March 2024

From the Institute Directors

The Irving Institute and our Dartmouth faculty, staff, and student delegation had a productive, informative, and enjoyable time at CERAWeek24 in Houston this March. CERAWeek, the energy sector's most significant annual convening of industry, academic, and policy leaders. Members of the delegation participated in panels and talks, learned about current trends and outlooks in energy and climate from a range of perspectives, and connected with old friends and new potential collaborators and partners. We were especially delighted to be able to support the attendance of several Dartmouth undergraduate and graduate students, who took full advantage of the opportunities to learn and connect at the conference. It was an energizing experience that we'll share more about in the weeks to come. In the meantime, we're looking forward to seeing you — in person or virtually — at one or more of the many exciting events we have planned for this spring.

Warmly,

Geoff Parker, Interim Faculty Director

April Salas, Executive Director

Announcing DECAN: The Dartmouth Energy and Climate Alumni Network

Virtual Kick-off Event Set for April 19! 

DECAN is a brand-new Dartmouth alumni group created to connect alumni to alumni, alumni to the College, and the College and alumni to the world — and we want you to join us!

Dartmouth alumni in a wide range of industries have an impact in their communities, in their organizations, and in the world. Thousands of Dartmouth alumni are working in energy and climate, across sectors and industries, serving as leaders, experts, and practitioners in this critically important space. Dartmouth College, the Guarini School of Graduate Studies, Thayer School of Engineering, Geisel School of Medicine, and Tuck School of Business alumni hold high-impact roles in government, law, finance, industry, science, engineering, academia, and more, leveraging the roots of their Dartmouth liberal arts education to tackle some of the most complex energy and climate challenges facing society.

If you are a Dartmouth alum looking to:

DECAN is for you!

Learn more, sign up, and RSVP to join us on April 19 from 1-1:45 pm ET via Zoom to meet Dartmouth and Irving Institute energy and climate faculty and staff, learn more about what's happening in this space at Dartmouth, and hearing more about what DECAN is all about.

Irving Institute Leads Dartmouth Delegation of Faculty, Staff, and Students to CERAWeek 2024 

Some images from CERAWeek24: Left, Irving Institute Interim Faculty Director Geoff Parker; Top right: Engineering PhD student and New Energy Summer Summit alumna Julia Huddy; Bottom right, Varsha Shukla, Thayer PhD student, Vidushi Sharma ’27, Kim Rosenfeld, Tech Transfer Office, and Siddhant Banyal, MEM Program student

The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society's Interim Faculty Director, Geoffrey Parker and Executive Director April Salas, led a Dartmouth delegation of faculty, students, and staff to share their expertise at CERAWeek 2024, the energy sector's most significant annual convening of industry, academic, and policy leaders, to help shape priorities and solutions to the world's most pressing energy and climate challenges.

Professor Parker spoke on two panels, "Design is Destiny: Solving climate change by design," and "Governance & Regulation of AI;" Thayer Dean Alexis Abrasion spoke on the "Shaping Sustainable Spaces: The Future of Building Energy Efficiency" panel; Earth Sciences Professor Mukul Sharma gave a talk called "Climate Engineering 360: Reversing Climate Change with Geoengineering;" Tech Transfer Office Director Kim Rosenfield led a conversation on "Dartmouth University: New Way to Approach Academic and Industry Partnerships;" and Thayer PhD student Julia Huddy represented the Scheideler Lab on a panel "NextGen Solar Technologies." 

Learn more about Dartmouth at CERAWeek here. 

Irving Institute Supports Dartmouth Student Attendance at the 2024 MIT Energy Conference

Some of the Dartmouth students at the 2024 MIT Energy Conference, L-R: Jeremy Wang ’27,Michael Schoff ’27, Andrew Shi ’26, Evelyn Hatem ’24, and Megan Liu ’24.

Eight Dartmouth students accompanied four Irving Institute staff members to attend the MIT Energy Conference in Boston on March 11-12.  An annual event organized by MIT students, the conference regularly attracts over 1,000 attendees and is a hub for energy and climate innovators across tech, business, and policy sectors.

Dartmouth Undergraduates Explore the Changing Energy Landscape in Appalachia During Spring Energy Immersion Trip

Appalachia Immersion Trip 2024 participants pose at a vista in West Virginia; L-R: Tajreen Nushba '27, Mariya Vahanvaty '25, Dexter Jandres Rivera '24, Ben Stevenson '27, Miguel Chagas Monjardim '27, FT Chiu '26, Alex Germain '27

Our spring energy immersion trip, co-led with the Dartmouth Sustainability Office, took a group of 10 Dartmouth undergraduate students to West Virginia and Washington, DC to better understand the ways that the energy transition is impacting Appalachia.  Over the course of the trip, the group met with partners working in diverse sectors including solar energy, natural gas production, community development, and outdoor recreation and visited sites ranging from national energy research labs to drilling rigs, reclaimed mine sites turned mountain bike trails to solar warehouses. The group finished up the trip in Washington, DC where they met with alumni and policy makers who play critical roles in the energy transition.

Class of 1972 Great Issues in Energy, Climate, and Society Lecture Set for April 9

André de Ruyter, Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, will deliver the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society's third Class of 1972 Lecture, "Financing a Clean Energy Transition in Africa & the Global South"  in Cook Auditorium on the Dartmouth campus on April 9 from 5:10-6:10 pm. The talk will also be live streamed. 

Addressing climate change will require dramatically scaling low carbon energy in the Global South, home to 85% of the world's population. But current financing mechanisms are not up to the challenge. In the talk, de Ruyter will address the challenges and opportunities of building renewables and other projects in countries with high capital costs, and how we can engineer a better system. Learn more and RSVP.

Save the Date! May 9 in New York City for the Greenshot Accelerator's Demo Day

The inagural Greenshot cohort and members of the Greenshot and Dartmouth teams at Opening Weekend in January.

Over the course of four months, nine startup climate solutions companies have been participating in Dartmouth's new Greenshot Climate Solutions Accelerator program, attending weekly content sessions, meeting with mentors, and refining their business to achieve market success. As the accelerator's capstone activity, Demo Day gives each team a chance to pitch their companies to a panel of expert judges for a prize of up to $75k. All are welcome to join us in New York City on May 9 from 1-5 pm for the first-ever Greenshot Demo Day. Learn more and RSVP.

Other Upcoming Events

Other Dartmouth Climate and Energy News

Dartmouth Researchers Help Bring Renewable Energy to Remote Greenland Town. Dartmouth professor Mary Albert's NSF-funded study in Greenland takes center stage as she collaborates with local leader Toku Oshima to develop renewable energy solutions for the remote town of Qaanaaq. 

What's Next for Generative AI: Household Chores and More: Irving Institute Interim Faculty Director Geoff Parker and collaborator Atin Gupta, two AI practitioners, explain how “Large X models” that turn text into actions may ultimately allow generative AI to water plants and peel potatoes in the MIT Sloan School of Management "Ideas Made to Matter" piece.

Dartmouth Engineering Team Discovers New High-Performance Solar Cell Material. Dartmouth paper with team led by Geoffroy Hautier and Jifeng Liu reported the discovery of an entirely new high-performance material for solar absorbers—the central part of a solar cell that turns light into electricity—that is stable and earth-abundant. The researchers used a unique high-throughput computational screening method to accelerate the discovery process and were able to quickly evaluate approximately 40,000 known candidate materials.

Not Just Coal: West Virginia's Solar Energy Industry Continues to Grow. Dartmouth alumna Abigail Ross Hopper '93, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), touts the growth of solar power in Appalachia, highlighting West Virginia's expanding solar industry.

Dartmouth Professor Mukul Sharma Leads Groundbreaking Study on Enhancing Ocean Carbon Storage. Earth Sciences Professor and Irving Institute Affiliate Mukul Sharma is the lead investigator on a project that could significantly increase the amount of carbon stored in the deep ocean. 

Reversing Warming through Climate Engineering Gets Airing at CERAWeek: The Houston Chronicle highlights Earth Sciences Professor Mukul Sharma's carbon removal research, a topic he discussed at CERAWeek 24.

To Better Predict Sea-Level Rise, a Professor Travels to the Source: Dartmouth Engineering Professor Hélène Seroussi, traveled with a research team to Greenland to study the impact of ice sheet changes on sea-level rise. Learn more in this Thayer news video.