His research interests are in building energy simulation, thermal storage, smart materials, heat and mass transfer applied to buildings and building integration with smart grid. Before joining CSM, Dr. Tabares-Velasco was a Research Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he was a developer of NREL’s building simulation/optimization tool BEopt, led NREL technical research on phase change materials in collaboration with the Department of Energy Building Envelope and Windows R&D program, Oak Ridge National Lab, and Fraunhofer CSE.