2021 Graduate Research Symposium features DOE Veteran Diane Hooie

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The 10th Annual Graduate Research Symposium, held on October 1, 2021 and sponsored by Dow Chemical, was a standout event. Approximately 50 people attended virtually to enjoy a keynote, live and pre-recorded poster presentations, networking, and an awards ceremony.

Guests included representatives from Atilim University (Turkey), Baker Hughes, BASF, Dow, Eli Lilly, Ohio State's Technology Commercialization Office, Forge Biologics, Kenexis, LyondellBasell, Modality Solutions, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Netswitch Technologies, Procter & Gamble, StrateNexus Technologies and the University of South Florida.

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Dr. Diane Hooie

Keynote speaker Dr. Diane Traub Hooie ('74 Ceramic Engineering) shared insights gleaned from her 40 years of experience in developing and commercializing new ideas and innovative clean energy technology, mostly at the Department of Energy (DOE)’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), where she developed and coordinated programs in clean energy areas including clean coal, turbines, fuel cells, hybrid energy and clean fuels both within the US and internationally. 

Dr. Hooie was proactive in her work, always identifying needs and solutions in terms of what would benefit her employer and employees. Throughout her career, she actively encouraged women to enter into STEM fields and was selected Woman of the Year and Person of Distinction for the Federal Government in 1998. 

She discussed the difference in male and female leadership styles. “Women do have different styles in how we play the game,” she said. “Women tend to be harsher with themselves and take things more personally. Growing up, women learn to 'play nice,' and if you had an argument, you didn’t talk afterwards, whereas men could play football, beat each other up, and then go have a beer. Women expect to get their fair share, but men will fight harder for it and are more cut-throat about it,” she said. “Women get different results, and everyone brings something to the table,” she said. “We’re now seeing more men adapt to the styles of women.”

Retired LyondellBasell Executive Vice President Dan Coombs (’78 BS) referred to a study on team dynamics done by Harvard Business Review. “Consistently, teams with at least one woman on the team outperformed teams with no women. The more women, the better the performance. Women brought a different viewpoint and helped the team think broader and bigger. Also, teams with an ‘expert’ actually did worse. People would defer to the expert instead of exploring a problem together,” he said. [ Reference June 2011 ]

The study also showed that teams need a moderate level of cognitive diversity for effectiveness. Extremely homogeneous groups or extremely diverse groups aren’t as intelligent, the twice-replicated study found. Hooie and other leaders acknowledge the importance of including women and minorities in teams, and said that unfortunately, it was sometimes hard to retain them. “We tried to prevent it, but could not determine the root cause,” she said. 

Edward Marszal (’92 BS), a scientific advisory board member for Purdue University’s Process Safety and Assurance Center, asked Hooie if she thought that converting wind and solar energy to hydrogen and using it in turbines or fuel cells could quickly overcome energy-storing battery systems, which lack safety.

Hooie said the problem right now was not having the infrastructure, such as hydrogen pumps, to support fuel cells. “Also, you have to look at your energy consumption from Well to Wheel–the whole process,” she said. “An electric car's 'clean’ energy still has to be tagged to power plant emissions—that energy doesn’t come out of nowhere,” she said.

When Hooie finally decided to retire, she did so to make room for young people who were frustrated at the lack of opportunities. In replacing her, the DOE promoted three people from within. 

“I met my goal of making a difference, and I hope all of you here today will do so, as well," Hooie said.

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