Summer 2015 Newsletter

  

We hope you are enjoying a wonderful summer!
This summer newsletter features a few recent E-IPER highlights.

  

Events

2015 Commencement for E-IPER Graduates

A record 18 E-IPER students participated in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, June 14. E-IPER Sykes Family Faculty Director Peter Vitousek introduced the PhD graduates, and affiliated faculty members Nicole Ardoin, Meg Caldwell, Noah Diffenbaugh, Eric Lambin, David Lobell, Jan Martinez, and Len Ortolano had the honor of hooding their doctoral students. Joint MS students were introduced by E-IPER Associate Director Deb Wojcik and hooded by Peter Vitousek.  

  


 E-IPER graduates, faculty, and staff 

Additional 2014-15 graduates include Joint MS-MBA students Felipe Cosmelli, Wakana Honda, Lauren Kolodny, Scott Littlefield, Matthew Mo, Elena Perez, Jake Saper, Kirsten Stasio, Yi Wang, and Ingo Wiegand.

 

Congratulations to all 2014-2015 E-IPER graduates!

 

Joint MS Spring Capstone Symposium

  

The Spring 2015 Feigenbaum Nii Capstone Symposium took place on June 3. It featured three presentations: one exploring the connections between climate change and child neurological development; the second leveraging mobile data analytics to improve sustainable grasslands management; and the third helping utilities understand residential electric vehicle charging behavior.

 

 

From left to right: Capstone Symposium presenters Tim Singer (Dual MS-MD), Christine Su (Joint MS-MBA 2015), and Lisa Forssell (Joint MS-MBA 2015)

Generously funded by the Feigenbaum Nii Foundation, the Capstone Symposium is held twice a year. At each Symposium, a best presentation award is selected. The winner of the Spring 2015 Feigenbaum Nii award was Lisa Forssell for her presentation titled "Electric Vehicle Charging from a Utility Perspective: A Case Study with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power."  

 

Videos of student presentations can be found here on the E-IPER website. Use the password "viaortega" to access all presentations.

E-IPER Student Featured at TEDx Stanford

 

On May 17, over 20 scholars and artists presented at TEDx Stanford. As one of the featured speakers, Nik Sawe (PhD 5th) represented the E-IPER community with his presentation titled "Your Brain, The Environment, and Our Decisions." As a neuroeconomist, Nik uses neuroimaging, specifically fMRI, to study environmental decision-making and provide insights on behavior at the individual and population level. Congratulations on the amazing talk, Nik! 

  

A video of Nik's TEDx talk may be found here.  

  

  

Nik Sawe explains how blood and oxygen move to meet the  

demands of brain activity during different cognitive tasks

Joint MS-MBA and MBA Alumni Event

 

On July 9, E-IPER hosted the first-ever Joint Sustainability Alumni Network Reception in San Francisco, CA. In partnership with University of Michigan's Erb Institute; Duke's Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment; The Cornell Johnson School's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise; the Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan; and the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, we brought together MS-MBA and MBA alumni from each school for a speed networking event. Over 70 alumni participated in one-on-one and group discussions around food systems, impact investing, global supply chains, and the future of energy systems. The event was generously hosted in the beautiful new offices of Opower. Special thanks to Tom Mercer (MS-MBA 2010) and the San Francisco Opower team for a great evening!

 


From left to right: Jason Kaminsky (MS-MBA 2009), Tom Mercer (MS-MBA 2010), Alex Pratt (MS-MBA 2013), Jeb Eddy (MBA 1973), Ken Alston (MS-MBA 2012), Nick Halla (MS-MBA 2012), Kathy Chang (MBA 2012), Jean-marc Mommessin (MBA 2007), Deb Wojcik (E-IPER Associate Director), Lisa Forssell (MS-MBA 2015), Meredith McClintock (MBA 1989), Anjana Richards (E-IPER Joint MS Program Manager), Yi Wang (MS-MBA 2015). Not pictured: Mark Wittman (MS-MBA 2014) and Emily Steinberg (MS-MBA 2014)  

E-IPER Alumni Event in Washington, D.C.

 

E-IPER alumni came together on July 21 to reconnect, share personal updates, and enjoy a good meal. The group had a series of "energetic" conversations with highlights including the U.S. Clean Power Plan and market momentum around low carbon energy solutions. We discussed practices to create access to clean energy for low income communities, the new Stanford Professionals in Energy network, the upcoming climate talks in Paris, and the broad range of impactful work being done by our alums in the nation's capital.

 

From left to right: Holmes Hummel (PhD 2006), Pete DeMarco (MS-JD 2014), Anjana
Richards (E-IPER Joint MS Program Manager), Andrew Longnecker (MS-MBA 2013), and Tom Elson (MS-MBA 2012).

Holmes Hummel (PhD 2006) is continuing to speak, advocate, and consult on numerous clean energy issues. Applying interdisciplinary perspectives to the financial sector, Holmes is an active board member at Cleantech Open and Cornerstone Capital, spanning early stage start-ups to institutional investment management. Pete DeMarco (MS-JD 2014) is finishing up his Ford Fellowship with the NRDC litigation team and is heading to a judicial clerkship in Maryland this autumn. Andrew Longenecker (MS-MBA 2013) is acquiring and upgrading operating hydroelectric power facilities and developing new hydro projects throughout the Americas with Cube Hydro. Ken Alston (MS-MBA 2012) is a Special Advisor for Finance for the Office of the Secretary of Energy. Tom Elson (MS-MBA 2012) is the Principal Deputy Director of Public Engagement with the White House Council on Environmental Quality and, among other things, has worked on climate change mitigation with corporate stakeholders and religious leaders and the designation of five new national monuments.

 

The group is enthusiastic about staying connected through more alumni meetups throughout the year. Funding is available - if you are interested in hosting an E-IPER alumni event in your city, contact E-IPER Joint MS Program Manager, Anjana Richards at [email protected].

Thank you for your continued  
support of E-IPER!

Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in 
Environment & Resources

 

School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences

(please note new school name) 

 

473 Via Ortega, Y2E2 Suite 226
Stanford, California 94305