Alfredo A. Martinez-Morales received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California, Riverside (UCR), in 2005, 2008, and 2010, respectively. He is currently the Managing Director of the Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy (SC-RISE) and holds the position of a Research Professor with the Bourns College of Engineering, Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). He plays a key role as the Principal Investigator of the Sustainable Integrated Grid Initiative (SIGI) and the Distributed Energy Resources Laboratory (DERL), UCR, contributing to the engineering, permitting, and deployment of microgrids throughout Southern California. His current research interests include solar cells, alkali metal ion batteries, highly integrated renewables, energy storage systems, and microgrids.