EEM graduate Nassim Khalili recently began a new job as a Project Controls/Cost Engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff in Sacramento, California. She says, “I love the new job.”
A presentation by EEMI Co-Director Joe Cascio was made at the October 12 workshop of the International Conference on Education of Standards by Erik Puskar, Group Leader, Standards Services, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). The presentation covered the educational content of international, voluntary consensus standards in the GW Graduate Certificate Program—Environmental and Energy Systems Management (EESM). The EESM was the result of a $75,000 award from the NIST Standards Services Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program to the EEMI.
EEMI Masters student Yidong Chen is currently working as an intern at Earth Day Network, an environmental non-governmental organization based in Washington D.C. Earth Day Network focuses on the environmental movement worldwide and works through a combination of education, public policy and consumer campaigns. Yidong has undertaken several projects in the organization, including education research program, social media posts and blog writing.
On September 29 EEMI Senior Research Scientist Kelly Scanlon presented “Characterizing Life Cycle Occupational Health and Safety Impacts for the Department of Defense and its Supply Chain” at the annual meeting of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment in Charleston, South Carolina. Attendance at the conference was supported by a cooperative agreement with the DoD's Chemical & Material Risk Management Program.
Recent EEM graduate Benjamin Heras Cruz has been working for a year-and-a-half in the regulatory agency for oil and gas on industrial safety and environmental protection in Mexico City where he was the Director of Regulatory Planning. Benjamin recently started a new position and is now working in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources where he is a Technical Assistant to the Undersecretary of Planning and Environmental Policy. In his new position he is able to “connect back to the topics I love the most environmental policy in the broader aspect, climate change, and international cooperation.”
On July 13, Professor Ekundayo Shittu gave an invited seminar titled “Investments in Energy Technological Change under Regulatory and Learning Uncertainties” at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) of the University of Idaho. The CAES is located within the premises of Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and the seminar was attended by staff scientists of the INL and CAES. Prof. Shittu also recently attended the LMI Research Institute’s (LRI) third annual Government-University Forum, held at LMI headquarters in Tysons, Virginia. He is captured in this video of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwZHEjOrcuw&feature=youtu.be
EEM graduate Luis Cruz moved to Philadelphia last year to work in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s regional office for the Northeast. He currently is splitting his time between the office and doing inspections at nuclear power plants, mostly at Three Mile Island. Luis says, “Very exciting job so far!”
EEMI Professors Saniya LeBlanc and Ekundayo Shittu presented the paper “Nanotechnology Fellows Program: Preparing Undergraduate Students for Careers in Nanotechnology” at the National American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, held June 27 in New Orleans.
EEMI Director of Greenhouse Gas Management Professor Rachael Jonassen is a member of the Climate and Security Advisory Group, which recently released a Briefing Book for the New Administration recommending robust action on climate change. Prof. Jonassen also joined the editorial board of Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health in June 2016. She accepted this position to assist the journal in expanding its coverage of “wicked problems” and their complicated social dimensions. Her professional focus is climate change.
EEM graduate Carolina Pena is working for the Clean Energy Solutions Center of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Carolina’s assignment involves outreach and liaison with local governments and relevant actors to provide the technical assistance that the Center provides.
EEMI Professor Scott Sklar co-chaired a panel on interdisciplinary teaching at the June 2016 National Energy Education Summit of the national Council for Science and the Environment. Prof. Sklar discussed the fact that, despite the needs for energy literacy, very few college and university students in the United States or elsewhere systematically learn about energy as part of their education. New forms of energy education must become a fundamental part of undergraduate education in the United States and everywhere else in the world.
EEMI Professors Alex Beehler, Joe Cascio, Tony Mariano and Jonathan Deason, along with EEM graduate Tian Peng, participated in the June 17-18 Global Forum on China’s Urban Air Pollution Control, sponsored by the International Fund for China’s Environment, a partner organization with the EEMI. The event, conducted at the Washington Harbor in Georgetown, brought together government officials from the three regions, top technical experts, innovative entrepreneurs, and leading representatives of civil and international institutions. The forum discussed China’s smog mitigation, shared successful experience, demonstrated best practices, promoted innovative technology, and discussed a new model of international collaboration. Other participating organizations included the US Environmental Protection Agency, State Department, Paulson Institute and the Institute for Clean Air Companies.