The Energy and Resources Group trains interdisciplinary leaders and thinkers that are defining and solving the systemic, inextricably linked, social, environmental, and technological challenges facing the globe. ERG has built an unparalleled reputation for rigor and relevance through its unique interdisciplinary model. While ERG alumni share a common skillset in practical problem solving, their areas of substantive expertise and their employment interests are amazingly diverse.
Alumni
Alumni
- distributed renewable electricity generating technology and policy in developing countries
- E. Europe and former Soviet Union
- financing renewables
- international power sector regulatory reform and restructuring
- Latin America
- political economy of energy policy in development
- productive uses of elecricity for economic development in rural areas
Ronnie Lipschutz
PhD
Ore Wars: Access to Strategic Materials, International Conflict, and the Foreign Policies of States (’87 Ph.D.)
- environmental politics
- global civil society
- global political economy
- national security policy
- philosophy and history
- politics and the media
- science
- society
- technology
Feng Liu
MA
Energy Use and Conservation in China’s Residential and Commercial Sectors: Patterns, Problems, and Prospects (’92 M.A.)
Penn Loh
MS
(De)Constructing the California Water Plan: Science, Politics and Sustainability (’94 M.S.)
Niklas Lollo
MS, PhD
Inside Out: the Power in Data-Centric Private Governance (PhD ’20) Inspired by ecological economics, Niklas is focused on global governance of production and consumption. At ERG, he is combining data ... Continue Reading »
- ecological economics
- governance
- political ecology
- Political economy
- Science and Technology Studies
- SEEL
- supply chains
- sustainability indicators
Deepa Shinde Lounsbury
MA
Developing Country Microgrids: A Case Study Approach to Best Practices (MA, ’13)
Hongyou Lu
MPP, MS
Hongyou is a concurrent MS-MPP student in ERG and the Goldman School of Public Policy. She also works at the China Energy Group of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her ... Continue Reading »
Jason MacDonald
PhD
Jason is interested in optimization and control of distributed energy resources to support renewable energy integration into the electricity grid. He works at Lawrence Berkeley National lab researching wholesale electricity ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- demand response
- Distributed energy resources
- electric vehicles
- Electricity Grid and Markets
- EMAC
- energy
- renewable energy integration
Benjamin Mandel
MPP, MS
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 ... Continue Reading »
Michael Maniates
MA, PhD
Local Governments and Solar Energy: The San Francisco Example (’83 M.A.) Organizing for Rural Energy Development: Improved Cookstoves, Local Organizations, and the State in Gujarat, India (’90 Ph.D.)
- community energy organizing
- consumption and overconsumption
- education
- global environmental politics and civic engagement
- innovative undergraduate environmental-studies initiatives
- rust-belt economics
Fernando Manibog
PhD
A Rural Energy Survey and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Renewable Energy Technologies for a Philippine Island Community (’82 Ph.D.)
- reforms and private sector development in developing country electricity sectors
- rural and renewable energy in developing countries
Amardip Mann
MA
The Economic Costs and Potential of Increased Water-Use Efficiency in California’s Residential Sector (’02 M.A.)
David Marcus
MA
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 ... Continue Reading »
Jason Mark
MA
Getting from Here to There: Infrastructure Requirements for a Hydrogen-Vehicle Future (’96 M.A.)
Adrienne Marshall
MS
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 ... Continue Reading »
- California ecosystems
- climate change
- climate change adaptation
- ecology
- Harte Lab
- land use politics
- riparian and aquatic ecosystems
- water
Julian Marshall
MS, PhD
Exposure to Motor Vehicle Emissions: An Intake Fraction Approach (02 MS) Inhalation of Vehicle Emissions in Urban Environments (05 PhD)
- air quality engineering
- definitions and metrics of sustainability
- energy consumption trends in developing countries
- environmental justice
- environmental public health
- human and ecosystem toxicology
- transportation and land use planning
Peter Marsters
MA
Peter Marsters is a Master’s candidate at ERG focusing on the environmental impacts of unconventional fossil fuel developments. He came to ERG from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, ... Continue Reading »
- comparative politics and political economy with reference to American Indian and international economic development
- development economics
- geopolitics of energy and forest resources
- nationalism
- particularly in the resource-rich countries of the former Soviet Union
- political transitions and ethnic conflicts
Philippe Martin
MS, PhD
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.)
- atmosphere/biosphere interactions
- carbon cycling
- climate change and public health - especially malaria
- energy and resources geopolitics
- integrated environmental assessment
- terrestrial biosphere modeling
Neo Martinez
MS, PhD
Constant Connectance and Constraint in Community Food Webs (’89 M.S.) Effects of Scale on Food Web Structure (’91 Ph.D.)
- biogeography
- community and ecosystem ecology
- ecological and other network structure and dynamics
- food webs
- structural and functional aspects of biodiversity
- the role of idealogy in ecology
- the role of science in society
- theoretical ecology
Eric Martinot
MA, PhD
Wind-Generated Electric Power in the Soviet Union: Geographical and Technical Prospects (’91 MA) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in Russia: Perspectives and Problems of International Technology Transfer and Investment (’95 ... Continue Reading »
- global renewable energy markets/investments/policies/future pathways
- renewable energy policy in China
- solar (sustainable) cities
Carl Mas
MS
Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier: Modeling of Electrolytic Hydrogen Production Systems (’04 MS)
Omar Masera
MS, PhD
Sustainable Energy Scenarios for Rural Mexico: An Integrated Evaluation Framework for Cooking Stoves (’90 M.S.) Socioeconomic and Environmental Implications of Fuelwood Use Dynamics and Fuel Switching in Rural Mexico (’95 ... Continue Reading »
- biomass and bioenergy technological change in rural areas
- efficient use of energy in the residential sector
- energy and agriculture
- global climate change
- rural integrated energy systems in the third world
Michael Matz
MA
Citizen Participation in Water Quality Regulation: Evaluating the Total Maximum Daily Load Process at Sonoma Creek (’05, MA)
J. Andrew McAllister
MS, PhD
Electricity Load Management in Bolivia: Background and Prospects (’92 MS) Solar Adoption and Energy Consumption in the Residential Sector (’12 PhD)
- decentralization
- industrial processes
- renewable energy systems and applications
- rural integrated energy planning in developing countries
- technology transfer
Lesley McAllister
MA, PhD
Questioning Sustainability: Environmental and Social Aspects of Reforestation in Northwestern Costa Rica (’97 MA) Environmental Enforcement and the Rule of Law in Brazil (’04 PhD)
Margaret McCall
MPP, MS
Margaret is pursuing an MS/MPP with ERG and the Goldman Policy School. At Berkeley, she hopes to focus on demand flexibility (a key aspect of greening the power grid) and ... Continue Reading »
Casey McCullough
MS
En La Tierra de Los Gigantes: The Mexican Energy Monopolies and Their Impact on Electricity Privatization (’97 M.S.)
Meg Meal
MS
Demand-Control Strategies in Commercial Buildings: Technical and Economic Issues (’85 M.S.)
Andrea Mercado
MS
Andrea graduated from UC Merced with a BS in Applied Mathematics on Engineering Mechanics and a minor in Writing. During her time at UCM, Andrea interned for UCM Facilities as ... Continue Reading »
Harvey Michaels
MS, PhD
The Determination of Hydrogen Ion in Precipitation and Dilute Surface Waters by Means of H+-Selective Glass Electrodes (’83 MS) The Role of Sediments in Generating Alkalinity in Three Subalpine, Low-Alkalinity ... Continue Reading »
Elisabeth Micheli
PhD
Quantifying the Effects of Riparian Vegetation on River Meander Migration (’00 PhD)
- role of streams and wetlands in landscape ecology and maintenance of biodiversity
- watershed science and policy: including strategies to restore rivers and the influence of vegetation on stream channel hydrology and morphology
Ana Mileva
MPP, MS, PhD
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions, System Flexibility Requirements, and Drivers of Storage Deployment in the Western North American Power System through 2050 (PhD ’14) Ana’s PhD research is in modeling electricity ... Continue Reading »
Christian Miller
MPP, MS
Measuring California’s Energy Service Affordability (MS ’19) Christian is fascinated by energy end-uses’ effect on communities’ economic and political well-being. While his formal scientific background is in biorenewable resources, his ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- economics
- energy
- energy policy
- equitable energy access
- rural electrification
- transportation
Anita Milman
MA, PhD
Environmental Justice? An Analysis of Air Pollution and Power Plants in California (’04 MA) Bordering on Water Management: Ground and Wastewater in the United States-Mexico Transboundary Santa Cruz Basin (’09 ... Continue Reading »
Irving Mintzer
PhD
Sunlight Through the Clouds: Economic and Environmental Effects of Centralized and Dispersed Photovoltaic Power Systems in Electric-Utility Applications (’83 Ph.D.)
- energy and security
- Energy economics
- global warming
- ozone depletion
- risk management
- trade and environment
Jennifer Mitchell-Jackson
MS
Energy Needs in an Internet Economy: A Closer Look at Data Centers (’01 MS)
Marcus Moench
MS, PhD
Resource Utilization and Degradation: An Integrated Analysis of Biomass Utilization Patterns in a Garhwal Hill Village, Northern Uttar Pradesh, India (’85 MS) From Forest to Agroforest: Land-Use Dynamics and Crop ... Continue Reading »
Alison Monroe
MS
Nuclide Migration Consequence Analyses for High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal: What Are They Likely to Prove? (’78 M.S.)
Alex Montgomery
MA
Reconstructing Reliability: Confidence in Nuclear Weapons under Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship (’99 M.A.)
- energy policy
- fusion
- game theory
- international security
- models and risk analysis
- nuclear power
- science policy
- technology and society
Sangcheol Moon
MA
Sangcheol is interested in feedstock resources and materials loop modeling under the scenario of institutional regulation to support circular economy, Industrial ecology, green chemistry, and the design and implementation mechanisms ... Continue Reading »
Deborah Moore
MS
Opportunities for Basinwide Cooperative Management of Water Resources in the Verde River Basin, Arizona (’89 M.S.)
- bank reform
- environmental restoration
- irrigation
- multilateral development
- Native American resource issues
- population/over-consumption
- sustainable development
- water conservation
- water quality
- Water Resource Management
Laura Moreno
MS, PhD
Everyday Transformations of Food to Waste: What and Why Food is Discarded in U.S. Households (PhD ’19) From digging through trash to looking inside of people’s refrigerators, Laura researches household-level ... Continue Reading »
Raquel Moreno-Penaranda
PhD
From Livelihoods to Labels: Assessing the Contribution of Organics to the Sustainability of Small Family Farming with Participatory Multi-Criteria Indicators in a Community in Brazil (’08 PhD)
Gregory Morris
PhD
Biomass as an Energy Resource: An Economic and Environmental Investigation (’82 PhD)
- biomass and renewable energy systems
- energy in LDCs
- energy planning models and applications
- energy project development
- energy system risk analysis
Bessma Mourad
MS
From Environmental Security to Peacemaking: A Case Study of the Nile River Basin (’10 MS)
- development
- Environmental health
- environmental justice
- freshwater resoures
- Middle East
- politicization of water
- water pollution
- women's health
Maryam Mozafari
MS
Sustainable Energy Options for Kosovo – An Analysis of resource availability and cost (MS ’13)
Sara Mulhauser
MPP, MS
Battery Energy Storage Technology Adoption & Electric Utility Structure (MS ’19) Sara is an architect who delved into distributed generation while developing fuel cell projects for Bloom Energy. She became ... Continue Reading »
Ashley Muspratt
MS, PhD
Health, Hygiene and Safe Drinking Water: A Process Documentation of an Education and Technology Intervention in the Behram Slum, Mumbai, India (06 MS) “Don’t Think of ‘Waste’ Water”: Evaluation and ... Continue Reading »
- sustainability indicators and the convergence of environmental with social and cultural sustainability
- water and sanitation in developing countries with a particular focus on China and other parts of Asia
Linda Nash
MS
Contaminated Sediments and Dredging in San Francisco Bay: Assessing and Managing Ecological Impacts (’89 M.S.)
James Nelson
PhD
Scenarios for Deep Carbon Emission Reductions from Electricity by 2050 in Western North America Using the SWITCH Electric Power Sector Planning Model (PhD ’14) Jimmy Nelson is a graduating Ph.D. ... Continue Reading »
Gregory Nemet
MA, PhD
Can Policy Stimulate Innovation in Low–Carbon Energy Technologies? The Case of Wind Power in California, 1975 through 2001 (04 MA) Policy and Innovation in Low-Carbon Energy Technologies (07 PhD)
- carbon/hydrogen transition
- climate change
- Distributed Generation
- energy R&D
- G.I.S.
- scenario planning
- technology policy
Erica Newman
MS, PhD
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.
- anthropogenic impacts on fire regimes
- California chaparral
- climate change and biodiversity interactions
- Fire ecology and natural disturbance
- French Polynesia cloud forests and wet montane forests
- macroecology
Leah Nichols
MA, PhD
Genes, Information, & Property (MA ’02) Academic Cartography Understanding the Directions of Modern Biological Science (’07 PhD)
Zachary Norwood
PhD
A Better Steam Engine: Designing a Distributed Concentrating Solar Combined Heat and Power System (’11 PhD)
- biofuel emissions
- distributed concentrating solar combined heat and power
- renewable energy vehicle conversions
- rural electrification
- urban waste to fuel
Dara O’Rourke
MS, PhD
State, Industry, and the Environment in Vietnam: Obstacles and Opportunities for Industrial Development (’95 M.S.) Community-Driven Regulation: The Political Economy of Pollution in Vietnam (’99 Ph.D.)
- cleaner manufacturing processes
- corporate accountability
- environmental justice
- industrial development in developing countries
- political economy of development
- pollution prevention
- preventative environmental strategies/policies
Hazel Onsrud
MS
Reducing GHG Emissions through Municipal Action: Designing a Decision Support Tool for Californian Communities (’11 MS)
Adam Orford
MA, MPP, PhD
Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Assessment in California’s Electric Power Sector (MA ’18) Adam Orford is a Ph.D. candidate at U.C. Berkeley’s Energy & Resources Group (ERG). He is currently ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- energy
- Institutions
- law
- Political Science
- Politics
- Public Administration
- public policy
- regulation
- transportation
Tracey Osborne
PhD
Carbon Capital: The Political Ecology of Carbon Forestry and Development in Chiapas, Mexico (’10 PhD)
- agrarian political economy
- carbon forestry activities
- Carbon markets
- development studies
- Mexico
- political ecology
Annette Ostling
PhD
Development and Tests of Two Null Theories of Ecological Communities: a Fractal Theory and a Dispersal Assembly Theory (’04 PhD)
Monkgogi Otlhogile
MA
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 ... Continue Reading »
Gwen Ottinger
MA, PhD
Education, Public Issues, and Everyday Relevance: Making the Links in the Development of a Middle School Life Science Curriculum (99 MA) Grounds for Action: Community and Science in Environmental Justice ... Continue Reading »
Thomas Panella
MS
Irrigation reform in the Philippines: Irrigation management transfer and the vicious cycle of irrigation management (’04 MS)
- agricultural policy and reform
- environmental flows
- integrated water resources management
- international development
- irrigation management transfer
- irrigation policy and reform
- River Basin Management
- water users associations
Susan Pantell
MA, PhD
Uncertainties in Cost-Benefit Analysis of Chlorofluorocarbon Use (’85 M.A.) Toxic Groundwater Pollution:Understanding the Politics and Organizational Process of Regulatory Response (’92 PhD)
William Pease
MS
Environmental Pollution and Cancer in California: Evaluating the Significance of Risks under Proposition 65 (’88 M.S.)
Carla Peterman
PhD
State-Level Regulations Effectiveness in Addressing Global Climate Change and Promoting Solar Energy Deployment (PhD ’17)
Amol Phadke
MS, PhD
Feasibility of Competition in a Developing Country Electricity Market: A Case Study of Maharashtra State (India) (’03 MS) Competition, regulation, and Energy Efficiency Options in the Electricy Sector: Opportunities and ... Continue Reading »
Karen Plaut
MS
A Comparison of Measured and Calculated Evapotranspiration in a Sub-Alpine Meadow Ecosystem (’95 M.S.)
Richard Plevin
MS, PhD
California Policy Should Distinguish Biofuels by Differential Global Warming Effects (’06 MS) Life Cycle Regulation of Transportation Fuels: Uncertainty and its Policy Implications (’10 PhD)
- climate change and renewable energy - particularly biofuels
- modeling
- organic agriculture and mitigating environmental harm from bioenergy crop production
- whole-systems thinking
Diego Ponce de Leon Barido
MS, PhD
Demand-side Knowledge for Sustainable Decarbonization in Resource Constrained Environments: Applied Research at the Intersection of Behavior, Data-mining, and Technology (PhD ’18) Links: Personal Website Life at ERG Blog Posts ALUMNI ... Continue Reading »
James Porter
MS
Responses to Environmental Injustice in the Siting of Hazardous Waste Facilities: Public Participation and Legal Strategies (’92 M.S.)
- environmental justice issues
- renewable energy and international development
- renewable energy technology - especially solar
- the role of people of color in the environmental movement
Wayne Praskins
MA
Groundwater Contamination in Santa Clara Valley: Protecting Public Health in the Face of Technical Uncertainty (’86 M.A.)
Autumn Preskill
MS, PhD
Autumn Petros-Good received her B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College in 2009, and her M.S. from ERG in 2011 and her PhD from ERG in 2015. She worked on ... Continue Reading »
- energy distribution & management policy
- mathematical programming approaches to energy problems
- Renewable energy usage
William Prudham
PhD
Knock on Wood: Nature and the Fictitious Commodity in Oregon’s Douglas-Fir Region (’99 Ph.D.)
- environmental regulation
- forest industry and policy
- political economy of environment
- social theory and nature
Simone Pulver
MA
Going Green Bites Back: The Intended and Unintended Consequences of the New Corporate Environmentalism (’98 M.A.)
- environment and development
- firm environmental decision-making
- International climate change politics
- organization behavior
- social movements
- social theory
Ross Pumfrey
MA
Recycling as an Alternative to Disposal: A Study of Waste Paper Recovery in the Commercial Sector in San Francisco (’83 M.A.)