June/July News from Dartmouth's Irving Institute for Energy & Society

Celebrating our new graduates, announcing our new research grant recipients, and more

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Welcome to summer! Finally! The gradual return of at least some of the trappings of normalcy in the US help us to embrace the big changes of the last year. The pandemic presented (and continues to present) enormous challenges, but it also gave us new opportunities to connect with old and new colleagues and members of the energy community locally and around the world.

Our first conference, Investing in Our Energy Futures, which took place virtually from May 3-5, was one such opportunity. Nearly 700 people attended sessions, either live or asynchronously, coming from 19 countries and 36 US states and a range of industries and organizations. We were thrilled by the engagement and are thankful that the event was an integrating platform for the more than 50 speakers who shared their time and expertise to help us advance sustainable, affordable, and reliable energy futures. We are also grateful to the dedicated Irving Institute Advisory Board members and Dartmouth staff who worked hard to make the conference remarkable. If you weren't able to attend, many of the conference sessions (and our other events) are available on our YouTube channel.

We hope you'll join us for some additional events this summer, and we look forward to finally gathering in person in the fall.

Best to you all,

~ Elizabeth J. Wilson

Congratulations to the Dartmouth Class of 2021!

Pictured L-R: (Top) Nick Britton, Jess Chen, Will Dickerman, Emma Doherty (Bottom) Sam Lefkofsky, Emily Martinez, Julia Snodgrass, and Michelle Wang

With the pandemic upending most of our traditions over the past year and a half, we're thrilled the Dartmouth Class of 2021 was able to gather (with some public health adjustments) at Memorial Field on June 13 to celebrate the completion of their Dartmouth degree programs. We're inspired by the resilience, persistence, creativity, and flexibility of our newest alumni, and are delighted to share the stories of some recent graduates who engaged with energy and society through classes, projects, research, travel and internships during their Dartmouth careers.

Meet some of our new Dartmouth Energy ’21s!

Investing in Our Energy Futures Conference Draws More than 700 Attendees

More than 700 people, ranging from Dartmouth alumni, students, staff, and faculty to scholars and practitioners in the energy industry attended the inaugural Dartmouth Energy Forum: Investing in Our Energy Futures conference, held virtually from May 3-5. The conference, which was co-sponsored by the Revers Center for Energy at Tuck, featured more than 50 world-renowned energy experts and leaders who participated in panels and discussions with topics ranging from emerging technologies, to finance, to energy access and social justice, to policy, to developing energy leaders. The conference gave the Dartmouth community and beyond a diverse and lively opportunity to engage in "the critical conversations we need to have about transforming and investing in our energy futures," said Dr. Elizabeth Wilson, Irving Institute Director.

Read more about the conference.

Three Projects Receive Irving Institute Seed Grant Funding

The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth is pleased to announce that three energy and society projects have been awarded Seed Grant funding: Energy Justice: Pedagogy and Practice, Principal Investigators: Sarah Kelly and Maron Greenleaf (Anthropology); Soil Incubation Experiments to Inform a Strategy for Cellulosic Biofuel Production that Avoids Land Competition and Enhances Soil Health, Principal Investigators: Assistant Professor Caitlin Hicks Pries (Biological Sciences) and Professor Lee Lynd (Engineering); The Dartmouth Big Green-Energy House: Impacts of Geothermal Energy Technology for Agriculture, Principal Investigator: Assistant Professor Theresa Ong (Environmental Studies)

Learn more about the projects and the Seed Grant program.

Six Students Receive Summer Mini-Grant Funding

Six Dartmouth students received funding for their energy and society related projects and experiences for the summer of 2021 through the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society Mini-Grant Program. Jonah Kahl ’22 and Chelsea Moore ’22 will intern at Solaflect Energy; Evan Bass ’24 will conduct research in Central Appalachia and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed on the marketplace and supply chain for biofuels and biochar across the Eastern seaboard; Harrison Sholler ’24 will intern for The Green Energy Times, a Vermont-based publication; Abigail Wiseman ’22 will intern with the Sustainable Hanover Committee; and Ellery Curtis ’22 will intern with the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Summer Energy Events

Mark your calendar for these July events! Registration links and more details will be available soon! [Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to get news of these and other events!]

New Energy: Conversations with Early-Career Energy Researchers Series

Wednesday, July 14 at 12 p.m.— Trisha Shrum, Assistant Professor, University of Vermont Department of Community Development & Applied Economics

Wednesday, July 21 at 12 p.m. — Deidra Miniard, Ph.D Student, Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs

Wednesday, July 28, 12 - 1:15 p.m.

Dartmouth Energy Collaborative Mini-Symposium

“Clean Energy Infrastructure Means Human Infrastructure”

Congress is currently negotiating President Biden's dual mutli-trillion dollar infrastructure proposals — the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. These proposals would invest massive sums of money in what is traditionally regarded as infrastructure — roads and bridges, water systems, the electric grid and transmission networks. They also have an explicit focus on climate resilience and addressing the racial inequities that were caused or exacerbated by past infrastructure projects (highways dividing minority neighbors, highly polluting energy generation plants being sited near Black and brown communities, etc.) While debate around the proposals is highly partisan, with arguments predictably focusing on the price tag, another point of contention is the ways in which the proposals link jobs, training, wages, and education and other aspects of so-called 'human infrastructure' to more traditional conceptions of infrastructure.

What are the costs and benefits of this approach? Join us as moderators Aimee Barnes ’04 and Dan Reicher ’78 and a panel of experts discuss the Biden infrastructure plan — and in particular its climate and clean energy elements — from economic, policy, and equity angles.

Panelists and registration link will be posted soon!

Student Reflections on the Crossroads Lecture and Workshop Series

From March 30 - April 29, 2021, a coalition of Dartmouth organizations hosted a bi-weekly series, Crossroads: Intersections of Los Angeles' Energy, Environmental, Housing & Racial Justice Movements, which brought a variety of guest speakers to discuss the connections between the energy, environmental, housing, policing, and carceral landscapes in Los Angeles. The workshop and lecture series was sponsored by the Irving Institute, the Sustainability Office, the Office for Institutional Diversity and Equity, and the Department of African and African American Studies, with support from the Departments of Environmental Studies, Geography, and Sociology, and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences.

Read a reflection on the process of organizing and hosting the event and its impact by Crossroads project interns Sereena Knight ‘24 and Jimena Perez ‘23.

Institute Comings and Goings

L-R: Kate Salamido ’19 and Megan Litwhiler

You’ll notice some changes in the Irving Institute’s staff in June. We said goodbye to Experiential Learning Coordinator Kate Salamido ’19, who is heading off to law school. Kate was a integral part of the Institute team, working on a range of undergraduate experiential education and career development programs, helping plan and coordinate the spring Crossroads lecture and workshop series, and playing a major role in the development of the Institute’s Equity, Inclusivity, and Justice Action Plan. We are working hard to find someone to fill the big shoes Kate is leaving behind. Thank you, Kate, and best of luck with your next adventure!

The Institute is also delighted to welcome Megan Litwhiler as our new Advanced Learning Program Manager. Megan comes to the Institute from the Boston Science Museum and will focus on building programs for graduate and professional learners in both residential and online contexts. Welcome, Megan!