B. L. Ruddell and N. G. Johnson. 2022. Anticipating water distribution service outages from increasing temperatures. Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability 2:045002. DOI: 10.1088/2634-4505/ac8ba3. (link )

2018

Budama, V. K., N. G. Johnson, A. H. McDaniel, I. Ermanoski and E. B. Stechel. 2018. Thermodynamic development and design of a concentrating solar thermochemical water-splitting process for co-production of hydrogen and electricity. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 43(37):17,574-17,587. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.07.151. (link )

2017

Burillo, D., M. V. Chester, B. Ruddell and N. Johnson. 2017. Electricity demand planning forecasts should consider climate non-stationarity to maintain reserve margins during heat waves. Applied Energy 206(Nov):267-277. DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.08.141. (link )

2015

Johnson, N. G. and K. M. Bryden. 2015. Field-based safety guidelines for solid fuel household cookstoves in developing countries. Energy for Sustainable Development 25(April):56-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.esd.2015.01.002. (link )

Miller, C. A., C. Altamirano-Allende, N. Johnson and M. Agyemang. 2015. The social value of mid-scale energy in Africa: Redefining value and redesigning energy to reduce poverty. Energy Research & Social Science 5(January):67-69. DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2014.12.013. (link )

2013

Johnson, N. G. and K. M. Bryden. 2013. Clearing the air over cookstoves. Demand 1(1):8-13.

2012

Johnson, N. G. and K. M. Bryden. 2012. Energy supply and use in a rural West African village. Energy 43(1):283-292. DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2012.04.028. (link )

Johnson, N. G. and K. M. Bryden. 2012. Factors affecting fuelwood consumption in household cookstoves in an isolated rural West African village. Energy 46(1):310-321. DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2012.08.019. (link )

Book Chapters

2014

Diekman, S., D. Pope, H. Falk, M. Ballesteros, M. Dherani, N. Bruce, D. Meddings, N. G. Johnson and M. Bryden. 2014. Burns, scalds and poisoning. WHO Indoor Air Quality Guidelines: Household Fuel Consumption. World Health Organization.

Conference Papers

2015

Agyemang, M. and N. G. Johnson. 2015. Development of biomass energy technologies and business models for southern Africa. Proceedings of the 2015 ASME International Design Engineering and Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. 2015 ASME International Design Engineering and Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Boston, MA.

Janko, S. A., B. T. Gorman, U. P. Singh and N. G. Johnson. 2015. High penetration residential solar photovoltaics and the effect of dust storms on system net load. Proceedings of the 2015 ASME International Design Engineering and Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. 2015 ASME International Design Engineering and Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Boston, MA.

Reilly, K. M., M. T. Birner and N. G. Johnson. 2015. Measuring air quality using wireless self-powered devices. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference. 2015 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference. Seattle, Washington.

2014

Carberry, A., N. G. Johnson and M. Henderson. 2014. A practice-then-apply scaffolding approach to engineering design education. Pp. 1-3 Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Frontiers in Educaiton Conference (FIE). 2014 IEEE Frontiers in Educaiton Conference (FIE). Madrid. (link )

Johnson, N. G. and M. Granato. 2014. Single cell battery charger for portable electronic devices in developing countries. Pp. V02AT03A048 Proceedings of ASME 2014 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. 40th Design Automation Conference. (link )

McComb, C., P. S. Santaeufemia, N. G. Johnson and K. Shimada. 2014. Identifying technical and economic improvements to the MoneyMaker Hip pump through multi-objective optimization. Pp. 338-344 Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC). 2014 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC). San Jose, CA. (link )

Santaeufemia, P. S., N. G. Johnson, C. McComb and K. Shimada. 2014. Improving irrigation in remote areas: Multi-objective optimization or a treadle pump. Pp. V02AT03A039 Proceedings of the ASME 2014 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. 40th Design Automation Conference. Buffalo, NY. (link )

2013

Johnson, N. G. and K. M. Bryden. 2013. Establishing consumer need and preference for design of village cooking stoves. ASME Proceedings: 39th Design Automation Conference. ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Portland, OR. (link )

Johnson, N. G., J. W. Glassmire and P. D. Lilienthal. 2013. Techno-economic design of off-grid domestic lighting solutions using HOMER. ASME Proceedings: 39th Design Automation Conference. ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Portland, OR. (link )

2012

Johnson, N. G. and K. M. Bryden. 2012. The impact of cookstove adoption and replacement on fuelwood savings. Proceedings of Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), 2012 IEEE. Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), 2012 IEEE. Seattle, Washington. (link )

Johnson, N. G., J. W. Glassmire and P. D. Lilienthal. 2012. Comparing power system architectures for domestic lighting in isolated rural villages with HOMER. Pp. 375 - 380 Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), 2012 IEEE . Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), 2012 IEEE . Seattle, WA. (link )

2011

Bryden, K. M. and N. G. Johnson. 2011. Understanding rural village energy needs and design constraints. ASME Proceedings: 37th Design Automation Conference. ASME 2011 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Washington, D.C.. (link )

Johnson, N. G., P. Lilienthal and T. Schoechle. 2011. Modeling distributed premises-based renewables integration using HOMER. Proceedings of Grid - Interop 2011. Grid - Interop 2011: Implementing Interoperability. Phoenix. Arizona. (link )

2006

Ashlock, D. A., K. M. Bryden and N. G. Johnson. 2006. Evolutionary Voronoi image segmentation. Proceedings of the 2006 Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering Conference. 2006 Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering Conference. Rolla, Missouri.

Ashlock, D. A., K. M. Bryden and N. G. Johnson. 2006. Evolvable threaded controllers for a multi-agent grid robot task. Proceedings of the 2006 Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering Conference. 2006 Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering Conference. Rolla, Missouri. (link )

Johnson, N. G., A. Hallam, S. Conway and M. Bryden. 2006. Sustainable and market-based analyses of cooking technologies in developing countries. Pp. 207-214 Proceedings of ASME 2006 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. ASME 2006 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Chicago, IL. (link )

Johnson, N. G., A. Hallem, S. Conway and M. Bryden. 2006. Sustainable and market-based analyses of cooking technologies in developing countries. ASME Proceedings: Technology and Society. ASME 2006 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Chicago, Illinois. (link )

Johnson, N. G., B. Karthikeyan, D. A. Ashlock and K. M. Bryden. 2006. AMoEBA image segmentation: Modeling of individual Voronoi tessellations. Pp. 2127-2133 Proceedings of 2006 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation. 2006 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation. Vancouver, British Columbia. (link )

Johnson, N. G., Y. Lu, R. Mazur, J. Han and K. M. Bryden. 2006. Community leadership for sustainability of bio-renewable cooking technologies in rural China. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Environmental Enhancement and Sustainable Development. 3rd International Conference on Environmental Enhancement and Sustainable Development. Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.

2005

Johnson, N. G., M. Bryden and A. Xiao. 2005. Risk analysis and safety evaluation of biomass cookstoves. Proceedings of the ASME 2005 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. ASME 2005 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Orlando, Florida. (link )