David Anthoff is an environmental economist who studies climate change and environmental policy. He co-develops the integrated assessment model FUND that is used widely in academic research and in policy analysis.

John Harte is a physicist turned ecologist. His research interests span ecological field research, the theory of complex systems, and policy analysis. Current interests include applying insights from information theory to the analysis of complex ecosystems and empirical investigation of climate-ecosystem feedback dynamics.

Lara Kueppers is an Assistant Professor in the Energy and Resources Group, with a Faculty Scientist appointment at Berkeley Lab. She is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, whose research focuses on ecological responses and feedbacks to climate change.

The focus of my work is carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and trace-gas flux between soil and atmosphere. I conduct research on soil carbon, global change, and the impacts of human activities on ecosystem processes.

Nate Aden is a PhD student with the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley and a Research Fellow with the World Resources Institute’s Climate and Energy Program. Nate’s research is focused on industrial energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and China. In 2013 Nate published a WRI report entitled “Energy Efficiency […]

Gordon is broadly interested in the intersection between sustainable technology and individual behavior, and how the use of technology can be influenced to optimally achieve sustainability goals. Climate change arises not just from flawed technology, but also from society’s interaction with it, and any solutions must pay heed to these interactions as well. Prior to […]

Dennis has focused his career on technology and sustainability policy in emerging and developing economies. His research interests include technology and innovation policy and impacts to resource and rural development, technology transfer and the political economy of land use management. He has led programs with the Paris based International Energy Agency, as an official of the […]

Felipe is a Ph.D. Candidate with ERG. His research seeks to improve the understanding and organization of energy systems, leveraging methods, and concepts developed in fields including operations research, microeconomics, and industrial organization. Felipe’s work puts a particular emphasis on the development and application of data driven techniques to improve the analysis and design of […]

Rebecca is a dual-degree Masters student in the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy (MA/MPP). Her research interests focus on the sustainable use of water resources, integrating work in ecology, equity, and climate change adaptation.  

Alex Dolginow is a Master’s degree candidate interested in understanding appropriate design and conditions for ‘environmental markets,’ such as trading of carbon, water, and conserved land. He hopes to combine economic, policy, and technical approaches to analyze such markets in places like Brazil and Indonesia. Prior to Cal, Alex worked as a strategy consultant with […]

Adam is interested in how climate change and biodiversity loss can be mitigated through agriculture, forestry, and conservation strategy. Prior to joining ERG, Adam worked with an early stage agriculture technology company called TerViva where he conducted research and business development to expand the adoption of novel, sustainable crops on marginal land. This work exposed […]

Sasha Harris-Lovett is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group and a NSF Graduate Research Program Fellow. Her research interests include urban water and wastewater management, decision analysis for socio-environmental problems, and climate change mitigation. She is an avid reader and writer, and a freelance science journalist. Before coming to ERG, she taught […]

Kripa earned a BS in Botany from the University of Delhi, and a Masters in Environmental Studies from TERI University. Since 2007 to 2012, she worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in their Climate Change and Sustainability division. There, she managed several Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Climate Change advisory assignments for international organizations, corporate clients, and […]

  Morgan’s fields of study include earth systems science, hydrology, and statistics. Morgan’s research interests are the ‘water-agriculture-climate’ nexus, and research subject areas include eco-hydrology and hydroclimatology, agricultural water management, irrigation, water use efficiency and productivity, and climate change impacts and adaptation. Morgan is the recipient of awards including the NSF-GRFP, EPA-STAR, Fulbright, NSF-EAPSI, and […]

Sophie Major’s interests are found at the intersection between political economy and social justice. She is currently investigating theories of ideology, justice, and power in the context of international climate politics. Prior to joining ERG, Sophie completed her interdisciplinary B.A.S. at Quest University Canada, where her thesis research assessed the role of First Nations’ activism […]

Joseph is interested in the social, environmental, and economic trade-offs in energy development, and in particular the social conflicts arising around utility-scale wind farm siting and hydropower relicensing. His master’s research focuses on the relicensing of the Yuba River Development Project, a large hydropower project on the Yuba River in California. Joseph is also a […]

Jess studies the impact of and adaptation to climate change on Latin America’s coasts. Currently, she travels on her 39-foot sailboat, Oleada, down the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, and into the Caribbean to document local climate knowledge through GIS mapping and personal narratives. You can follow her journey […]

Esther earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Occidental College in 2014, where she also minored in philosophy and visual arts. As an undergrad she conducted research on the relationship between India’s financial depth and its renewable energy sector development, as well as wetland conservation and restoration policies within the United States. Upon graduating she […]

Alana Siegner graduated from Tufts University in 2012 with a double major in Environmental Studies and International Relations. She was the Local Outreach Chair of the Tufts-Engineers Without Borders chapter, and spent 3 summers traveling to Uganda to work on an EWB clean water storage project. Before coming to ERG, Alana served for 2 years […]

Emma’s interests are at the intersection of climate change adaptation, environmental justice, and science and technology studies, with a focus on renewable energy technology adoption in under-resourced communities. She received her B.A. in Geography and B.S. in Environmental Sciences at UC Berkeley in 2011, and her undergraduate research focused on critical approaches to GIS technology […]

Valeri Vasquez is a student with the Energy and Resources Group. She is interested in the application of data science toward smart urban growth. Her current research employs integrated assessment models to better understand the impact of climate change-induced human health effects on the economy. Valeri grew her early career in international and domestic climate […]

Hilary received her B.A. in Government and Biological Sciences, with a concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the latter, from Cornell University, where she graduated in 2015. At ERG, Hilary is interested in exploring the science-law nexus and the factors – political, economic, and social – that inform the translation of science into legislation. […]

Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles, Climate Change, and Energy Security:  The Cost-Effectiveness of an Emerging Technology (’07 MS)

Who Will Cry for the Ice? An Examination of Conceptual Understanding of Climate Change through Metaphor (05 MS)

Wind generation: A step towards energy independence on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (MS ’08) Exploring the role of information in development policy and practice in the fields of rural electrification, climate change mitigation, and fishing economics on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast (PhD ’12)

Zoë Chafe is an NSF Grad­u­ate Research Fel­low whose work spot­lights the ambi­ent air pol­lu­tion, health, and cli­mate effects of household energy use. Her dissertation focuses on the impacts of cook­ing and heat­ing with solid fuels (wood, char­coal, dung, coal). She has served as the IPCC AR5 Human Health Chap­ter Sci­en­tist, a lead author of […]

At times the problem of understanding phenomena is one of seeing. That is why Danielle explores new ways of demystifying complexity through visual representation. She seeks new techniques to illustrate often-forgotten, yet fundamental dependencies between human society and the natural world. One such technique is terrestrial laser scanning (also known as LIDAR), which she used to create a 3-D model of her ecological study site in the Sierra Nevada. This along with her seedling research seeks to inform the uncertain future of resource management.

Lara is interested in the relationship between social inequalities and the environment, including how environmental and social stressors interact to impact health. Her work seeks to better understand the disproportionate burden of pollutants and climate change risk faced by low income communities of color in the U.S., and to develop tools to help policy-makers address […]

Zubair is a Master’s student who researches water policy and management of international river basins, and is particularly focused on hydro-politics of the Indus basin. He has researched the relationship between water discharge and land use patterns in upper Jhelum watershed, international water agreements (especially the Indus Waters Treaty), and conflict over distribution of water […]

Climate and energy policies; the science of climate change and the relationship between happiness and consumption.

Climate Change Impacts on Community and Ecosystem Properties: Integrating Manipulations and Gradient Studies in Montane Meadows (’00 Ph.D.)

Quick Wins for Climate: A Gas-Specific Framework for International Mitigation Policy (MS ’08) Nuances of Climate Change Mitigation: Four Different Goals and Approaches in the Climate Boxes Framework (PhD ’12)

Mitigation Banking: Protecting Resources or Minimizing Enforcement Costs? (’87 M.S.) Population Differentiation in Tree-Ring Growth Responses of White Fir (Abies Concolor) to Climate: Implications for Predicting Forest Responses to Climate Change (’93 Ph.D.)

Biofuel Boundaries: Estimating the Medium-Term Supply Potential of Domestic Biofuels (MS ’07) Land use change is a critical influence on the climate effects of climate policies (PhD ’12)

Chris Jones is lead developer at the CoolClimate Network, an applied research consortium at UC Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory that supports the development of comprehensive, socially integrated carbon footprint management tools and programs for individuals, schools, businesses and communities. His primary research interests intersect the fields of industrial ecology, environmental psychology, and climate […]

Irreversibility and Learning in the Context of Global Climate Change (’04 PhD)

Environmental policy making; balancing short-term pressures with long-term needs; climate changes policies; economics; decision analysis; ecology.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Ann Kinzig Ph.D. ’94 Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University Perhaps more than most alumni, Ann Kinzig’s intellectual path has traversed ERG’s interdisciplinary bounds, grappling with the physical, life and social science aspects of the world’s ecological and social problems during, and especially after, her time at ERG. […]

Science-Policy Interface in the Case of Climate Change and California Water Management (MS ’04) A Risk Analysis for Water Resources Under Climate Change, Population Growth and Land Use Change (PhD, ’10)

Greenhouse Gas Property – Introducing an Adaptable Climate Policy for an Uncertain World (MS ’07) Characterizing & Responding to Uncertainty in Climate Change (PhD ’11)

Minding Electron Leakage: How Utility Regulation Can Improve Upstream Energy Efficiency (MS ’14) Ben is a concurrent MS-MPP degree student in ERG and the Goldman School of Public Policy. His primary area of focus is the spread of technologies and policies that promote energy efficiency. Ben also works in Berkeley Lab’s Heat Island Group, which […]

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT This ERG alumni spotlight features one of the first ERG graduate students, David Marcus (MA’77), and is written by ERG alumna, Sarita Sarvate (MS’78). The piece is the first of a series of stories on the achievements and journeys of alumni, showcasing their life after ERG. Small is Beautiful by Sarita Sarvate (MS’78) One summer […]

Adrienne works on climate change adaptation and mitigation in the public and private forests and wild lands of California. She is interested in understanding how the natural resources in these areas, particularly water, are affected by climate change. How can we manage our forests and wild lands in order to reduce both the magnitude of […]

Qualitative Analysis: The Method and Its Use in Modeling the Influence of Space on Ecosystems (’86 M.S.) Forest Succession and Climate Change: Coupling Land-Surface Processes and Ecological Dynamics (’90 Ph.D.)

Erica’s niche is fire, particularly in the ecologically sensitive region of French Polynesia. She has already been trained as a physicist, but her curiosity draws her to ecology. ERG has become a unique place for Erica to explore her aspirations in the biological sciences alongside those who have successfully trekked through similar transitions. Read in her own words how Erica has fine-tuned her fascinations while at ERG.

Monkgogi (who goes by MK) was born and raised in Botswana and recently graduated cum laude with her BA from Scripps College in Environment, Economics, and Politics. Personally, MK has worked extensively with and for underrepresent students in higher education through numerous leadership roles, mentorships, and volunteering opportunities. Access to and visibility of underrepresented students […]

Formerly a freelance writer and founding director of the Vietnam Green Building Council (2007-2009), Jalel remains a board member and international coordinator for Green Cities Fund (its NGO parent).  In 2012 he co-founded the Southeast Asia – Renewable and Adaptive Energy (SEA-RAE) group at Berkeley.  At ERG he has designed a class on ecological economics; […]

Global Climate Change and Ecosystem Carbon Storage: An Experimental Investigation of Ecologically-Mediated Feedbacks to Climate in Montane Meadows (’98 Ph.D.)

Greenhouse Gas Abatement Supply Curves for California’s Transportation Sector (MS ’08) Interactions of Water and Energy Mediate Responses of High Latitude Terrestrial Ecosystems to Climate Change (PhD ’12)

Why do POUs Fail?  Barriers to the Adoption of Point of Use Water Treatment Technologies (’07 MS) Transforming trash:  reuse as a waste management and climate change mitigation strategy (’11 PhD)

Seeds of Change:  Making High School Climate Change Education Transformative (’05 MA)

Challenges and Opportunities for Corporate Fleet Transitions to Lower-Carbon Fuels (MS ’14) Svetlana is interested in the intersection of public policy and corporate social responsibility, as well as in the psychology of sustainable behavior. During the summer of 2013, she consulted for a large company’s sustainability department as a member of the Environmental Defense Fund […]