Learn why Vince Neary loves his job as the Marine Renewable Energy Technologies Lead at Sandia National Laboratories.
June 24, 2020
minute read time
June is Ocean Month, and to celebrate STEM Rising is sharing profiles of Energy Department staff in ocean-related careers. Meet Vince Neary.
Vince Neary is the Marine Renewable Energy Technologies Lead at Sandia National Laboratories. Vince has spent the last ten-years working on a wide-range of topics advancing marine renewable energy, including modeling and measuring tidal and wave environments for resource characterization and assessment, experimental testing and numerical modeling of marine energy conversion technologies, and benchmarking their techno-economic performance. His recent work is focused on tidal and wave energy resource characterization and classification to support regional energy planning, project development and type-certification. Vince is a registered professional engineer and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recognized for the breadth of his contributions to research, teaching, and practice in fluid mechanics and hydraulic engineering.
The earth is the only known planet to have oceans.
What do you do to celebrate Ocean Month?
Listen to old sea shanties or watch a movie or documentary: Master and Commander, Das Boot, All is Lost, Mutiny on the Bounty.
What inspired you to work in water power?
The contributions of great inventors (Wright brothers, Edison, Tesla, Maxwell), scientists (Newton, Bernoulli, Einstein, Cousteau) and engineers (DaVinci, Prandtl, Brunel).
What do you do in your job?
R&D to improve the techno-economic performance of marine renewable energy technologies and to provide useful data, information, tools and standards to support a growing marine renewable energy industry.
What books or movies about the ocean do you recommend?
- Sailing Alone Around the World, by Captain Joshua Slocum
- Endeavor: The Ship that Changed the World, by Peter Moore
- In the Heart of the Sea: Tragedy of the whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick
- Longitude, The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time, by Dana Sobel
- Barbarian Days, A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan
- All Patrick O’Brian’s Captain Jack Aubrey (JA) series
- Master and Commander, based on Patrick O’Brian’s JA series
- Dead Wake: The last crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson
Be curious. Be passionate. Read the history of those who made great contributions to science and engineering and be inspired. Be hopeful. Protect our oceans.
For more Ocean Month profiles and STEM resources, visit www.energy.gov/STEM