Faculty

Our work helps create technologies and policies for equitable decarbonization. We want to address real-world problems with solutions that will work in the real world. Our research cuts across disciplines: we work with engineers, economists, decision scientists, and public health experts. We want to collaborate with community organizations, with governments, and with industry. Examples of ongoing work include the Heating with Justice project, which seeks to ensure that the electrification of home heating does not exacerbate existing inequalities in energy burdens.

My research aims to understand how technology can help solve social problems. Much of my work focuses on the consequences of energy production and use for the environment, human health, and for equity. I employ quantitative decision analysis, buttressed by qualitative insight, to understand how economic, political, and operational realities constrain technology deployment.

I focus on finding strategies to decarbonize the economy, and to adapt to the warming that has and will occur even if we cut greenhouse gas emissions very rapidly. These strategies must promote environmental, energy, and economic justice to be truly sustainable, and—in a democratic society—to be feasible at all. As such, my research focuses not only on the benefits and costs of different strategies but pays careful attention to who reaps the benefits and who bears the costs. My projects fall into two broad categories:

• The environmental consequences of electrification
• The consequences of automation for the environment, equity, and work

HONORS & AWARDS:

Second runner up of the ES&T Best Paper Award for Best Policy Article in 2020!   Parth Vaishnav and Adilla Mulia Fatimah. The Environmental Consequences of Electrifying Space Heating. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2020, 54 (16), pp 9814–9823.