people
Professor Trancik
Jessika Trancik is an assistant professor in the Engineering Systems Division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. She received her B.S. in materials science and engineering from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Before MIT, she spent several years at the Santa Fe Institute as an Omidyar Fellow, and at Columbia University as an Earth Institute Fellow. She has also worked for the United Nations, and as an advisor to the private sector on investment in low-carbon energy technologies. Her research group works on accelerating the discovery and scaling of new energy technologies.
Contact: trancik at mit dot edu
Dr. Hamed Ghoddusi
Hamed Ghoddusi is a postdoctoral associate in the Engineering Systems Division. He received his Ph.D. in Finance from Vienna Graduate School of Finance (VGSF) and holds degrees in economics, management science, and industrial engineering (OR) from the Institute for Advanced Studies (Vienna) and Sharif University of Technology (Tehran). His research interests are in modeling of energy and environmental systems and their interaction with public policy, macro economy, and financial markets. His works are centered around two major themes of risks and investment decisions in energy systems. He has been a visiting scholar/consultant at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), UT Austin, UC Berkeley, UNDP, and UNIDO.
Contact: ghoddusi at mit dot edu
Dr. James McNerney
James McNerney is a postdoctoral associate in the Engineering Systems Division. Formerly, he was a graduate fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and Boston University, where he completed his Ph.D. in physics on the topic of price evolution of technologies. He has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Boston University. His research interests are in understanding how physical and engineering variables relate to economic variables at all scales, from single devices and machines to industries and whole economies.
Contact: jmcn at mit dot edu
Michael T. Chang
Michael T. Chang is a graduate student in the Technology and Policy Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley, with a major in computational engineering science and a minor in mechanical engineering. His research interests are in understanding the innovation process and the development of emerging technologies. His current research focuses on energy consumption in the transportation sector and design rules for electric vehicles.
Contact: mtchang at mit dot edu
Morgan Edwards
Morgan Edwards is a first-year graduate student in the Technology and Policy Program and the ESD doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her B.S. in environmental science and a B.A. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming to MIT, she worked on alternative energy and energy efficiency projects in Thailand, Russia, and the United States. Her research interests are in evaluating the climate change mitigation potential of alternative energy technologies across spatial and temporal scales. She is currently working to develop dynamic alternative jet fuel portfolios that respond to changes in environmental constraints over time.
Contact: morgane at mit dot edu
Goksin Kavlak
Goksin Kavlak is a graduate student in the ESD doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her master’s in environmental sciences from Yale University, and her B.S. in industrial engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul. Her research interests are in building frameworks to analyze the availability and scalability of metals used in emerging technologies, especially in photovoltaics. She is the recipient of the UTC-MIT Energy Fellowship for 2012-2013, sponsored by the MIT Energy Initiative.
Contact: goksin at mit dot edu
Dr. Mandira Roy
Mandira Roy is a fellow in MIT’s Advanced Study Program. She received a Ph.D. and an MBA from the University of British Columbia and M.S. and B.S. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology. Previously she has taught in the areas of financial and managerial accounting and the economics of information at the University of Southern California, University of California–Los Angeles and Rutgers University. Her past research focused on the valuation and contracting roles of information in economic decisions and their impact on the stakeholder incentives and welfare. Her current research examines the dynamic choice of energy technology portfolios for climate change mitigation.
Contact: mandirar at mit dot edu
Diana Librizzi
Diana Librizzi is an administrative assistant II in the Engineering Systems Division Headquarters at MIT. She has previously worked in SHASS, MechE and Resource Development at MIT before moving over to ESD. She has also previously worked with various arts-based non-profits in the fundraising field. She graduated from Florida State University in 2006 with a B.A. in Theatre and received her M.S. in Arts Administration from Boston University in 2009.
Contact: librizzi at mit dot edu
Dan Cross-Call
Dan Cross-Call is completing a master’s degree in the Technology and Policy Program at MIT. He worked with the Trancik Lab during 2011-2012, on evaluating emerging energy technologies. Prior to MIT, Dan worked as an electricity market consultant in the Energy & Environment practice of Charles River Associates, where he specialized in asset valuations and regulatory analysis of wholesale electricity markets and installed capacity markets. Dan also previously worked as an educator for a community development project in rural Ghana, supported in this work by a Richard Lombard Public Service Fellowship. Dan received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in economics and environmental studies.
Contact: dancc at mit dot edu
Shylesh Muralidharan
Shylesh Muralidharan is a Systems Design and Management graduate student in the Engineering Systems Division. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Pondicherry University and an MBA from Mumbai University, and has worked in technology consulting for smart grid programs. His interests are in new energy systems and sustainability. He is currently working on a technical and economic evaluation of ocean thermal energy conversion, in the context of climate change concerns and water scarcity.
Dr. Bela Nagy
Bela Nagy was a postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. He has bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and computer science, and a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of British Columbia. More information on Bela’s interests and past experience can be found here: Nagy’s SFI webpage.
Heshuang Zeng
Heshuang Zeng graduated in 2011 from the Master in City Planning Program at MIT. She received her bachelor’s degree in architecture (2007) and her master’s degree in city design and planning (2009) from Tsinghua University. Her research focused on optimally incorporating renewable energy technologies in urban sustainable development. She is currently working at the World Resources Institute.
Christina Karapataki
Christina Karapataki graduated with a master’s degree from the Technology and Policy Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and worked with the Trancik Lab from 2010-2011. She received her B.A. and M.Eng. in chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge, where she studied as a Scholar of the Cambridge European Trust. She has previously worked with the MIT Energy Initiative on water demand forecasting (2008) and with ExxonMobil as a business analyst for the European natural gas market. She has also worked with Baringa Partners as a consultant for EDF Energy. Christina is the recipient of the Salters’ Graduate Prize 2010 from the Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry, UK.