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Jay Apt is a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and in the CMU Department of Engineering and Public Policy. He is the Co-Director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center and Director of the RenewElec (renewable electricity) project. He has authored over 90 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as two books and several book chapters. He has published op-ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Professor Apt received an A.B. in physics from Harvard College in 1971 and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1997 and the Metcalf Lifetime Achievement Award for significant contributions to engineering in 2002.
Inês Lima Azevedo is Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. She is co-PI and the co-Director for the Climate and Energy Decision Making Center. She has a B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering (2004) and a MSc in Engineering Policy and Management of Technology from IST-Portugal, and a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University (2009). Dr. Azevedo’s research interests lie at the intersection of environmental, technical and economic issues, such as how to address the challenge of climate change and to move towards a more sustainable energy system. She addresses complex problems in which traditional engineering plays an important role but cannot provide a complete answer. She has participated in several National Research Council committee reports from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences.
Stefan Bernhard
Stefan Bernhard started his chemistry career as a laboratory technician with Chocolat Tobler, which was followed by a degree in chemical engineering from the Ingenieurschule Burgdorf. Further endeavours, under Prof. Peter Belser at the Université de Fribourg, were rewarded with a diploma and a PhD in chemistry. These primarily synthetic studies were complemented by a laser spectroscopy project at Los Alamos National Laboratory with Dr Jon Schoonover and time in the Abruña group at Cornell University focused on electrochemistry. Stefan Bernhard’s faculty appointment at Princeton University explored luminescent metal complexes for optoelectronic and solar conversion applications. He moved to Carnegie Mellon University in July 2009 where he was just promoted to the rank of Professor.
Casey Canfield
Casey Canfield is the Science & Technology Policy Fellow for the SunShot Initiative where she supports the soft costs team to reduce the non-hardware costs of installing solar panels. Canfield designs, manages, and evaluates programs related to workforce development, social science research and business model innovation. She earned her PhD from Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering and Public Policy Department.
Karen Clay is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy in the H. John Heinz III College at Carnegie Mellon University. Her recent research addresses: energy transitions; climate change; the health effects of pollution including lead in drinking water, airborne particulate pollution, airborne lead pollution, and the interaction of pollution and infectious disease; and the health and productivity effects of environmental regulation. Dr. Clay is a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Scott Institute at Carnegie Mellon. She holds a BA from University of Virginia (1988), where she majored in economics and mathematics, and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University (1994).
Dr. Jared Cohon is the former President of Carnegie Mellon University and former Director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. He is a University Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at the university and serves on the boards of several companies and nonprofit organizations. He is the Co-chair of the Commission to Review and Evaluate the National Energy Laboratories.
After becoming president of Carnegie Mellon University in 1997, Jared L. Cohon guided all of the university’s global expansion efforts, and successfully led the university on a variety of fronts, including diversity, technology, international education, and economic development in southwest Pennsylvania.
An author, coauthor, or editor of one book and more than 80 professional publications, Cohon is an expert on environmental and water resource systems analysis, an interdisciplinary field that combines engineering, economics, and applied mathematics. He has worked on water resource problems in the United States, South America, and Asia and on energy facility siting, including nuclear waste shipping and storage.
Professor Gellman is the Lord Professor of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as co-Director of the W.E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. He received a BS and a PhD in Chemistry from Caltech and UC Berkeley, respectively. Professor Gellman’s independent research is in the area of surface chemistry with particular emphasis on catalytic surface chemistry, enantioselective chemistry on chiral surfaces, tribology and high throughput study of alloy surfaces. He has developed a number of experiments and experimental methodologies for exploring fundamental aspects of surface chemistry in each of these areas. The most recent focus of his research group has been the study of enantioselectivity on naturally chiral metal surfaces. His research is now turning towards the development and application of high throughput methods for study of alloy surface properties such as catalysis. Professor Gellman has won a number of national and international awards for his research including: Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2011) and of the AVS (2012), Welch Foundation Lectureship (Texas – 2001), the Zeneca Fellowship (University of Cambridge – 2000), the Ipatieff Prize (American Chemical Society – 1998), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (A.P. Sloan Foundation 1991-93), Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering (David and Lucile Packard Foundation – 1989-94), and the Distinguished New Faculty in Chemistry Award (Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation – 1986).
Nathaniel Horner
Horner is a Presidential Management Fellow focusing on the electricity system with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. He recently earned his PhD from Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering and Public Policy Department.
David Hounshell
As a historian, David Hounshell seeks to understand innovation, both in its technological and organizational dimensions. Since 1982, he has studied the management of research and development in the chemical industry and in other science-based industries in the United States during the twentieth century. Recently, he completed a large-scale review of this topic, and hopes to complete a monograph on industrial R&D in the few of years. My interaction with SDS economists Steven Klepper and Wesley Cohen has been instrumental in my pursuing the history of economic thought about R&D, and I have recently published an extended essay on the early work of RAND economists on the economics of R&D.
Richard Huntsinger
Dr. Richard Huntsinger is a Fortune 500 operations executive, management consultant, professor, and Silicon Valley entrepreneur with broad international experience leading data analytics, enterprise software development, research, and operational excellence programs at organizations like Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Symantec, Hitachi, Exelon, and US Department of Energy. He currently serves as General Manager of Huntsinger Associates, LLC, a data analytics consulting firm, and lectures on data analytics topics at University of California-Berkeley. Recent projects include electricity demand forecasting in smart electric grids, enterprise data warehouse optimization in high-tech and telecom operations, and process automation in nuclear power plant operations.
Dr. Huntsinger earned his PhD in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, MBA degrees from University of California-Berkeley and Columbia University, with honors, and MSc and BSc degrees in Computer Science from California State University-Chico, with honors. He holds ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt and PMI Project Management Professional certifications.
Kelly Klima
Dr. Kelly Klima was a Research Scientist the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University focusing on climate, extreme weather, energy, communications, and outreach. She has published several journal articles and won multiple speaking awards including the AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award. She is an active member of 10 professional societies, and serves on the American Geophysical Union Executive Committee. In addition to research, Dr. Klima founded SUCCEED: The Summer Center for Climate, Energy, and Environment Decision-Making, a 5-day program designed to complement what 9th grade students have studied in school and provide them with opportunities to expand their understanding of energy, the environment, and how those relate to climate change. Dr. Klima has a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy (CMU), an M.S. in Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Science (MIT), an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics (MIT), a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Caltech), and a CFM from the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM).
Julian Lamy
Julian Lamy is manager of Energy Systems Optimization for ESF Store & Forecast where he leads software development and strategy for battery and micro-grid operations in North America. Lamy is a recent PhD graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering and Public Policy Department.
Professor Lee was re-appointed in July 2014 to a second five-year term as Head of the School of Architecture and is the track chair of the CMU Master of Science in Sustainable Design degree. He has been the faculty adviser for the CMU School of Architecture’s Solar Decathlon teams (2002, 2005 & 2007) and his teaching activities have resulted in the integration of undergraduate courses related to design, environment, materials, structures and construction.
Professor Lee’s scholarly and practice activities focus on issues of systems integration, material innovation, renewable energy and the integrated design process for high performance commercial and residential architecture. He is a LEED accredited professional and provides sustainable design consulting services for institutional and commercial clients in Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States. Innovative sustainable projects on which Professor Lee has been involved include the Armstrong World Industries Susquehanna House (Lancaster, PA), the Jean Canfield Government of Canada Building (Charlottetown, PEI), the PA Department of Environmental Protection South Central Office Building (Harrisburg, PA), Alcoa Fjardaal Smelter (Reydarfjordur, Iceland), Energy Innovation Center, International Union of Operating Engineer’s Training Facility and Phipps Conservatory (Pittsburgh, PA) and the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace, Stever House, Henderson House, the CIC Building and the Gates Center (Carnegie Mellon Campus). His consulting work with the PA Department of Environmental Protection resulted in a new standard for healthy, flexible, adaptable and energy and environmentally effective buildings in the Commonwealth. Professor Lee has developed and conducted professional enrichment curricula for the PA DGS, PA DEP and the federal GSA.
At Carnegie Mellon University, Professor Mauter runs the Water and Energy Efficiency for the Environment (WE3 Lab) and is jointly appointed in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy. She also holds courtesy appointments in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering. Her present research seeks novel approaches to sustainably meet water supply in an energy constrained world by re-thinking the policies surrounding water treatment, re-defining the inputs to the treatment process, and re-envisioning the membranes in membrane-based water treatment processes.
Jeremy J. Michalek (me-HA-leck) is a Professor of Engineering and Public Policy and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He directs the Carnegie Mellon Vehicle Electrification Group, which focuses on four key electric vehicle research topics: technology (vehicle, battery & power grid), life cycle implications (economic, environmental & energy security), consumer behavior (adoption and use), and public policy (effectiveness and unintended consequences). He also directs the Carnegie Mellon Design Decisions Laboratory, which studies theories and tools to understand and assist decision-making in design and product development, including systems optimization, techno-economic analysis, and green design. Michalek received his B.S. from Carnegie Mellon (1999) and his M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2004) from the University of Michigan, all in Mechanical Engineering. His work has been featured in the New York Times and The Washington Post, and he has presented policy briefs on Capitol Hill. Michalek serves on the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies Committee. He has won awards including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Design Automation Outstanding Young Investigator Award.
M. Granger Morgan is University and Lord Chair Professor of Engineering; Professor, Department of Engineering and Public Policy (where he served for 38 years as the founding Department Head, stepping down in August 2014); also Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and in the H. John Heinz III College; Co-Director (with Inês Azevedo) of the Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making; Co-Director (with Jay Apt) of the Electricity Industry Center. His research addresses problems in science, technology and public policy with a particular focus on energy, environmental systems, climate change and risk analysis. Much of his work has involved the development and demonstration of methods to characterize and treat uncertainty in quantitative policy analysis. Morgan serves as Chair of the Scientific and Technical Council for the International Risk Governance Council. In the recent past, he served as Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as Chair of the Advisory Council of the Electric Power Research Institute, of which he is now again a member. He holds a BA from Harvard College (1963) where he concentrated in Physics, an MS in Astronomy and Space Science from Cornell (1965) and a Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Physics and Information Sciences at the University of California at San Diego (1969).
Nick Muller is the Lester and Judith Lave Professor of Economics in Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy and Tepper School of Business. He was a visiting professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy in the fall of 2015, and was previosuly a member of the Economics faculty at Middlebury College from 2007-2017. He completed his dissertation at Yale University in May of 2007, where his advisors included Robert Mendelsohn, William Nordhaus, and Nathaniel Keohane. His dissertation focused on using integrated assessment models to measure the damages from air pollution in the United States, and to propose alternative market-based policies intended to govern the criteria air pollutants. Dr. Muller also attended the School of Public and Environmental Affairs where he studied environmental policy and public finance in pursuit of a master’s degree in public administration. His current research includes measuring the damages due to emissions from each industry in the U.S. economy, the design of market-based based environmental policies, and the construction price indices for air pollution.
Illah R. Nourbakhsh
Illah R. Nourbakhsh is a Professor of Robotics, director of the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) lab and head of the Robotics Masters Program in The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His current research projects explore community-based robotics, including educational and social robotics and ways to use robotic technology to empower individuals and communities, as described in this CREATE Lab white paper. The CREATE Lab’s researchers lead diverse projects, from the application of GigaPan technology to scientific, citizen science and educational endeavours internationally to ChargeCar, a community-based effort to convert gasoline cars into locally customized electric vehicles; Hear Me, a project that uses technology to empower students to become leads in advocating for meaningful social change; Arts and Bots, a program for creative art and robotics fusion in middle school; Message from Me, a new system of communication between pre-K children and their parents to improve home-school consistency; and BodyTrack, an empowerment program that enables citizens to capture behavior, health factors and find ways to improve their well-being, to many other programs.
Lisa Porter
Lisa Porter received Ph.D. and B.S. degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from N.C. State University and Cornell University, respectively. She serves as a research and academic advisor to both graduate and undergraduate students and is actively involved in several outreach activities and societies. She is President-Elect of the American Vacuum Society (AVS), an international society pertaining to the Science & Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing. She recently served as the Program Chair for the AVS 63rdInternational Symposium. Her awards include the Philbrook Prize in Engineering from CMU (2012), “Women Driving the Material World” Award from the Women & Girls Foundation (2006), a National Science Foundation Career Award (1999-2004) and a National Swedish Foundation Visiting Professorship (2000-2002).
Daniel Posen
Daniel Posen is a former Ph.D. student in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University and presently Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto. His research focuses on system-scale environmental sustainability analysis which draws on a range of tools from Engineering, Science, Economics, and Public Policy to provide quantitative analysis to guide environmental policy and decision making.
His expertise spans a range of areas including life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking; setting priorities for greenhouse gas mitigation; evaluating biofuels, bio-based chemicals & other uses for biomass; economic modeling of fossil fuel and energy markets; public policy & decision support models; quantifying uncertainty in environmental systems & for evaluating environmental policy.
Costa Samaras
Costa Samaras joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University as an Assistant Professor in January of 2014. Costa analyzes how energy technology and infrastructure system designs affect energy use and national security, resiliency to climate change impacts, economic and innovation outcomes, and life cycle environmental externalities. Costa serves on the Transportation Research Board’s Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies Committee, is an Associate Editor of the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, and serves on the American Society of Civil Engineers Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate. From 2009 to 2014 he conducted energy and climate research at the RAND Corporation, most recently as a Senior Engineer. Costa was a post-doctoral fellow in the Climate Decisionmaking Center at Carnegie Mellon from 2008 to 2009. From 1999 to 2004 he was an engineer working on several multibillion-dollar transportation megaprojects in New York. Costa received a joint Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy and from Carnegie Mellon, a M.P.A. in Public Policy from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University. He also is a Leadership and Excellence in Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professional with a building design and construction specialty. Costa tweets about energy and climate topics with @CostaSamaras.
Stephanie Seki
Stephanie Seki is the Program Officer for the Transportation Research Board at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She earned her PhD from Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering and Public Policy Department.
Joel Tarr
Joel Tarr is the Richard S. Caliguiri University Professor of History and Policy, Department of History and Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Tarr is a historian whose research focuses on the history of urban technologies and urban infrastructure systems, as well as the development of environmental problems and policy. More specifically, he has written about the effects of transportation innovations, the uses of the telegraph in the urban context, and the development and impacts of water supply and waste water systems. Professor Tarr’s environmental work has dealt also with air, water, and land pollution, and the cross-media problems created by technological choices and changing disposal practices. In addition, Professor Tarr has examined problems of industrial pollution. Professor Tarr has also written about environmental policy formation on the local, state, and federal levels, and the roles of various professional groups in setting priorities. This research has dealt primarily with changing conceptions of risk in the face of new knowledge and new technologies, as well as societal value change. Much of his environmental and technology-related research has been done in collaboration with engineers.
Venkat Viswanathan
Venkat Viswnathan is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University with courtesy appointments in the Chemical Engineering and the Materials Science & Engineering Departments. Dr. Viswanathan’s research focuses on identifying the scientific principles governing material design, inorganic, organic and biomaterials, for novel energy conversion and storage routes. Viswanathan reveived a Pd.D. from Stanford University and a B.Tech and M.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has also recieved numerous awards for his research including the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award in 2016. Viswanathan tweets about energy and materials topics with @venkvis.
Gabrielle Wong-Parodi is a behavioral decision scientist at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making. Dr. Wong-Parodi’s expertise is in using behavioral science approaches to create evidence-based strategies for informed decision making, with a particular focus on building resilience and promoting sustainability in the face of a changing climate. Dr. Wong-Parodi has published papers on a variety of topics related to climate change, from risk perceptions of emerging technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration, smart grid technologies, and unconventional shale gas development to risk communications on flood risk, tornadoes, and energy conservation programs. Previously, Dr. Wong-Parodi was a principal research associate with the Energy Efficiency Standards Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her most recent work at the lab was developing a model of the U.S. natural gas and coal system to be used in an assessment of the economic and environmental impact of proposed climate change policies on federal appliance standards. Dr. Wong-Parodi holds a B.A. in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources (Risk theory, perceptions and communications) from the University of California, Berkeley.
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