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Welcome to the 2017 Winter Newsletter! It has been an eventful quarter and we are pleased to share our latest news.
In this issue:
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News Features 
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Annual Program Retreat to NatureBridge
Every year, E-IPER visits NatureBridge at Golden Gate in Sausalito, CA for an overnight program retreat to build community. Usually held in October, this year the retreat was scheduled for January. With over 50 in attendance, Joint MS and PhD students congregated to establish new networks, discuss civic engagement, and enjoy the campfire, the food, and the games.
Left to right: (back) Carlos Marinetti, Emily Grubert, Andy Stock, Christa Anderson,
Nathan Ratledge; (back middle) Laurel Mills, Michelle Wu, Casey Maue, Samanthe Belanger, Sudarshan Bhatija, Cynthia McMurry, Lesley Thayer, Eric Oliff, Timothy Latimer,
Diego Arguelles; (middle) Kristen Green, KC McKanna, Marissa Childs, Jenna Forsyth, Damien Scott, Apoorv Bhargava, Becky Niemiec, Savannah Fletcher, Jose Urteaga,
Jana Hennig; (front middle) Miyuki Hino, Whitney Bagge, Nina Brooks, Sudatta Ray,
Natalie Bodington, Chikara Onda; (front) Allie Sherris, Indira Phukan, Samy Sekar,
Andrea Lund, Ronan Arthur, David Gonzalez
The E-IPER Student Committee (StuCom) and staff planned and led various events for the two-day retreat. Activities included topical breakout group meetings, sharing tips for life in E-IPER and in Palo Alto, and collaboration opportunity discussions, which are part of E-IPER's efforts to encourage interdisciplinary discussions among Joint MS and PhD students. With just a light, intermittent rainfall during the weekend, the E-IPER student community enjoyed the beauty of the Marin Headlands, and returned to Stanford with renewed energy to jump into the new year with new friends and colleagues.
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A Special Invitation to Palau's Presidential Inauguration
Palau's National Capitol on Inauguration Day (photo credit: Staci Lewis)
Staci Lewis (PhD 4th), traveled to Palau in January for the inauguration of Tommy Remengesau, Jr., who was sworn in as the President of Palau for his second consecutive term (and his fourth overall). She was there as the guest of honor of the Honorable Sabino Anatastico, Speaker of Palau's House of Delegates.
Staci (left) with Speaker Anatastico and his family after the installation
of the 10
th House of Delegates
For more than two years, Staci has worked with members of State and National Congress for her research on sediment delivery to coastal habitats. Part of a broader Stanford research effort that includes Dr. Rob Dunbar, Dr. Stephen Monismith and PhD student Mallory Barkdull, Staci has been forging partnerships with officials in Palau and providing them with information used in local decision-making for mitigating sediment impacts. The School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences and E-IPER continue to be supportive of their research efforts in Palau.
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Palau's Ancient Monoliths
(photo credit: Staci Lewis) |
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The Inauguration was celebrated for a week, beginning with a day-long tour of historically and ecologically significant sites around Babeldoab, Palau's largest island. Staci joined the entourage of dignitaries invited for this special event, traveling from beach to forest to ancient monoliths to waterfalls, while the nation's leading experts shared Palau's rich history. At the Inaugural Ball, traditional dancers performed for guests and a local boys' troupe paraded traditional clothing and chanted stories of their role in villages in times past.
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A local dance group performs a traditional dance at the Inaugural Ball
(photo credit: Staci Lewis) |
Since she first received the invitation, Staci has been reflecting on the importance of this event, both for her work and for the work of other scholars. Having opportunities to be part of Palau's historic events, she says, has helped her to "craft a PhD dissertation that will have direct impacts on marine conservation strategies." She is grateful for the chance to make a true difference, and for the support that enables her to produce results that are rigorous, meaningful, and relevant. The positive relationship between Stanford and the people of Palau will continue to provide opportunities to apply scientific research to urgent environmental issues.
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Autumn Joint MS Capstone Symposium
The Autumn 2016 Capstone Symposium took place on December 8. Nine
presentations from E-IPER/Business students focused on business opportunities for the future of transportation; varied approaches to advance commercial energy efficiency performance; strategies to address energy access in developing nations, such as India, China and Rwanda; and, behavioral and economic approaches to conservation.
Left to right: Autumn 2016 Capstone Students:Paul Zhu (MS-MBA), Kent Kuran (MS-MBA), Felix Steinmeyer (MS-MBA), Nadine Lehner (MS-MBA), Billy Xia (MS-MBA), Parker Barnes (MS-MBA), Pitch Lindsay (MS-MBA). Not pictured: Michael Glassman (MS-MBA),
Rob Meister (MS-MBA), Damien Scott (MS-MBA)
Generously funded by the Feigenbaum Nii Foundation, the Capstone Symposium is held twice a year. The winners of the Autumn 2016 Feigenbaum Nii award are Damien Scott and Felix Steinmeyer for their presentation titled "Future business opportunities in the optimization of the energy use of electric, shared and fully autonomous vehicles."
Videos of student presentations can be found on the
E-IPER website. Use the password "viaortega" to access all presentations.
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Joint MS-MBA Alumni & Student Connections
Left to right: Event student facilitator, Diego Arguelles, with panelists, Dave Mount, Yi Wang, Mark Wittman, and Cat Chang
Current student
Diego Arguelles (MS-MBA 2nd) facilitated a discussion focused on navigating the E-IPER experience and how the panelists' time at Stanford has influenced their career paths since graduation. Everyone had a chance to network and eat the delicious and healthy food provided by Farm Hill, founded by Mark Wittman and Marc Manara (MS-MBA 2014).
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Joint MS-JD Dinner hosted by Faculty Member Buzz Thompson
Left to right: (back) Susannah Barsom, Jason Perkins, Buzz Thompson, Peter Vitousek, Savannah Fletcher, Danny Cullenward, Philip Womble; (middle) Sarah Rowan, Monica Molina, Miles Muller, Kelly Rosencrans, Nihal Srinath, Elizabeth Vissers, Mary Rock, Anjana Richards; (front) Rachel Zwillinger, Michelle Wu, Donna Ni, Lauren Tarpey, Laurel Mills
The dinner provided an opportunity for students and alumni to reconnect, and for the group as a whole to discuss what they valued about E-IPER and how they'd like to see E-IPER evolve in the future.
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Alumni Spotlight
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Alumni Spotlight: Andrew Longenecker
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| Andrew Longenecker at the Narrows hydropower facility on the Yadkin River, North Carolina |
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Andrew Longenecker (MS-MBA 2013) is currently the Director of Business Development for Cube Hydro Partners, an energy infrastructure investment firm that acquires, develops, and operates hydropower and solar facilities. He is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, negotiating, closing, and managing acquisitions in what has grown to become the largest U.S.-based independent, private hydropower portfolio.
Cube Hydro takes advantage of the fact that emerging technologies have made it possible to significantly increase the efficiency and productivity of existing hydropower facilities. According to the National Hydropower Association, hydropower currently avoids nearly 200 million metric tons of carbon pollution in the U.S. each year, which is equal to the output of over 38 million passenger cars. By upgrading the turbines and generators of older hydroelectric dams, their power output can be increased by up to thirty percent. Today, only three percent of the 80,000 dams in the U.S. are powered. Andrew and his colleagues believe there is a significant opportunity to use these existing resources to produce more clean energy, and they are investing in this opportunity.
Andrew remarks that his E-IPER education has been a great asset in a company that is committed to producing more clean energy for the electric grid, and to developing and operating hydroelectric facilities in an environmentally sustainable manner.
"My role at Cube Hydro integrates aspects of finance, sales, engineering, legal/regulatory, and political science;
it is constantly a challenge and I use my interdisciplinary training from Stanford every day," says Andrew.
Before moving to Cube Hydro, Andrew was Principal and Co-Founder of PSL Energy, an investment group focused on renewable energy assets. He had previously worked for Khosla Ventures, an early stage cleantech venture capital firm, and as a Management Consultant in McKinsey & Company's Energy Practice, where he focused on energy infrastructure and technology.
Andrew and his wife, Maria, live in downtown Washington, DC. Although they enjoy this vibrant, engaging, and global community, they do find themselves missing the Bay area, especially during the winter months. And while it was Andrew's idea to "move from the utopia of Palo Alto to the uncertainty of DC," he readily points out that it is Maria's grace, love, and support that have carried them through this hectic and time-consuming venture. "I can't thank her enough for providing the support I need to help me follow my passions!"
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Student News
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Joann de Zegher presenting to downstream decision-makers at SAWIT convention
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When Joann de Zegher's (PhD 5th) research on disruptive sourcing in palm oil was selected as a SAWIT Challenge finalist, she received an invitation to present her analysis at a meeting of industry leaders. One week after returning from an intensive field research trip to remote areas of East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Joann turned around and flew back to Jakarta.
During the SAWIT event, she learned about the work of the other innovators, networked with industry leaders, received feedback to refine her presentation, and pitched her research idea to potential collaborators who could partner with her on a supply chain experiment. Joann left the SAWIT convention with new research questions, partners, and friends, and a renewed conviction that research about strategies for sustainable sourcing in global supply chains is most relevant when it is used to inform practice.
Joann with her field research team, collecting data upstream before
communicating with industry leaders in the palm oil supply chain
Anna Lee (PhD 3rd) and Indira Phukan (Dual MS-PhD Education 2nd) coordinated the 2017 Young Environmental Scholars (YES) Annual Conference, which brings together researchers from all seven schools at Stanford to collaborate on environmental science, policy, and behavior research.
Philip Womble
(PhD-JD 4th) presented background and preliminary results of his research on Colorado's water markets to water policymakers at the Department of the Interior's Natural Resources Investment Center in Washington, D.C.
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Alumni News
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Ken Alston
(MS-MBA 2012) joined the California Clean Energy Fund in San Francisco, CA. As the firm's investment manager, he leads CalCEF's efforts on financing clean energy solutions at scale.
Prior to joining CalCEF, Ken worked from 2012-2016 in the Obama Administration at the White House and U.S. Department of Energy. At the White House, Ken worked on economic and energy policy at the National Economic Council. At the U.S. Department of Energy, he worked as Special Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. Ken co-founded the Department of Energy's Clean Energy Investment Center, chaired the Department's Energy Finance Working Group, led the Department's efforts to secure $4 billion in commitments for the White House Clean Energy Investment Initiative, and was an advisor on Power Africa.
Ken Alston (left) with former US Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz (right)
Hilary Boudet
(PhD 2010) was invited by the Anxieties in Democracy Working Group on Climate Change to participate in the Social Science Research Council's
Workshop on Climate Change
at Princeton University. Hilary's work on teaching Girl Scouts about energy conservation was also featured on the Yale Climate Connection's weekly
podcast
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Awards & Honors
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Opus 12
, co-founded by
Nicholas Flanders
(MS-MBA 2016), received a $1.9 million grant from the Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Read more about this development
here
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Opus 12 was also
featured
as one of the "Eight Innovators to Watch in 2017" in the Smithsonian Magazine. Opus 12 also advanced to Round 2 of the
Carbon XPRIZE
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Kristen Green (PhD 1st) received a two-year National Park Service grant to look at the effects of climate change on how local park users access subsistence resources in two coastal Alaska Arctic National Parks (Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Bering Land Bridge National Preserve). This research will benefit the National Park Service by providing managers with information about the areas of the parks that are most vulnerable to climate change, as well as facilitating dialogue between park officials and local users about access issues. The research will ultimately be used to aid the National Park Service in making policy decisions about resource use within park boundaries. Kristen will begin her research in Kotzebue, Alaska in summer 2017.
An action shot of Shannon Swanson, as posted by National Geographic
Sample fish being scanned at the airport during Shannon Swanson's trip
(photo credit: Shannon Swanson)
Tannis Thorlakson
(PhD 3rd) and
Emily Grubert
(PhD 4th) were named to the 2017 cohort of the Rising Environmental Leaders Program (RELP). Housed in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, RELP is designed to help graduate students and postdoctoral scholars maximize the impact of their research by developing their leadership and communication skills.
Scenery photo of one of the Sama-Bajau aquarium fishers
(photo credit: Shannon Swanson)
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Publications & Presentations
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Hilary Boudet
(PhD 2010) published a
policy brief
on "Community responses to large-scale energy projects" on the Scholars Strategy Network, a group that seeks to connect scholars and their research to policymakers and the public.
Cassandra Brooks (PhD 5th) published a paper, "Social and ecological effectiveness of large marine protected areas," in Global Environmental Change. She also published a chapter, "Fishing the bottom of the Earth: The political challenges of ecosystem-based management," in Handbook on Antarctic Politics.
Amanda Cravens
(PhD 2014) published a
paper
, "Negotiating credibility and legitimacy in the shadow of an authoritative data source," in Ecology and Society.
Andrea Lund
(PhD 2nd) presented a poster entitled "Gauging potential schistosomiasis exposure in northern Senegal from activity-specific water contact estimates" at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta, Georgia.
Andrea Lund presenting her poster at the
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene conference
Nik Sawe
(PhD 2016) published his solo
paper
, "Using neuroeconomics to understand environmental valuation," in Ecological Economics.
Nicola Ulibarri
(PhD 2015) published a
paper
titled "A Framework for Building Efficient Environmental Permitting Processes" in Sustainability.
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Upcoming Events
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Joint MS Capstone Symposium: Thursday, March 16, Y2E2 299
Emily Grubert PhD Defense: Friday, April 21, Y2E2 299
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Thank you to our major contributors for this issue:
Staci Lewis, Andrew Longenecker,
Anjana Richards,
Susannah Barsom, and Benjamin Ha
Edited by:
Susannah Barsom, Benjamin Ha,
Jennifer Mason, and Anjana Richards
Thank you to all for your continued
support of E-IPER!
http://eiper.stanford.edu
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