Pages (29 results)
TopAbout ERG
Our Mission The mission of the Energy and Resources Group is a sustainable environment and a just society. ERG is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, nearly 200 ... Continue Reading »
Who We Are
A Brief History of ERG For thirty years, the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at the University of California, Berkeley has provided its outstanding graduate students and exceptional faculty the ... Continue Reading »
Graduate Admissions
The Energy and Resources Group – graduate degrees that make a difference The Energy and Resources Group (ERG) trains interdisciplinary leaders and thinkers who are defining and solving the systemic, ... Continue Reading »
THE ENERGY AND RESOURCES GROUP
Research and education for a sustainable environment and a just society. ERG is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, 150 affiliated faculty and researchers across the campus, and over ... Continue Reading »
Courses
All Course Offerings Please note: This is a full list of ERG course offerings; not all courses are offered each term. For current course offerings, please refer to the online ... Continue Reading »
Give to ERG
Click here to learn more about ERG’s Big Give. Your donation to ERG provides critical funding and academic opportunities for our graduate students. ERG has a 50-year history of outstanding ... Continue Reading »
Alumni
The geographic range of ERGies is worldwide, and they occupy a remarkably high number of niches. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica, across a large elevational range, and in habitats ranging from dense urban areas to the countryside.
Programs
ERG Program Directory The information below is a directory of ERG programs. Please read through and contact us at erggrad@berkeley.edu for graduate program questions and ergdeskb@berkeley.edu for all other questions. ... Continue Reading »
Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL)
RAEL is engaged in projects to develop the science, technology, policy needs and to foster engagements that explore the future of energy, specifically the transition to a low-cabon, environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable energy system.
Research at ERG
Through teaching, mentorship and research projects, ERG supports a diverse suite of basic and applied projects. The goal of this engagement is to understand, inform, and transform the knowledge and ... Continue Reading »
Water Group
The ERG Water Group as an interdisciplinary collaboration focused on the social dimensions of water. Members work on issues of equitable access and efficient, sustainable management of freshwater resources for both humans and the environment in the US and across the globe.
Analysis & Control (EMAC) Energy Modeling
The Energy Modeling, Analysis and Control (EMAC) group addresses the engineering and techno-economic challenges to decarbonizing electric power systems. Our work ranges from applied to theoretical. Much of our work focuses on building new control and optimization frameworks to facilitate the operation of low carbon grids.
Harte Lab: Ecology & Global Change
Ecology and global change are the primary topics of research in the Harte Lab. Among the goals are: to characterize ecological feedbacks to climate change, to predict effects of global change on biodiversity, and to develop fundamental theory that predicts the structure of ecosystems across spatial scales.
Faculty by Primary Interest
Areas of Interest Climate Change ERG COREDavid AnthoffDavid Anthoff is an environmental economist who studies climate change and environmental policy. He co-develops the integrated assessment model FUND that is used ... Continue Reading »
Concurrent Degree Program (MPP/MA or MPP/MS)
Public Policy & Energy Resources Group Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) offer a concurrent degree program that integrates the strengths of public policy ... Continue Reading »
Master’s Degree Curriculum Requirements (MA or MS)
The purpose of the ERG Master’s program is to educate the next generation of interdisciplinary leaders. Specifically, students are taught the range of methods and subjects they should be able ... Continue Reading »
ERG Economics Lab
The Society, Environment and Economics Lab works on the economics of a wide range of environmental, energy and resource issues. Our work spans theoretical, empirical and numerical modeling approaches. We engage in rigorous academic research and actively participate in current policy debates.
Sustainability Summer Minor and Certificate
Make sustainability your work, your future, and your world. The Energy and Resources Group’s Sustainability Minor/Certificate program offers a practical and relevant interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of environmental, economic, ... Continue Reading »
Summer Instructors 2023
The Energy and Resources Group summer instructors understand the complex and interdisciplinary nature of sustainability. All have significant experience teaching and/or professional experience in the subject areas of their courses. ... Continue Reading »
Equity Diversity
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at ERG Equity and inclusion are at the heart of our mission to provide education and research for a sustainable and just society. We aspire ... Continue Reading »
Faculty Recruitment
The University of California, Berkeley seeks applicants for four tenure track (assistant professor) positions and one tenured (associate or full professor) position in the area of “Climate Equity and Environmental ... Continue Reading »
Sustainability Minor/Certificate FAQs
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Learning What is the difference between synchronous vs. asynchronous instruction, and online courses vs. remote instruction courses? Courses originally offered online (i.e. Energy and Society and Water ... Continue Reading »
Alumni Spotlight: Evan Hansen
Elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates, Evan Hansen now serves on the House Energy committee and leads his own environmental consulting company.
Affiliated Faculty
ERG has a small core faculty but a much larger group of affiliated faculty. Affiliated faculty are based in other departments on campus or at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ... Continue Reading »
Undergraduate Minor in Energy and Resources
The Minor in Energy and Resources offers undergraduates basic knowledge and skills to address issues arising from the interaction of social, economic, political, technical, and environmental factors shaping our world. ... Continue Reading »
Critical Ruralities Lab
Youjin Chung convenes the Critical Ruralities Lab, housed within the Departments of Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) at UC Berkeley. Members of the ... Continue Reading »
Open Positions
Join the ERG Team The Energy and Resources Group is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, nearly 200 affiliated faculty and researchers across the campus, and over 600 ... Continue Reading »
Awards
Student Awards ERG students have been recognized nationally and internationally for their research. Below, you can find a selection of recent awards received by ERG Masters and PhD students. CAL ... Continue Reading »
ERG Annual Lecture 2024
The Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley has, from its inception a half century ago, educated many of today’s experts and policymakers about the truly interdisciplinary nature of global ... Continue Reading »
Faculty (7 results)
Top
Paige Weber
Assistant Professor
Weber is an environmental economist who studies questions in energy, equity, and environmental policy. A primary goal of her research is to understand the determinants and solutions to environmental inequality, ... Continue Reading »
Meg Mills-Novoa
Assistant Professor
Meg Mills-Novoa is a human-environment geographer who researches the enduring impacts of climate change adaptation projects. She is jointly appointed to the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.
- climate change adaptation
- critical development studies
- Deforestation
- Latin America
- participatory mixed methods
- political ecology of global change
- water justice
Andrew D. Jones
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Dr. Jones is an Earth scientist who works at the interface of human and environmental systems. His research uses quantitative models and data analysis to understand climate change and human-Earth system interactions at decision-relevant scales. He also collaborates with social scientists and interacts closely with stakeholders to understand how science can effectively provide actionable insight into strategies for increasing resilience of energy water, food, and urban systems.
Youjin Chung
Assistant Professor
Youjin Chung is Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Equity with a joint appointment in the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.
Lara Kueppers
Associate Professor
Lara Kueppers is an Associate 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.
David Anthoff
Associate Professor
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.
Daniel M. Kammen
Professor
Daniel Kammen is the Distinguished Professor of Energy with appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, The Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Africa
- Asia
- Energy Access
- Energy for Community Development
- Energy Supply
- Energy Transmission
- Latin America
- Life-cycle Impacts of Transportation
- Low-carbon Energy Systems
- Smart Grid
Students (45 results)
Top
Ari Ball-Burack
PhD
Ari Ball-Burack is a first year PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Dr. Dan Kammen. He studies data and computational ... Continue Reading »
Sean Brown
MS
Sean Brown is a first year Master’s student interested in using the framework of complex systems to better understand natural and human subsystems as parts of a larger, integrated system, ... Continue Reading »
Sara Murillo
MS
Sara (she/her) is a first-year MS student in the Energy and Resources Group with a passion for advancing solutions to domestic energy equity issues. Her research interests are centered around ... Continue Reading »
Edward Moses Mbewe
MS
Edward Moses Mbewe is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Mbewe interests includes identifying, critically reviewing, and publishing on sustainable and environmental developments in energy. Mbewe’s goal ... Continue Reading »
Cello Lockwood
MS
Cello Lockwood is a Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Cello’s interests revolve around advancing Actionable Science to co-produce more innovative, decision-relevant, and impactful knowledge that can accelerate ... Continue Reading »
Clara Larson
MS
Clara Larson is a Master’s student at the Energy Resource Group. Larson’s interests includes exploring computational methods for earth and environmental science and using computational research to inform decision making ... Continue Reading »
Hasmik Djoulakian
MS
Hasmik Djoulakian (she/her) is a Master’s student in the Energy Resources Group. Her research interests involve applying frameworks of feminist political ecology, cultural geography, and environmental justice to examine the ... Continue Reading »
Elliot Carleton
MS
Elliot is an MS student in the Energy and Resources Group focusing on sustainable land management and conservation. His research interests are motivated by the time he spent working with ... Continue Reading »
Aline Abayo
MS
Aline is a master’s student at ERG focusing climate finance, critical minerals, the economics of renewable energy, and the relationship between climate and development goals. Prior to joining ERG, Aline ... Continue Reading »
Sanjana Tadepalli
MA
Sanjana (she/her) is a Master’s student at ERG. She is interested in climate justice, participatory methods, and environmental communication. Before coming to ERG, Sanjana was a researcher at the Disaster ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- disasters
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- environmental humanities
- ethics
- participation
- Science communication
Sasha Figel
MS
Sasha is a second-year Master’s student interested in land and resource management. Her research is focused on how various groups value natural resources, how the value can be quantified, and ... Continue Reading »
Aaditee Kudrimoti
MS, PhD
Aaditee Kudrimoti is a M.S./Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group. She completed undergraduate degrees from UC Berkeley in Political Science and Public Policy (go bears!). Aaditee is interested ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- citizen science in environmental justice campaigns
- climate
- development
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- transportation
- water
Nicole Lau
MS
As a M.S. student at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, Nicole is interested in researching how climate change is affecting the way disturbances (wildfires, bark beetles…) interact with Western ... Continue Reading »
Jasmine McAdams
MS, PhD
Jasmine is a MS/PhD student at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, with a passion for supporting robust and equitable decision-making in climate and energy. Her research interests include developing ... Continue Reading »
Stephen Stack
MA
Stephen is a Masters student at the Energy and Resources Group. His work focuses on the social, economic, and political dimensions of the clean energy transition. He is currently working ... Continue Reading »
Zora Ott
MA
Zora is a MA student at the Energy and Resources Group. She is interested in political ecology, climate-resilient development, deliberative processes, energy and climate justice, rural development and gender. Her ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- Climate justice
- development
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- gender
- governance
- participation
- rural areas
- transition pathways
- transportation
Alexandra Grayson
MS
Alexandra (she/her) is a second-year Master of Science candidate in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. She is particularly interested in furthering procedural environmental justice ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- Climate justice
- EEEJ
- Environmental Economics
- Ocean Technology and Policy
- renewable energy
- urban planning
Alix Blair Darling
PhD
Alix is an award-winning documentary maker, both in film and audio, and has been working in nonfiction storytelling for over a decade, as a creator and as a teacher, focusing ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- Climate justice
- Climate Migration + Refugees
- ecology / environmental science
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- ethnography
- gender
- Human Rights
- Indigenous-led Climate Mitigation + Adaption
- political ecology
- water
María Villalpando Páez
PhD
María is interested in exploring rural and peasant women’s role in the advancement of food sovereignty and in understanding the complex negotiation processes between communities, individuals, and the environment in ... Continue Reading »
Eleanor Adachi
MPP, MS
Eleanor Adachi (she/her) is a Master’s student in both the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a NSF Graduate Research Fellow. ... Continue Reading »
Elena Bell
MS
Elena is a second-year MS student interested in equitable natural resource management relating to agriculture and forestry. She has seven years of experience working at the intersection of agriculture, finance, ... Continue Reading »
Cora Kingdon
MS, PhD
Cora Kingdon is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley. Cora is interested in studying the distributional impacts of decision making under deep uncertainty ... Continue Reading »
Nica Campbell
MS, PhD
Nica Campbell is an PhD candidate at the Energy and Resources Group. Her research interests include corporate sustainability, environmental justice and policy making mechanisms. At ERG, she explores ways to ... Continue Reading »
- Carbon markets
- Circular Economy
- climate
- economics
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- Net Positive
- sustainable communities
Aaryaman “Sunny” Singhal
MPP, MS
Aaryaman “Sunny” Singhal is dual-degree student in the Energy and Resources Group and Goldman School of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley. He is interested in water security in the Western United ... Continue Reading »
Nabig Chaudhry
MS, PhD
Nabig Chaudhry is an MS/PhD student at UC Berkeley. His research lies at the intersection of climate and data science and focuses on building tech and data-enabled climate adaptation solutions. ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- climate adaptation
- climate resilience
- Climate Tech
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- environmental data science
- sustainability
Samuel Miles
PhD
Samuel Miles is a Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Sam studies electrical and political power systems. He pairs frameworks from environmental ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- development
- economics
- energy
- Mini-grids
- Productive uses
- sanitation
- transportation
- Urbanization
- water
Liyang Wang
MS, PhD
Liyang is a PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group and a Senior Research Associate at Berkeley Lab. Her research interest is at the intersection of decision science, climate ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- decision-making
- economics
- energy
- Energy System Modeling
- environmental justice
- technology adoption
- uncertainties
Annelise Gill-Wiehl
MS, PhD
Annelise Gill-Wiehl is currently an NSF Graduate Student Researcher and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, co-advised by Dr. Dan Kammen ... Continue Reading »
Julia Longmate
MS, PhD
Julia’s research focuses on the performance and usability of climate model outputs at decision-relevant scales. She received her S.B. in Environmental Engineering from MIT in 2016 where she studied the ... Continue Reading »
Jenny Rempel
MS, PhD
Surfacing Overlying Rights: Assessing Transitions in Overlying Rights to California’s Groundwater Basins (MS ’20) Jenny grew up in Fresno, California, and graduated from Stanford University with an interdisciplinary environmental science ... Continue Reading »
Jessica Katz
MS, PhD
Siting Renewable Energy in a Changing Climate: A Reimagining of BLM’s Solar Energy Zones (MS ’20) At ERG, Jessica is focusing on learning advanced methods to comprehensively evaluate the ecological, ... Continue Reading »
Nancy Freitas
MS, PhD
Arctic Lake Emissions in a Warming World (MS ’20) At ERG, Nancy research focuses on identifying existing gaps in climate science and decision-making. In her master’s research, she used a ... Continue Reading »
Cody Warner
MA, PhD
Lights Off in San Diego County: the Effect of Utility Deenergization Events on Household Electrification (MA ’20) Cody applies statistical and econometric models to the electricity sector and studies how ... Continue Reading »
Marshall Worsham
MS, PhD
A Remote Sensing Method for Detecting Agents of Forest Disturbance (MA ’20) Marshall’s interests lie in environmental governance and ecology, in particular, the relationships among regulatory structure, conflict, and ecosystem ... Continue Reading »
Tzipora Wagner
MS
The Role of Stakeholder Networks in Urban Water System Innovation (MS ’20) Tzipora’s is interested in water resources and the role of technology in promoting sustainability, especially in the developing ... Continue Reading »
Kelsey Alford-Jones
MA
Kelsey is a PhD candidate, focusing on qualitative research spanning the fields of global climate and environmental politics, political ecology, critical development studies, human and Indigenous rights, and environmental conflict. ... Continue Reading »
Jesse Griffin-Carney
MS, PhD
Integrating Fuel-Based End Uses Into a Clean Electric System: Quantifying the Trade Off Between Electrification and Electrically Synthesized Fuels (MS ’20) Jess Carney is interested in understanding how sustainable energy ... Continue Reading »
Anaya Hall
MS, PhD
Modeling Organic Waste Management for Soil Carbon Sequestration in California (MS ’19) Anaya (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley. She is ... Continue Reading »
Jesse Strecker
MA, MPP
Jesse Strecker is a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, and an interdisciplinary political economist. They hold an MPP ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- democracy
- development
- ecological economics
- ecology
- economics
- energy
- environmental justice
- governance
- Heterodox Economics
Jack Chang
MA, MPP, PhD
Hydrogen’s Potential Role is California’s Zero Emissions Future (MA ’20) I have been focusing on building decarbonization policy, renewable hydrogen and and island electrification as part of my master’s degrees ... Continue Reading »
Lisa Rennels
MS, PhD
Sobol Sensitivity Analysis for Integrated Assessment Models: Supporting Result Characterization (MS ’19) Lisa is interested in using computer science to explore issues related to the economic impacts of climate change, ... Continue Reading »
Hilary Yu
MS, PhD
Mining Data on Reclaimed Coal Mines: a Machine Learning Approach to Assessing Habitat Suitability (MS ’18) Hilary received her B.A. in Government and Biological Sciences, with a concentration in Ecology ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- ecology
- economics
- energy
- environmental justice
- Science and Law
- sustainable development
- water
Esther Shears
MPP, MS, PhD
The Impact of Data Access on Academic Research: Evidence from the Land Remote-sensing Commercialization Act of 1984 (MS ’18) Esther researches how climate change will impact the financial sector and ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- economics
- environmental justice
- integrated assessment modeling
- international political economy
- SEEL Lab
- sustainable finance
Dennis Best
MS, PhD
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, ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- China
- climate
- economics
- energy
- energy policy
- environmental markets and design
- geospatial analysis
- industrial ecology
- Innovation systems
- rural development
- South East Asia and Latin America
- technology policy
Eli Lazarus
MS, PhD
Eli is an Ecological Economist working on comprehensive welfare measurement, tracking, and optimization. His research investigates and contributes to filling the gap between market optimization/welfare and broader social welfare. Recent ... Continue Reading »
- Anthoff Lab
- Computable General Equalibrium (CGE)
- ecological economics
- ecology
- economics
- energy
- Julia
- Pigouvian taxes
- Systems dynamics
- Systems Modelling
Alumni (143 results)
Top
Javiera Canales Valenzuela
MS
My principal interests are the development of sustainable urban systems that improve quality of life for people and work in harmony with the natural environment through the utilization of clean ... Continue Reading »
Chelsi Sparti
MS
Chelsi belongs to the Winnemem, Nomtipom, and Nomsus bands of the Northern Wintu people, and is of European settler descent. She carries out collaborative research with Puerto Rican residents to ... Continue Reading »
- climate resilience
- decarbonization
- Disaster Recovery
- energy
- environmental justice
- governance
- policy
- Risk Mitigation
Lynn Shiyayo
MS
Lynn is a MS student and researcher in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research lies at the intersection of transportation, climate, and equity ... Continue Reading »
- Air Pollution Modelling
- climate
- development
- ecology / environmental science
- economics
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- transportation
- transportation and land use planning
- urban planning
Ry Andresen
MS
Pronouns: he/they Ry is interested in measuring the impacts of wildfire mitigation policies in vulnerable communities across California. He is particularly interested in researching a holistic framework that incorporates the ... Continue Reading »
Evan Hansen
MS
Cultivating Partnerships: Pest Control and The Use of Integrated Pest Management on Small Farms in San Joaquin County, California (MS ’97) Contact: ehansen@downstreamstrategies.com ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: What have you been working ... Continue Reading »
- antidegradation
- Clean Water Act
- coal mining and the environment
- landfill gas-to-energy projects
- Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
- total maximum daily loads
Nia Jones
MS
Dear White People: Recommendations to Successfully Attract, Recruit, and Retain Minoritized Students in Green Energy (MS ’22) A native of the nation’s Capitol, Washington, D.C., Nia was born into the ... Continue Reading »
Molly Oshun
MS
Putting biodiversity on the map: exploring spatial dimensions of California biodiversity for conservation planning (MS ’22) Molly studies California watersheds. Her research investigates strategies to improve forest health, protect biodiversity, ... Continue Reading »
Priyanka Mohanty
MS
What are the Best Practices for Rapid and Just Energy Transition? (MS ’22) Priyanka earned her Masters of Science with the Energy and Resources Group. At ERG, she works on ... Continue Reading »
- China
- climate
- development
- economics
- environmental justice
- Green New Deal
- India
- Indonesia
- Low-Carbon Transport
Luke Sherman
MPP, MS
Increasing the spatial resolution of the Human Development Index using satellite imagery (MS ’22) Luke’s research aims to encourage the use of innovative technology and management systems in order to ... Continue Reading »
Sasha Ponomareva
MS
Alternative Futures for Composting in California (MS ’22) Sasha earned her B.A. in Environmental Analysis with a minor in Spanish from Pomona College in 2014. After this she worked for ... Continue Reading »
Sean Kelly
MS
The Kelp Catalyst: Marine Aquaculture, Food Security, and Local Economies in Alaska (MS ’22) While Sean is particularly interested in food systems, urban agriculture and food sovereignty, he is also ... Continue Reading »
Karina French
MA
Karina is focused on urban climate resilience, specifically studying how climate impacts will affect social infrastructure systems that protect vulnerable populations in cities. At ERG, she is interested in the ... Continue Reading »
Anna Yip
MS
Anna spent most of her undergrad career studying and analyzing her campus’ ‘Zero Waste by 2020’ goal. She quickly fell in love with the field and plans to dedicate the ... Continue Reading »
Michelle Sims
MS
At ERG, Michelle is interested in environmental and equity challenges within global food systems. In particular, her research focuses on the dynamics of land use change in agricultural landscapes in ... Continue Reading »
Edem Yevoo
MS
Edem received his B.S in Environmental Science and Technology, with a concentration in Ecological Technology Design and minor in Geographic Information Science (GIS) from the University of Maryland, College Park ... Continue Reading »
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 »
Alana Siegner
MA, PhD
Alana Siegner received her B.A. from Tufts University in Environmental Science and International Relations, and served as an AmeriCorps National Teaching Fellow in Boston for two years after graduating from ... Continue Reading »
- climate change education
- environmental education
- Food Justice
- Sustainable food systems
- urban agroecology
Hilary Henry
MA
Hilary is interested in developing innovative conservation tools for the lands and waters in the Western United States using applied science, policy, and community engagement. She graduated Duke University in ... Continue Reading »
Nick Clarke
MA
A Discrete-event Simulator to Determine if Public Transit Buses Go Battery Electric Today (MA ’20) A native of Utah, Nick holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Westminster College in ... Continue Reading »
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 »
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
Nicholas Depsky
MS, PhD
Drought in Central America: Past Patterns and Future Projections (MS ’19) Nick’s primary research focus is on the impacts of climate change on human migration and displacement. Specific focus areas ... Continue Reading »
Dianne Quiroz
MS
Microbial Communities in Confiers of Klamath National Forest (MS ’19) I’m a first years master’s student and received a B.S. & B.A. from UC Berkeley in Integrative Biology and Molecular ... Continue Reading »
Samira Siddique
MS, PhD
Development for the Stateless: the Displacement-Development Nexus and Implications for the Future (MS ’19) Samira Siddique is a PhD candidate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the Energy ... Continue Reading »
- Climate change justice
- critical development studies
- Cultural memory
- Displacement infrastructure
- Forced migration and refugee studies
- Postcolonial theory
Catherine Ledna
MS, PhD
Modeling Adaption to Sea Level Rise Under Uncertainty (MS ’19) Catherine received a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College, with a minor in Environmental Studies. Prior to coming to ERG, ... Continue Reading »
Will Gorman
MS, PhD
Effects of Electricity Consumption and Rate Design on Solar Plus Storage-enabled Grid Defection (MS ’19) “Sunsetting the Grid? Opportunities for Customer-Sited Solar and Storage in Modern Electricity Systems (PhD ’22) ... Continue Reading »
- Demand Side Management
- Distributed energy resources
- economics
- electricity storage
- energy policy
- renewable energy
- transportation
Salma Elmallah
MS, PhD
Characterizing Fairness, Transparency, and Openness in US Wind Project Planning (MS ’19) Salma’s dissertation studies the equity and distributional impacts of residential heating electrification policy and planning, focusing on cities ... Continue Reading »
Bodie Cabiyo
MA, PhD
Bodie uses interdisciplinary approaches to investigate nature-based solutions to climate change. He currently studies how policy and innovative technology can enable carbon-beneficial forest management. This work bridges industrial ecology, forest ... Continue Reading »
Alex Dolginow
MA, MS
Valuing Co-benefits of California’s Climate Policy: Industrial Facilities and Public Health (MA ’18) Alex Dolginow is a Master’s degree candidate interested in understanding appropriate design and conditions for ‘environmental markets,’ ... Continue Reading »
Emma Tome
MS
Who Governs a Sustainable Neighborhood? Planning a Community-scale Retrofit in Oakland, California (MS ’18) Emma’s interests are at the intersection of climate change adaptation, environmental justice, and science and technology ... Continue Reading »
Jonathan Lee
MS, PhD
The Cost of Reliability in Decentralized Solar Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (MS ’18); Energy Management in Community Microgrids (PhD ’22) Jonathan studies transitions in electric power systems and electricity markets, ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- energy
- RAEL
- renewable energy integration
- rural electrification
- solar energy
- sustainable energy development
Adam Hanbury-Brown
MS, PhD
Predicting the future of forests under global change: the critical role of the regeneration process (PhD ’22) Adam is a PhD focused on ecosystem modeling and remote sensing. His research ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- Earth System Models
- ecology
- Forest Regeneration
- Movement Ecology
- remote sensing
- Vegetation Dynamics
- Wildlife Ecology
Gordon Bauer
MS, PhD
Operation, Cost, and Environmental Impact of Self-Driving Electric Taxi Fleets (MS ’18) Transportation has long been dominated by the personal gasoline-powered automobile, but breakthroughs in electric vehicles, shared mobility, and ... Continue Reading »
Joseph Rand
MS
Environmental, Economic, and Social Trade-Offs of Hydropower Relicensing (MS ’16) Joseph is interested in the social, environmental, and economic trade-offs in energy development, and in particular the social conflicts arising ... Continue Reading »
Arne Jacobson
PhD
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: ARNE JACOBSON Ph.D. 2004 Professor in the Department of Environmental Resources Engineering at Humboldt State University From his post at Humboldt State University, Arne Jacobson passionately extends ... Continue Reading »
- energy use and environmental impacts
- international development
- regional energy planning
- renewable energy
- renewable energy on Native American Reservation lands
- social and economic costs and benefits of energy use
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 »
Yoshika Crider
PhD
Yoshika has a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She combines methods from environmental engineering and public health to study safe water and sanitation, with a focus ... Continue Reading »
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
Stephen Jarvis
MS, PhD
Stephen is a PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley’s Energy & Resources Group and a Researcher at the Energy Institute at Haas. His work lies at the intersection of economics, public ... Continue Reading »
Britt Shaw
MS
At ERG, I am exploring the barriers to renewable projects that are stalled or abandoned in emerging markets and potential solutions. By striving to answer that question, I hope to help move electricity sector development forward — especially in East Africa.
- Africa
- development
- economics
- Emerging Markets
- energy
- Energy Access
- Off-Grid Power
- renewable energy integration
- water
- water-energy nexus
Sophie Major
MA, PhD
Sophie Major is an interdisciplinary PhD candidate, studying and researching across the disciplines of political theory, environmental politics, and Indigenous studies. Their dissertation examines the marginalization of Indigenous people and ... Continue Reading »
- Contemporary Political Theory
- Decolonial Theory and Research Methods
- environmental justice
- History of Political Thought
- Indigenous Studies
- public policy
Richard Barnes
PhD
Algorithms for, and Applications of, Global Terrain Analysis (PhD ’20) Richard applies computational and mathematical techniques to better understand the complex interface of society and the environment. His work includes ... Continue Reading »
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
Váleri Vásquez
MS, PhD
Váleri Vásquez is a PhD candidate in the Energy and Resources Group with a Designated Emphasis in Computational Data Science and Engineering. Váleri conducts most of her work in the ... Continue Reading »
Frank Errickson
MS, PhD
The Joint Effect of Uncertainty and Inequality on Global Climate Policy (PhD ’20) Frank grew up on the central New Jersey coast, completing a B.A. in Political Science with a ... Continue Reading »
- atmospheric science
- climate adaptation in vulnerable regions
- climate change
- development
- economics
- energy
- Environmental Economics
- equitable energy access
- integrated assessment modeling
- sustainable development
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
Ian Bolliger
MS, PhD
Monitoring and Projecting the Impacts of Climate Change with Emerging Environmental Datasets and Machine Learning (PhD ’20) Ian works to provide decision-makers with quantitative, high-resolution projections of the socioeconomic impacts ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- economics
- energy
- Global Policy Laboratory
- health impacts of climate change
- machine learning
- remote sensing
- spatial statistics
- tropical cyclones
- water
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 »
Julia Szinai
MPP, MS, PhD
Julia studied economics and Spanish at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate, and realized her interest in energy and environmental issues while a research assistant at the UC Energy Institute. After ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- demand response
- electric system planning
- electric vehicles
- energy policy
- energy water nexus
- renewable integration
Cecilia Han Springer
MS, PhD
Policies for an Ecological Civilization: China, Carbon, and Economic Reform (PhD ’19) Cecilia is a PhD candidate at ERG. Her dissertation uses economic modeling and social science to critically analyze ... Continue Reading »
Alana Siegner
MA, PhD
Growing Environmental Literacy: On Small-Scale Farms, in the Urban Agroecosystem, and in School Garden Classrooms (PhD ’20) Alana Siegner graduated from Tufts University in 2012 with a double major in ... Continue Reading »
Ryan Wiser
MS, PhD
Alternative Windpower Ownership Structures: Financing Terms and Project Costs (’96 MS) Public Goods and Private Interests: The Role of Voluntary Green Power Demand in Achieving Environmental Improvements (’02 PhD)
Margrethe Winslow
PhD
Environmental Quality, Economic Growth, and Democracy: A Theoretical and Empirical Examination of the Linkages (’02 PhD)
Jim Williams
MS, PhD
M.S. 1986 – A Vehicular Power Plant Application of the Monolithic Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Ph.D. 1995 – Fan-Lizhi’s Big Bang: Science and Politics in Mao’s China ERG alumnus Jim Williams, now ... Continue Reading »
- acid rain
- Arctic haze
- China
- comparative religion
- cosmology
- dissidents and outlaws
- economic globalization and cultural survival
- fuel-cell powered vehicles
- global change
- over the last ten years: speech synthesizers
- science and politics
- the theory and practice of Utopia
Charles White
MS, PhD
Closing the Material Loop: Investigating the Dynamics of, Motivations for, and Obstacles to Material Recycling through a Case Study on Product Recovery and Demanufacturing in the Computer Industry (’99 MS) ... Continue Reading »
- environmental design
- environmental performance/regulation/management
- environmental policy with a focus on building government and industry capacity to manage the impacts of industrial technologies
- industial ecology
- public administration and organization theory
Tony Usibelli
MS
The Geopressured Geothermal Resource of the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast; A Technology Characterization and Environmental Assessment (’80 M.S.)
Margaret Torn
MS, PhD
The Threats to Biological Diversity in California (’90 MS) Environmental Controls Over Methane Flux from Ecosystems and the Potential for Feedbacks with Climatic Change (’94 PhD) See Faculty Profile
- biodiversity
- biogeochemistry
- Carbon cycle
- climate change
- conservation
- democracy
- ecosystem goods and services
- ecosystem processes
- isotopes
- land use
Kathy Tonnessen
MA, PhD
Integrated Assessment of Environmental Impacts: A Regulatory Approach to the Problem (’79 MA) The Potential Effects of Acid Deposition on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada, California (’83 PhD)
- air quality
- aquatic ecology
- inventory and monitoring of natural resources
- parks and protected areas
- Rocky Mountain ecosystems
Kim Taylor
MA, PhD
Water Quality Monitoring for Effective Regulatory Enforcement: A Review of Options for the NPDES Program in the San Francisco Bay Region (’90 MA) Redefining Environmental Management Problems: The Shift in ... Continue Reading »
Marika Tatsutani
MS
Unocal Corporation’s SCRAP (South Coast Recycled Auto Project): An Experiment in Corporate Environmental Initiative (’91 MS)
Michael Starkey
MA
Wilderness, Race, and African Americans: An Environmental History from Slavery to Jim Crow (’05 MA)
Anne Short
MS, PhD
Understanding Urban Food Access (’05 MS) Governing Change: An Institutional Geography of Rural Land Use, Environmental Management, and Change in the North Coastal Basin of California (’10 PhD)
- environmental governanace
- land management and conservation planning
- rural land use change
- science and policy
- water quality
Jesse Ribot
MS, PhD
Disincentives for Energy Conservation in the Electric Energy Sector of Djibouti, East Africa (85 MS) Markets, States and Environmental Policy: The Political Economy of Charcoal in Senegal (’90 Ph.D.)
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
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
William Pease
MS
Environmental Pollution and Cancer in California: Evaluating the Significance of Risks under Proposition 65 (’88 M.S.)
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 »
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
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
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
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
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 »
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)
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
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
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 »
Sharad Lele
PhD
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: SHARAD LÉLÉ Ph.D. 1993 Senior Fellow, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (Bangalore) Sharad Lele never intended to become an academic. And even though his resume ... Continue Reading »
- alternative models of sustainable development
- analysis of energy use
- biomass resources and biodiversity
- forest ecosystem services
- resource economics
- socio-environmental factors affecting forests
- systems analysis of surface water resource systems
- watershed development
Veronica Kun
MA
A Review of EPA’s Evaluation of the Environmental Impacts of New Source Performance Standards for Fossil Fuel Power Plants (’78 M.A.)
Amber Kerr
PhD
Drought resilience of maize-legume agroforestry systems in Malawi (PhD ’12) Amber Kerr is an agricultural ecologist focusing on climate change impacts and adaptation. She has studied nutrient cycling in California ... Continue Reading »
Dennis Kelso
PhD
Aquarian Transitions: Technological Change, Environmental Uncertainty, and Salmon Production on North America’s Pacific Coast (’00 Ph.D.)
- ecosystem function and management
- law and policy related to resources and environment
- policy issues in sustainable use of resources
Ling Jin
MS, PhD
Trade and the Choice of Environmental Law (’03 MS) A Seasonal Perspective on Regional Air Quality in Central California (’08 PhD)
- geographic information system and remote sensing and their application in environmental and resources issues
- sustainable development in developing countries
Jeff Hobson
MS
Science and the People: The Use of Technical Information about Air Pollution by Local Environmental Groups (’97 M.S.)
- community organizing and policy analysis for transportation justice
- environmental justice
- public transit
- transportation and land use planning
Eric Hallstein
MS, PhD
A Critical Analysis of the Environmental Impact Assessment for Costa Rica’s Siquirres Hydroelectric Project (MS ’97) Can Household Consumers Save the Wild Fish? Lessons from a Sustainable Seafood Advisory (PhD ... Continue Reading »
F. Bailey Green
MS, PhD
The Global Environment, A Curriculum for Secondary Schools (’90 M.S.) The Energetics of Advanced Integrated Wastewater Pond Systems (’98 Ph.D.)
- applied phycology
- biomass energy
- environmental engineering
- international scientific cooperation
- sustainable infrastructure
- wastewater reclamation and reuse
Anand Gopal
PhD
Life of Sugar: Developing Lifecycle Methods to Evaluate the Energy and Environmental Impacts of Sugarcane Biofuels (PhD ’11)
Peter Gleick
MS, PhD
Environmental Consequences of Hydroelectric Development: The Issue of Size (’80 M.S.) Regional Water Availability and Global Climatic Change: The Hydrological Consequences of Increases in Atmospheric CO2 and Other Trace Gases ... Continue Reading »
- climate change
- climate impacts
- environment and security
- sustainable water use
- water and conflict
- water conservaton
- water resources
- water use efficiency
D. Asher Ghertner
MA, PhD
Shifting Environmental Trends: A Life-Cycle, Consumption-Based Approach to Environmental Indicators (’04 MA) Rule by Aesthetics: World-Class City Making in Delhi (’10 PhD)
Michel Gelobter
MS, PhD
The Distribution of Air Pollution, By Income and Race (’90 M.S.) Race, Class, and Outdoor Air Pollution: The Dynamics of Environmental Discrimination from 1970-1990 (’93 Ph.D.)
Pamela Franklin
PhD
Is All Research Created Equal? Institutional Credibility and Technical Expertise in Environmental Policymaking at US EPA (02 PhD)
- air quality and global climate change
- private-public (voluntary partnerships)
- synergies of environmental and energy policy
- the role of private sector science in environmental policy and regulatory decisions
Maria Figueroa
MS
Transportation Energy Use in Bolivia: Environmental Implications, Policy Perspectives (MS ’96)
- intermediate means of transport/appropriate levels of transport/energy services under environmental/energy constraints for developing energy conservation strategies for organized communities and NGOs
- proper role of gender and development issues on the energy and environment debate
Kristin Duin
MS
Community-based Environmental Protection: Watershed Restoration in the Waimanalo Ahupua’a (’00 M.S.)
- community participation in decision making
- ecosystem/watershed management
- natural and cultural aspects of conservation and development
Navroz Dubash
MA, PhD
Commoditizing Carbon: Social and Environmental Implications of Trading Carbon Emissions Entitlements (MA 94) The Agrarian Question and the Institutionalization of Groundwater Exchange in Gujarat, India (PhD 98)
- electricity reform/restructuring
- groundwater
- infrastructure financing
- Political economy
- privatization
- regulation
- rural electricity
- Water Resource Management
Peter Deibler
MA
The Geopressured Geothermal Resource of the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast: A Technology Characterization and Environmental Assessment (’80 M.A.)
- climate change issues
- energy deregulation
- jazz bass
- marketing professional services
- site remediation
- solid waste management (collection/recycling/composting/disposal)
- waste management economics and financing
Douglas Bushey
MA, PhD
Renewable Energy Systems in Rural Eritrea – Concepts for Three Wind-Powered, Village-Scale, Clean Development Mechanism Projects (MA ’05) Building an International Administrative Law of Expertise: Law and Science in the ... Continue Reading »
William Boyd
MA, PhD
Uncle in the Valley: State Capacity and Rural Restructuring in the Tennessee Valley (’94 M.A.) New South, New Nature: Regional Industrialization and Environmental Change in the Post-New Deal American South ... Continue Reading »
- Appalachia and the American south
- California agriculture after NAFTA
- environmental histories
- political-economy of risks and the distribution of environmental hazards
- rural restructuring in the industrialized countries
- social theory
- the comparative study of development
Charles Blanchard
MS, PhD
The Costs of Environmental Degradation (’78 M.S.) Emission Sources Contributing to Acid Precipitation in the Western United States (’86 Ph.D.)
Yasemin Biro-Kirtman
MS, PhD
Economic Valuation of the Environmental Impacts of the Kayraktepe Dam/Hydroelectric Power Plant in Turkey: An Exercise Contingent Valuation and Benefit-Cost Analysis (’95 M.S.) Prospects for Local Community Participation in the ... Continue Reading »
John Berger
MA
Resource Endowments of the San Francisco Bay Region Prior to European Settlement: Baseline Data, Interpretation, and Observations Relevant to the Potential for Environmental Restoration (80 MA)
- ecology
- energy policy and scenario
- environmental planning and policy
- renewable energy planning and energy efficiency
- restoration
Louise Bedsworth
PhD
Expertise and Uncertainty in Environmental Regulation: An Analysis of California’s Smog Check Program (02 PhD)
- environmental risk and decision making focusing on the use of science and uncertainty in the decision making process
- motor vehicle emissions
Joachim Seel
MPP, MS, PhD
Landing on the Sun! How to Make Residential PV Price-Competitive in the U.S. with Lessons Learned in Germany (MS/MPP ’12) Socio-Economic and Engineering Assessments of Renewable Energy cost Reduction Potential (PhD ... Continue Reading »
- electricity market design
- market integration of intermittent renewable electricity
- Renewable energy markets and policy
- technology learning
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
Renee Kuriyan Wittemyer
MA, PhD
"23% fewer women than men are online in developing countries. If no concerted effort is taken, that internet gap is going to grow. When women see role models—people doing things—it enables them and empowers them to think, 'Well, I can do that as well.' And, accessing the internet and using technologies exposes them to an entirely new world," says ERG Alum, Dr. Renee (Kuriyan) Wittemyer. She is Intel's Director of Social Impact.
- information and communication technologies and development
- rural development in India
- technology adoption in developing countries
- technology/society relationships
Robert Bailis
PhD
Fuel from the Savanna: The Social and Environmental Implications of the Charcoal Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa (’05 PhD)
Barbara Atkinson
MS
Regulation of Environmental Impacts of Hydroelectricity Production: The United States and Costa Rica (89 MS)
- building energy efficiency
- international energy and environmental issues
- lighting policy analysis (U.S. Canada and Europe)
- renewable energy and efficiency in Central America
Kent Anderson
MS, PhD
Energy and Materials Implications of Passive Solar Heating Technologies (77 M.S.) Conservation vs. Energy Supply: An Economic and Environmental Comparison of Alternatives for Space Conditioning of New Residences (87 Ph. ... Continue Reading »
Svetlana Zenkin
MS
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 ... Continue Reading »
Grace Wu
MS, PhD
Land Use in Renewable Energy Planning (PhD ’18) Inspired by the possibility of ecologically-bounded growth, Grace is interested in water and land use impacts of energy technologies; water management that ... Continue Reading »
- ecological economics
- GIS
- land use impacts of energy systems
- renewable resource assessment
- spatial statistics
- water-energy nexus
Maggie Witt
MS
Maggie’s research focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of transportation by decreasing both the amount that people drive and the per-mile emissions of personal vehicles. Her work focuses on California’s ... Continue Reading »
Monica Testa
MA
Monica obtained her Masters in 2015 from the Energy and Resources Group. She is interested in electric vehicle adoption, alternative energy policy, and sustainable energy development. Her research involves modeling ... Continue Reading »
Rebekah Shirley
MS, PhD
Rebekah Shirley believes that there is more than one path to a bright, energy secure future. Developing nations strive to connect more and more of their communities to energy. Many have emulated the fossil fuel intensive model of developed nations, but Rebekah believes that this is not necessarily the only way.
Imran Sheikh
MS, PhD
Decarbonizing Residential Space and Water Heating in California (PhD ’17) Imran Sheikh is interested in creating business-led solutions to environmental problems, with a particular focus on energy efficiency. His current research ... Continue Reading »
Laura Schewel
MA, PhD
Shop ‘Till We Drop: A Historical and Policy Analysis of Goods Movement in the U.S. (MS ’11) Transportation Behavioral Data and Climate Change (PhD ’20) Laura studies the environmental impacts ... Continue Reading »
Jessica Reilly
MS, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
- climate adaptation
- coastal resilience
- GIS
- international development
- narratives as science
- renewable energy mapping
- rural resources
- Science communication
- visual media
Emily Quesada
MS
An Evaluation of the Triple Bottom Line Business Case For Reshoring Manufacturing (MS ’14) Emily Quesada received her B.A. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. She subsequently served ... Continue Reading »
- appropriate technology
- international development
- local manufacturing
- product development
- sustainable manufacturing
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 »
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
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 »
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 »
Morgan Levy
MS, PhD
Morgan’s research focuses on hydrology and water resources, the effects of land use and climate change on human health and the environment, human-environmental system dynamics, and environmental data science. Her ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- climate change
- climate change adaptation
- eco-hydrology
- environmental data science
- environmental health science
- geographic information systems
- hydroclimatology
- hydrology
- irrigation
- water
- water resources management
Alison Koppe
JD, MS
Reduce, Reuse, Regulate: Repurposing the Clean Air Act to Limit Power Plants’ Carbon Emissions (MS ’14) Alison will graduate in Spring 2014 with an ERG M.S. and a J.D. from ... Continue Reading »
- administrative law
- Distributed Generation
- PURPA
- Renewable energy law and policy
- residential PV permitting
- shared solar
- the Clean Air Act
Noah Kittner
MS, PhD
Energy Systems Integration and Innovation for a Clean Energy Transition (PhD ’18) Noah is an MS/PhD student at ERG. After graduating with a BS in Environmental Science from UNC-Chapel Hill, ... Continue Reading »
- land-use change
- life-cycle assessment
- renewable energy policy
- solar energy
- sustainability
- Thailand
- urban planning
Joseph Kantenbacher
MS, PhD
Joe’s broad research interests include sustainable consumption and pro-environmental behavior change. His dissertation explores the linkages between psychological well-being and the environment, arguing that happiness and sustainability are synergistic concepts ... Continue Reading »
Anna Kantenbacher
MS, PhD
Environmental policy making; balancing short-term pressures with long-term needs; climate changes policies; economics; decision analysis; ecology.
- balancing short-term pressures with long-term needs
- climate changes policies
- decision analysis
- ecology
- economics
- Environmental policy making
Christopher Jones
MS, PhD
Chris Jones is Director of the CoolClimate Network, a university-government-industry partnership at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lecturer at the Haas School of Business. His primary research interests are ... Continue Reading »
- behavioral psychology
- Carbon footprint analysis
- economics
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- Environmental Policy
- Environmental Psychology
- RAEL
- transportation
- urban planning
Josiah Johnston
MS, PhD
Josiah Johnston grew up in a rural part of the Ozark Mountains. He is great at construction and swinging a pick. Between college and grad school he lived in Baltimore ... Continue Reading »
- Design and invention
- Planning electric power systems
- Scientific computing
- Sustainable Community Development
Kripa Jagannathan
MS, PhD
Ready-to-use? Bridging the Climate Science Usability Gap for Adaptation (PhD ’19) Kripa’s research interests are in the field of climate change adaptation and climate-resilient planning. Her PhD focuses on improving ... Continue Reading »
- Adaptation
- Agriculture
- Carbon markets
- climate change
- climate-resilient planning
- co-production of knowledge
- science usability
- stakeholder engagement
- water
Lindsay Holiday
MS
Renewable Energy Landscape of Indigenous Nations in the United States, Canada, and Australia (MS ’12) Lindsay is from Teec Nos Pos, Arizona located on the Navajo Nation. She’s interested in ... Continue Reading »
- Appropriate renewable energy technologies for sustainable development
- climate change policy
- Distributed Generation
- energy policy
- quantifying cultural and social impacts of energy projects
- Regional Electricity Planning in the West
- self-suffiency for Tribal Nations in the US
- Tribal governance
- Tribal Utilities
Christopher Hyun
MA, PhD
With 10+ years of international field experience, 5+ in water and sanitation, as well as project management and professional development in higher ed, I aim to create a better society and environment for all.
Sasha Harris-Lovett
MS, PhD
Decision Support for Multi-benefit Urban Water Infrastructure (PhD ’18) Sasha Harris-Lovett received a PhD from the Energy and Resources Group in 2018. Her dissertation research focused on urban water and ... Continue Reading »
Pierce Gordon
MS, PhD
Investigating Innovation Practice: Cross-disciplinary Studies in International Development (PhD ’18) As a NSF, Chancellor’s, and InFEWS Fellow in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), Pierce investigates frameworks, methodologies, and contexts ... Continue Reading »
- Actors/History in International Development
- Berkeley Expert System Technologies (BEST) Laboratory
- Design
- Design Thinking
- development
- Development Engineering
- Evaluation
- Impact Evaluation
- Marginalization
- Sub-Saharan Africa
Jessica Joan Goddard
MS 2014 (ERG), MS 2015 (Eng.), PhD
Urban Water’s Hydra: Stormwater’s Problematization in LA (MA ’14) Measuring Drinking Water Affordability and Sustainability (PhD ’20) At ERG, Jess (PhD 2019) co-developed metrics for water affordability in the state’s ... Continue Reading »
- California
- ecological economics
- environmental and engineering sciences
- environmental exposure
- equity
- sustainability
- water access
Julian Fulton
PhD
Julian’s interests lie in the relationships between water use and economic development, focusing on modeling and governance. Mr. Fulton’s previous research includes water use in the transportation sector, conservation strategies ... Continue Reading »
- California
- cotton
- Delta
- environmental history
- footprint
- water management
- water systems
- water use
- water-energy-food nexus
Tanya Dimitrova
MS
REDD Hot: How One Community Defends its Forest One Carbon Credit at a Time (MS ’14) Tanya was born and grew up in Bulgaria. She came to ERG after a ... Continue Reading »
Lara Cushing
MA, MPH, PhD
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 ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- Community-based participatory research
- Environmental health
- environmental justice
- GIS
- Social Epidemiology
Andrew Crane-Droesch
MS, PhD
Andrew does applied empirical research at the intersection of international development and the environment. His goals center on the provision of rigorous evidence to inform policies aimed at enabling sustainable ... Continue Reading »
Michael Cohen
MS, PhD
Michael Cohen puts the power and complexity of the grid into students' hands via a video game. We asked Michael about his innovative project and his unique experience at ERG. "In addition to developing the game itself, I am working with teachers at local high schools to develop curriculum around it and try it out with their students this year. I hope to not only create a solid educational product but also gain some insights into how technology can be used to support learning about complex systems in general."
- EMAC
- energy
- Energy System Modeling
- Integration of renewable electricity into power systems
- Video Gaming for Education
Danielle Svehla Christianson
MS, PhD
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.
Zoë Chafe
MPH, MS, PhD
Dr. Chafe works at the intersections of public health, air pollution, climate change, and energy use. She holds a PhD from the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), as well as ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- climate change and public health
- co-benefits (ancillary benefits) of climate change mitigation
- development
- energy
- energy transitions and impacts on air pollution
- heating and cooking with solid fuels
- household energy policy options
- Household energy use trends
- short-lived greenhouse pollutants
Nkiruka Avila
MS, PhD
Designing and Adapting Appropriate Socio-Technical Systems for the Renewable Energy Transition (PhD ’18) Nkiruka has expertise in solar grid integration and climate policy in California, and in electricity access in ... Continue Reading »
Peter Alstone
PhD
Peter’s research focus areas are information technology approaches to energy development, understanding markets for demand-side energy technology, and energy technology policy. Outside of academics, he contributes to the Lighting Global ... Continue Reading »
News (130 results)
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ERG’s Chelsi Sparti Recipient of the 2022 Switzer Environmental Fellowship
July 29, 2022
ERG Master’s student Chelsi Sparti has recently been chosen as one of the recipients of the 2022 Switzer Environmental Fellowship, a program of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation that ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Dan Kammen on How Denser BART-Centered Housing Benefits the Environment
June 22, 2022
In an op-ed published in Berkeleyside, ERG’s Dan Kammen writes of how the construction of more mixed-income housing near the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations would benefit the environment ... Continue Reading »
New Climate Equity and Environmental Justice Cluster Brings Faculty Mills-Novoa to ERG
September 15, 2021
Meg Mills-Novoa has joined the Energy and Resources Group as part of a group of new faculty members recruited through Rausser College's Climate Equity and Environmental Justice cluster initiative to further climate justice research.
Environment and Society New ERG Course: Data
May 2, 2019
Data, Environment and Society (ENERES 131) Professor Duncan Callaway Lecture (#33105) TT 9:30 – 11am Labs (#33106) M 10am – 12pm or (#33276) W 10am – 12pm This course will teach ... Continue Reading »
Cost Efficiency
April 11, 2018
“What would it look like if all Yellow Cabs in Manhattan were replaced with self-driving electric taxis? How much battery range would they need, and where would you put charging ... Continue Reading »
Bay Nature Institute Selects Lisa Micheli for Environmental Education Local Hero Award
February 7, 2018
Each year, the Bay Nature Institute names three “Local Heroes,” for Conservation Action, Youth Engagement, and Environmental Education. These members of the community have done outstanding work on behalf of ... Continue Reading »
What Environmental Policy Options Does the U.S. Have in 2018?
January 16, 2018
In a Knowledge @ Wharton public policy podcast, Dan Kammen joins Eric Orts, legal studies and business ethics professor, and director of the school’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Kammen and ... Continue Reading »
Environmental Science Journal for Kids Gets Impact Assessment from ERG’s Siegner and Dimitrova
July 12, 2017
A foundational assumption is that if young readers are exposed to original scientific research presented in accessible manner, they will develop a better understanding of the scientific method and process.
Energy and Environment- Understanding China’s non-fossil energy targets.
November 28, 2015
ERG student John Romankiewicz and ERG alumni Joanna Lewis share their research on China's energy targets and the transparency in international negotiations with Science.
An Environmental Leader California
November 27, 2015
Professor Daniel Kammen will be joining Gov. Jerry Brown at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris to discuss California's climate initiatives as a model for the world to follow.
Study: Non-Whites More Exposed to Environmental Hazards
September 18, 2015
ERG doctoral student, Lara Cushing, discusses environmental hazards affecting minorities.
UC Berkeley Ranks 1st in the World for Environment
October 29, 2014
Subject-specific rankings from US New & World Report are based on academic research performance in those subjects.
Daniel Kammen and Berkeley Researchers finds that China is the only Nation on track to triple its Renewable Capacity by 2030
April 11, 2024
Amid continuing geopolitical tensions, climate change remains a key area of collaboration between the United States and China. Ahead of last November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28, Presidents Biden ... Continue Reading »
Rachel Schurman In Memoriam
April 4, 2024
(June 9, 1958 – March 17, 2024) Rachel Schurman was the first woman to serve on the core faculty of the Energy and Resources Group. She came to Berkeley as ... Continue Reading »
Berkeley will launch new Masters of Climate Solutions degree in 2025
December 22, 2023
Organizations, cities, and states around the world are charting paths to quantify and curtail their carbon emissions and uncovering business avenues within climate solutions. In addition to focusing on reducing ... Continue Reading »
New Study by Coalition of ERG Researchers Reveals True Social Cost of Carbon
September 1, 2022
Researchers from Rausser College’s Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Resources for the Future (RFF) have released a new estimate that the social cost of carbon (SCC), a key metric ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Salma Elmallah on Justice Implications of Solar and Wind Energy Projects
July 26, 2022
ERG PhD student Salma Elmallah has recently been published in the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning with an article that explores the drivers of solar and wind project siting ... Continue Reading »
and Solutions Easier ERG’s John Harte: Risks of Warming Greater
July 1, 2022
ERG’s John Harte was recently featured in an Environmental Health News article discussing the tremendous risks of global warming, and how the solutions to address this crisis could be simpler ... Continue Reading »
Now is the Time to Start a Community Microgrid: ERG’s Dan Kammen on the Growing Accessibility of Renewable Energy
April 13, 2022
ERG’s Dan Kammen was featured in a recent Popular Science article discussing how more communities are beginning to generate their own power using renewable energy from microgrids. With the increased accessibility ... Continue Reading »
ERG Annual Lecture Returns in 2022: Damilola Ogunbiyi Speaks on Driving an Equitable Energy Transition
April 6, 2022
After going on hiatus for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ERG Annual Lecture on Energy and the Environment returned as a fully in-person event this year, with Damilola Ogunbiyi speaking at Sibley Auditorium about how to drive a more just and equitable global energy transition.
Report ERG Alumni at Pacific Institute California Drought is Increasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
September 30, 2021
ERG alumni Peter Gleick (PhD ’86) and Julia Szinai (PhD ’21) of the Pacific Institute research group discussed in a recent article on The Hill how the findings of their ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Anthoff and Alum Errickson Promote Utilitarian Approach to Global Climate Policy
September 27, 2021
ERG Professor David Anthoff and Frank Errickson, PhD '20, ERG, recently published in Nature Climate Change, proposing a practical way of measuring how different nations should reduce carbon emissions in order to maximize well being in the world. (Photo by Stuart Rankin)
ERG Alum Kripa Jagannathan Awarded EESA Early Career Development Grant
February 2, 2021
Congratulations to ERG alumna Kripa Jagannathan for receiving the Early Career Development Grant from Earth & Environmental Sciences (EEPS)! Kripa specializes in the field of climate change adaptation and climate-resilient planning. EEPS describes her most recent research being focused on "improving the ‘usability’ of climate science, and enabling science-based adaptation decision-making for water resources management and agricultural planning."
Microsoft Awards ERG PhD Student Valeri Vasquez with PhD Fellowship
January 29, 2021
Congratulations to ERG PhD student Valeri Vasquez upon becoming a 2021 Microsoft Research PhD Fellow! This two-year fellowship is for PhD students at North American universities pursuing research aligned to the research areas carried out by Microsoft Research. Vasquez's research entails studying the "environmental drivers, economic impacts of infectious disease... and the use of genetic-based interventions, including CRISPR-Cas9 systems, to control mosquito-borne illness."
ERG Professor Dan Kammen Optimistic for Advancing California’s Climate Agenda
November 10, 2020
In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, ERG professor Dan Kammen was featured discussing how Biden's goals of addressing climate change could potentially be achieved in the near future. While divisions in Congress are likely to slow progress, Kammen remains optimistic for the advancement of California's climate agenda. “It would be easier, of course, if Biden had the Senate. But the Senate does have a way of sensing the mood of the nation. There’s going to be some serious reckoning... There’s going to be increasing amounts of senators on the Republican side that ultimately switch over," said Kammen.
ERG Alumnus Niklas Lollo on Improving Sustainability in the Apparel Industry
October 12, 2020
ERG Alumnus Niklas Lollo recently published his research paper, "Measurement without Clear Incentives to Improve: The Impacts of the Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM) on Apparel Factory Practices and Performance" on SocArXiv Papers. He discusses how the Facility Environment Module (FEM), an annual assessment of an apparel facility’s environmental management capabilities, could be improved to better the environmental performance of the apparel industry.
ERG PhD Student Jose Lara Receives 2021 Siebal Scholars Award
September 28, 2020
ERG PhD student Jose Lara was recently awarded the prestigious 2021 Siebel Scholars Award by the Siebal Scholars Foundation. Lara's new title as a Siebel Scholar demonstrates his ability as an exceptional student, and he is to join around 100 other top scholars to form the Siebel Scholars Foundation's Class of 2021. "'Every year, the Siebel Scholars continue to impress me with their commitment to academics and influencing future society. This year’s class is exceptional, and once again represents the best and brightest minds from around the globe who are advancing innovations in healthcare, artificial intelligence, the environment and more,' said Thomas M. Siebel, Chairman of the Siebel Scholars Foundation. 'It is my distinct pleasure to welcome these students into this ever-growing, lifelong community, and I personally look forward to seeing their impact and contributions unfold.'"
ERG Alumnus Zeke Hausfather on the Best and Worst Scenarios of Global Warming
July 30, 2020
In a recent article for The Guardian, ERG Alumnus Zeke Hausfather speaks on climate predictions and adjusting forecasts for global warming — including the best and worst case scenarios.
‘Cheaper to save the climate’— ERG Professor Lara Kueppers Comments on Clean Energy Study
July 1, 2020
Following a recent UC Berkeley study showing how the United States can achieve 90% clean electricity by 2035, ERG Professor Lara Kuepper commented on the importance of reducing harmful emissions. This report, featured on The Daily Californian, found that by "prioritizing energy generated from wind, solar and battery storage, decarbonizing electricity at a rapid rate is possible."
Data Dan Kammen Leads Global Minima Podcast on Energy
April 14, 2020
ERG Professor Dan Kammen was recently featured on Global Minima, a podcast by Sustainabilist, in an episode titled "Dan Kammen on Energy, Data, and Canned Air (GM101)".
ERG Professor Harte For Interconnectedness in Support System Reforms
April 3, 2020
ERG Professor John Harte recently published an article on Environmental Health News giving a roadmap on we can use the same interconnectedness that is spurring catastrophe to instead promote health and sustainability.
Scientific American Cites ERG Alumnus Jones on How Coronavirus Impacts CO2 Emissions
March 17, 2020
ERG alumnus Christopher Jones was recently cited in both Scientific American and Global News articles. In both articles, he discusses how Coronavirus is effecting global carbon emissions and the general environment.
Dan Kammen Critics Trump Administration’s Appointment for EPA Position
February 24, 2020
ERG Dan Kammen was recently quoted on KQED criticing the Trump Administration's decision to appoint "former PG&E attorney to head the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in San Francisco."
ERG Alum Hausfather Reveals Hottest Decade Ever
February 3, 2020
ERG Alumnus Zeke Hausfather was recently cited on The Washing Post and KQED for analyzing new data revealing how "2019 capped world’s hottest decade in recorded history".
ERG’s Lara and Kammen on Potential for Biomass Feedstock from Drought
January 23, 2020
ERG student José Daniel Lara and ERG professor Daniel Kammen, in collaboration with forest researchers in UC Berkeley's department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, recently published "Characterization of the woody biomass feedstock potential resulting from California’s drought" in Nature, Scientific Reports.
Distinguished Scientist and ERG Emeritus Remembering Jack Hollander
December 3, 2019
ERG emeritus professor Jack M. Hollander passed away on November 10, 2019 at age 92.
Alumna Alexandra von Meier on Multi-Customer Microgrids to Combat Wildfires
October 16, 2019
Alexandra von Meier, an ERG Alumna and director in the California Institute for Energy and Environment’s Electric Grid program area, discusses how locally sourced power, compared to shutting off power, can better prevent wildfires.
ERG Student Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez Receives 2020 Siebel Scholars Award
October 7, 2019
Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, a current ERG Student, has recently been awarded the prestigious 2020 Siebel Scholars Award by the Siebal Scholars Foundation.
ERG Alumnus Patrick Gonzalez Speaks to Congress on Climate Change
June 27, 2019
ERG alum, Dr. Patrick Gonzalez presents scientific findings to Representative Mike Quigley and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Members in the U.S. Capitol
Noah Kittner and Dan Kammen Argue for Solar and Wind Over Hydropower in Nature Article
May 16, 2019
Recent ERG alum Noah Kittner (MS ’15, PhD ’18) and professor Dan Kammen, along with Stanford postdoc Rafael Schmitt and UC Berkeley professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Matt ... Continue Reading »
PhD Candidate Laura Moreno Comments on Food Waste in National Geographic
April 25, 2019
PhD candidate Laura Moreno, ERG’s resident food waste expert, is featured in an article published by National Geographic this week. Moreno’s research focuses on why household waste is generated, how ... Continue Reading »
Two ERG Alumni Named Top 50 Green Innovators and Influencers by Grist Magazine
March 12, 2019
Sam Arons (MS ’07) and Joshua Apte (PhD ’13) were named as the 2019 “Grist 50” — a list of the most innovative and influential leaders in sustainability. Grist is ... Continue Reading »
ERG Alum Patrick Gonzalez Testifies Before Congress as Expert Witness
February 21, 2019
During a recent House Natural Resources Committee event titled “Climate Change and Public Lands: Examining Impacts and Considering Adaptation Opportunities,” ERG alumnus Patrick Gonzalez (PhD ’97) provided testimony as an ... Continue Reading »
ERG Student Chris Hyun Highlighted as InFEWS Fellow
December 26, 2018
InFEWS fellowships are granted to students whose PhD research aims to provide lasting environmental solutions and alleviate poverty in the world’s poorest regions. The Blum Center for Developing Economies recently ... Continue Reading »
ERG Graduate Student Advisor Kay Burns Receives Berkeley’s Highest Advising Honor
December 18, 2018
ERG graduate student advisor Kay Burns (pictured with ERG/CNR Undergraduate Advisor Ryann Madden and ERG Professor Emeritus Dick Norgaard) has been named a 2018 recipient of the the Mary Slakey ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Isa Ferrall and Haas Teammates Win “Energy in Emerging Markets” Case Competition
December 10, 2018
The case competition, hosted Nov. 6 by the MBA Energy Club at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, required a team of three to five graduate students to compare the electrical ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s Isa Ferrall and Haas Teammates Win “Energy in Emerging Markets” Case Competition
December 10, 2018
The case competition, hosted Nov. 6 by the MBA Energy Club at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, required a team of three to five graduate students to compare the electrical ... Continue Reading »
Campus and Alumni Mourn the Passing of ERG Professor Gene Rochlin
November 28, 2018
It is with a very heavy heart that I have to pass on the news that University of California Berkeley Energy and Resources Group (ERG) core faculty emeritus Gene Rochlin passed away this weekend.
ERG Alum and Lyft Sustainability Director Q&A With Sam Arons
November 14, 2018
GreenBiz recently caught up with Mike Masserman and ERG’s own Sam Arons (MS ’07) to discuss their respective roles as the first Head of Social Impact and Director of Sustainability ... Continue Reading »
Faculty and Alumni Encourage You to Vote! ERG Students
October 10, 2018
As the November 6, 2018 midterm elections approach, the Energy and Resources Group faculty, students, and alumni are taking action to increase voter participation. We encourage all voices to be heard ... Continue Reading »
Mileva ERG Alumni Deshmukh
September 12, 2018
ERG alumni Ranjit Deshmukh, Ana Mileva, and Grace Wu recently published their research on alternatives to the hydroelectric power Inga III Dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ... Continue Reading »
Energy New ERG Courses Focus on Data
June 26, 2018
The Energy and Resources Group has announced two new courses this fall addressing current, timely topics in energy and environment. Registration is open.
2018’s Greenest States — John Harte Weighs In
April 19, 2018
Have you ever wondered which states in the U.S. are the most environmentally conscious? The least? “In order to highlight the greenest states and call out those doing a poor ... Continue Reading »
Jesse Ribot Awarded 2018 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
April 10, 2018
Congratulations to ERG alum Jesse Ribot, who received the 2018 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in the field of Geography and Environmental Studies. The award aims to further the development ... Continue Reading »
Isha Ray Recognized as a Trailblazer for Her Impact on Developing Economies
March 22, 2018
“Gamechangers. Engineers. Innovators. Researchers. Entrepreneurs. These are just a few of the words that describe the outstanding women of the Blum Center ecosystem. In honor of National Women’s History month, ... Continue Reading »
How Does Building a New Suburb Affect the Atmosphere?
March 15, 2018
A team of scientists at the University of Utah as well as several other universities decided to take a closer look at the effects of expanding suburban communities near Salt ... Continue Reading »
Transportation Emissions in Mexico City – How Big Data is Driving Change
March 8, 2018
Mexico City is one of the most congested cities in the world, and it’s taking a toll on the health of its citizens and the environment. Sergio Castellanos, a postdoctoral ... Continue Reading »
Emission-Free Neighborhoods? The Oakland EcoBlock Project Pioneers Residential Sustainability
February 14, 2018
The College of Environmental Design (CED) at UC Berkeley spotlighted the innovative Oakland EcoBlock project this week, lead by CED professor Harrison Fraker and ERG chair Dan Kammen. The project, ... Continue Reading »
Zeke Hausfather Cited by the Washington Post on 2017’s Concerning Temperatures
January 25, 2018
Recently, scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that 2017 was among the warmest years in history. While the two agencies approach global temperature measurements differently, both ... Continue Reading »
EU Renewable Energy Plan for 2030 Allows Countries to Cut Down and Burn Additional Trees for Energy
December 14, 2017
The European Union has set ambitious goals for its renewable energy portfolio in order to drastically reduce emissions by 2030. However, the current version of its plan essentially allows for ... Continue Reading »
Climate Change Slowing Down Wind Turbines? Kammen Weighs In
December 12, 2017
With global temperatures increasing, researchers analyze the effects of temperature differences on wind patterns. Multiple studies confirm the possibility of wind resources declining across the Northern Hemisphere, reducing the energy ... Continue Reading »
Dan Kammen Featured in Fall 2017 Breakthroughs Magazine
November 30, 2017
In the Fall 2017 issue of the College of Natural Resources’ Breakthroughs magazine, Dan Kammen is spotlighted for the innovative ways in which he has merged science with environmental policy. ... Continue Reading »
ERG’s EcoBlock Project Selected by Scientific American as a World Changing Idea for 2017
November 28, 2017
The Oakland EcoBlock Project is an urban sustainability experiment that focuses on reducing the footprint of a typical neighborhood block. As a mini-grid system for shared energy and water in ... Continue Reading »
UC Wins Excellence in Green Power Use Award from EPA
October 30, 2017
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the University of California system with the Excellence in Green Power Use Award for its investments in renewable energy, and continued progress ... Continue Reading »
Kammen on Energy in Africa: Why Renewables Will Give More People Access to Energy than Coal
October 19, 2017
ERG Professor Dan Kammen was quoted in CarbonBrief this week, reinforcing the International Energy Agency’s assertion that renewable energy is emerging as a cheaper and more socially responsible alternative to coal ... Continue Reading »
Ponce de Leon Lessons from Fracking in the USA and Mexico – ERG’s Kammen
October 10, 2017
Last week, Dan Kammen, Diego Ponce de Leon, and Peter Marsters published their analysis of the environmental, social, economic, and community impacts of the shale industry on Mexico. The team ... Continue Reading »
the Effects of Climate Change on Tropical Storms Dan Kammen: Renewable Energy
September 11, 2017
Photo: Lizette Kabré After a few hectic weeks in the news, Energy and Resources Professor Dan Kammen reflects on his resignation as State Department Science Envoy and highlights the continued importance ... Continue Reading »
New ERG Chair Daniel M. Kammen
July 25, 2017
We are pleased to announce the appointment of the new Energy and Resources Group Chair, Professor Daniel M. Kammen. His appointment began July 1, 2017. Daniel Kammen is a Professor of Energy with ... Continue Reading »
ERG Faculty Lara Kueppers Finds Critical Sierra Meadows Being Overtaken by Forest
July 7, 2017
"meadows are being increasingly overrun by forest as changing conditions allow the offspring of nearby trees to take hold in meadow environments"
New Study by ERG Postdoc James Rising Finds Northern States Might Profit as the Planet Warms
July 6, 2017
If you live in the South, climate change could kill your economy.
including ERG International Team
July 5, 2017
“The fossil-free economy is already profitable.”
ERG Professor Emeritus: Higher Education for a Post-Growth World Norgaard
June 30, 2017
The economy ... really is the world's greatest faith-based organization
ERG Professor Ray on Toilets and Gender Equality
June 23, 2017
"Safe drinking water and sanitation are indispensable to sustain life and health, and fundamental to the dignity of all.”
Kammen and Hausfather of ERG Respond to Withdrawal from Paris Agreement
June 22, 2017
ERG Professor Dan Kammen and graduate student Zeke Hausfather respond to President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement
ERG PhD’s Deshmukh and Wu – The Economic Case for Wind and Solar Energy in Africa
April 3, 2017
ERG PhD students Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu discuss their research on cost-efficient renewable energy solutions to meet Africa's energy demands with Berkeley Lab.
ERG Postdoctoral Researcher Cohen – Water Treatment Methods in Rural China
February 1, 2017
ERG postdoctoral researcher Alasdair Cohen (Ph.D. '16) is featured in Thriving Earth Exchange on his collaboration with government health researchers to better understand water treatment methods in rural China.
Introducing New ERG Faculty Lara Kueppers
January 11, 2017
The Energy and Resources Group is delighted to announce the arrival of new core faculty member Lara Kueppers.
Emily Woods – Kenyan Startup Uses the Sun to Turn Human Waste into Cooking Fuel
November 28, 2016
ERG student Emily Woods, CTO and Co-founder of Sanivation, discusses her start-up which converts uses human waste to an affordable and environmentally friendly fuel source.
ERG Graduate Students Deshmukh and Wu: Can Wind and Solar Fuel Africa’s Future?
November 4, 2016
ERG Graduate Students Ranjit Deshmukh and Grace Wu's research on renewable energy in Africa was highlighted in a news article in Nature.
ERG Professor Kammen: Coal Makes Global Poverty Worse
October 29, 2016
ERG Professor Daniel Kammen discusses how renewable energy offers a road out of poverty, while coal condemns people to it.
ERG-led THIMBY Wins Categories in Tiny House Competition
October 25, 2016
The Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) team won several categories in the 2016 Sacramento Municipal District Tiny House Competition.
ERG Professor Kammen: We’re Placing Far too much Hope in Pulling Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air
October 20, 2016
ERG professor Dan Kammen commented for the Washington Post on the uncertainty of negative emissions as a viable fix for the planet's warming.
Daniel Kammen Supports Tesla-SolarCity Merge
June 30, 2016
Elon Musk described the rationale for Tesla to acquire SolarCity and create the “world’s only vertically integrated energy company.’’ - New York Times
ERG Alumni: Leaders at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
June 30, 2016
Two articles on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory website featured the current work of ERG alumni Ryan Wiser (M.S. '96, Ph.D. '02) and Andrew Jones (M.S. '07, Ph.D. '12).
THIMBY House Project Is Well Underway!
June 28, 2016
The Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) is an interdisciplinary team of UC Berkeley graduate and undergraduate students working together to design and build an affordable, off-grid, 100% solar-powered “tiny” ... Continue Reading »
ERG Alum Receives Microsoft Grant for Ugandan Micro-grid Systems
June 27, 2016
New Sun Road is a California technology company directed by ERGie Jalel Sager (MS’11 , PhD’15). They are committed to implementing solutions to climate change and global energy poverty, provide ... Continue Reading »
ERG Student Receives the Global Food Initiative 30 under 30 Award
June 22, 2016
"One of the main challenges of her generation is 'ensuring the food system provides healthy foods while minimizing its environmental and social impact. [...]'"
ERG’s Energy Research Featured in Multiple News Outlets
May 25, 2016
“Research at the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory [ERG Professor Daniel Kammen’s lab] at the University of California Berkeley highlights that while cities currently contribute to global climate change by ... Continue Reading »
ERG Professor Daniel Kammen Appointed as U.S. Science Envoy
March 31, 2016
ERG Professor Daniel Kammen has been appointed as one of five U.S. Science Envoys by the US State Department.
ERG PhDs in National Geographic: SWITCHing to a Low-Carbon Future
March 3, 2016
ERG PhD students Diego Ponce de Leon Barido and Josiah Johnston published a blog post in National Geographic on renewable energy investments in Nicaragua.
ERG Alum Dr. Peter Gleick on Arctic Warming
March 1, 2016
ERG Alum Dr. Peter Gleick warns about catastrophic artic warming.
ERG Summer Courses Available
February 28, 2016
ERG is offering four of its most popular courses this summer! Enroll Today!
Shirley & Kammen: Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution Shaw
February 18, 2016
ERG grad student Britt Shaw, along with ERG alumna Rebekah Shirley and Professor Dan Kammen, spoke on clean energy earlier this month at the Commonwealth Club's event "Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution Worldwide."
ERG PhD Student on Methane Threat to Clean Power Plan Targets
February 16, 2016
ERG PhD student Zeke Hausfather examines threats to the Clean Power Plan that the EPA might have overlooked.
ERG student selected as Switzer Fellow Rand
December 9, 2015
Congratulations to Joseph Rand, who was selected as a Switzer Environmental Fellow by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation!
One grad student’s story: from English lit to global climate talks
December 7, 2015
ERG grad student Valeri Vasquez will be at the COP21, acting as a counselor to the co-chair of the United Nations climate negotiations, Daniel Reifsnyder. She has been advising on the mediation and negotiations among the 195 national parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
ERG at the Paris Climate Talks
December 1, 2015
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris has begun and will continue until December 11th. Energy and Resources Group faculty, students and alumni will be playing an active role at the conference and the many peripheral activities.
Kripa Akila Jagannathan selected for UC-Sponsored Food Fellowships 2015-2016
November 16, 2015
ERG graduate student Kripa Akila Jagannathan was selected for a fellowship sponsored by the UC Global Food Initiative Program!
Only 15% of California’s Big Solar Projects are on the Right Kind of Land
October 19, 2015
Postdoctoral scholar, Rebecca Hernandez, comments on California's utility-scale solar projects.
California Leads a Quiet Revolution
October 6, 2015
Professor Daniel Kammen shares his thoughts on California's energy revolution with the New York Times.
WorldAffairs: “What’s it like to worry about every drop?”
August 12, 2015
ERG associate professor Isha Ray talks about the reality of life with restricted water access.
Feeding people on our stressed planet will require a “revolution”
August 7, 2015
ERG Professor John Harte was featured on Environmental Health News speaking of how the implementation of sustainable energy will play an important role in future food security.
On a plane? Enjoy the view of the planet you’re killing!
June 12, 2015
ERG alum Chris Jones (MS '05, PhD '15) explains the level in which airplanes contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
NSF & More ERG Awards: Switzer Fellowships
May 14, 2015
3 current Switzer fellows, 2 more NSF fellows, and more. See the list of awards ERG students have received.
Siegner finalist in Feeding the Planet’s Storyfest
May 3, 2015
Signer writes about the potential of urban foraging
The Road from CalCAP: Can the University of California Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2025?
April 22, 2015
How Zimmerman (MS'08), ERGies and colleagues started to "save the planet" by getting Cal capped
ERG Students Achieve National Recognition for Groundbreaking Studies
April 16, 2015
Celebrating Earth Week, Grad Div features groundbreaking environmental research by ERG students.
Holdren: What Works at ERG Works
April 13, 2015
John Holdren's "tricks of the trade" presentation plus photos during the ERG Big Event.
Cooley (MS’04) on CA Drought in NYT
April 5, 2015
“Folks realize we have now reached the limits of supply, so the focus is on demand.”
BOOK: Applying Anthropology and Physics to Sustainability
March 30, 2015
New book by Dove and Kammen released this week.
A unique moment in history for “sustainable energy for all”
March 26, 2015
ERG team study showing how off-grid power can improve equality in energy access published in Nature Climate Change. Interview with lead author Peter Alstone.
California could power itself three to five times over with solar
March 17, 2015
ERG postdoctoral fellow Hernandez with Hoffacker and Field from Stanford publish in Nature Climate Change.
Zoë Chafe leads new WHO Report
March 12, 2015
"We wanted to help policymakers and members of the general public understand that household heating with biomass is a complicated issue," says ERG PhD candidate Zoë Chafe.
Why people use less energy on Super Bowl Sunday
January 28, 2015
Data provided by Joseph Kantenbacher, ERG PhD candidate, underpins an analysis showing how it is that significantly less energy is used by Americans on Super Bowl Sunday.
ERG Students Selected as Switzer Fellows
January 21, 2015
Lara Cushing and Rachel Golden among 20 selected as Environmental fellows.
Anthoff & Team in Science on Social Cost of Carbon Pizer
December 6, 2014
Which way forward for the social cost of carbon? Environmental economists explain next steps in Science Magazine.
Apte & Team Find Alarming Pollution Levels
November 26, 2014
ERG alum measures air quality while riding rickshaws in Delhi.
Prof. John Harte Named AAAS Fellow
November 25, 2014
For distinguished contributions to environmental sciences
Profs. Leach & Ray Launch UN Gender Equality Report
October 24, 2014
Dr. Isha Ray at UN Headquarters discussing report on gender equality.
Kammen: UC Divestment is a “no-brainer”
September 11, 2014
UC faculty, alumni and student activists say it's time to take divestment seriously. Professor Kammen gives insight into why in the East Bay Express.
Brown Schwarzenegger
September 10, 2014
Kammen speaks at Schwarzenegger's climate pep rally where both parties agree that it's time to fight the dark side.
Dr. Kammen on the Commitment Accounting Conversation in NYT
August 29, 2014
How should we count carbon? New dialogue on power plants sparked by recent Environmental Research Letters paper.
Professor Ray & Team Selected for 2014 Obama-Singh Award
August 25, 2014
The Berkeley team will work with faculty from IIT Bombay on a 3-year effort titled the Sustainable Indian Water Infrastructure Project (SIWIP): A Systems Approach.
Grist Features ERG Climate Change Solutions
July 2, 2014
Professor John Harte and three ERG students are "Hacking the Climate" with featured articles in the popular online publication.
Are Obama’s Carbon Rules Enough?
June 3, 2014
The New York Times calls the EPA's emission proposals "modest." Professor Dan Kammen points out the challenge.
Narain calls for Reinventing India’s Growth
April 22, 2014
Watch Sunita Narain's "thought provoking and disturbing" conversation during ERG's 20th Annual Lecture co-hosted with the Center for South Asia Studies.
plus Fulbright & Ashoka Six ERG students awarded NSF
April 3, 2014
ERG students have recently been awarded NSF, Fulbright and Ashoka Fellowships. See the full list of fellowships awarded to current students.
Holdren Sets New Course for US Energy
March 20, 2014
President Obama's top science advisor and ERG Co-founder, John Holdren, is confident that America's next energy plan "will make a difference."
50% of U.S. household carbon footprint Suburban sprawl
January 8, 2014
Chris Jones (ERG PhD) and Prof. Dan Kammen point out that U.S. households are responsible for about 20% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, which are driving climate change.
ERG students win United Nations award
November 13, 2013
Jalel Sager (PhD candidate) and Austin Cappon (Minor) head to Nairobi, Kenya to pick up UN prize for a sustainable energy development project in Vietnam.
Topics (4 results)
TopSalma Elmallah
MS, PhD
Characterizing Fairness, Transparency, and Openness in US Wind Project Planning (MS ’19) Salma’s dissertation studies the equity and distributional impacts of residential heating electrification policy and planning, focusing on cities ... Continue Reading »
Kristin Brainerd
MS
Understanding California Water Markets: A Look at Transfers from 2000 to 2009 (’11 MS)
Sam Borgeson
MA, PhD
Targeted Efficiency: Using Customer Meter Data to Improve Efficiency Program Outcomes (PhD ’14) Sam’s works focuses on tools to scale up and improve the performance of energy efficiency programs in ... Continue Reading »