Pages (16 results)
TopAbout ERG
Our Mission The mission of the Energy and Resources Group is a sustainable environment and a just society. ERG is a collaborative community of graduate students, core faculty, nearly 200 ... Continue Reading »
Who We Are
A Brief History of ERG For thirty years, the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at the University of California, Berkeley has provided its outstanding graduate students and exceptional faculty the ... Continue Reading »
Admissions
Applying to ERG The Energy and Resources Group trains interdisciplinary leaders and thinkers who are defining and solving the systemic, social, environmental, and technological challenges facing the world. The information ... Continue Reading »
Financing Your Education
COST OF ATTENDANCE Please see the UC Berkeley Registrar’ Fee Schedule for the current cost of attendance in UC Berkeley graduate academic programs. ERG is an academic program and does ... Continue Reading »
Courses
All Course Offerings Please note: This is a full list of ERG course offerings; not all courses are offered each term. For current course offerings, please refer to the online ... Continue Reading »
Programs
ERG Program Directory The information below is a directory of ERG programs. Please read through and contact us at erggrad@berkeley.edu for graduate program questions and ergdeskb@berkeley.edu for all other questions. ... Continue Reading »
Publications
“Biodiversity Scales from Plots to Biomes With a Universal Species-Area Curve” John Harte, Adam B. Smith, and David Storch“Carbon Cycle Uncertainty Increases Climate Change Risks and Mitigation Challenges” Paul A. ... Continue Reading »
Analysis & Control (EMAC) Energy Modeling
The Energy Modeling, Analysis and Control (EMAC) group addresses the engineering and techno-economic challenges to decarbonizing electric power systems. Our work ranges from applied to theoretical. Much of our work focuses on building new control and optimization frameworks to facilitate the operation of low carbon grids.
Climate & Carbon Sciences Program
The research mission of the Climate & Carbon Sciences Program is to advance the understanding and prediction of multiscale climate dynamics, abrupt and extreme climate events, terrestrial feedbacks to climate change, and their impacts on energy and water resources.
Faculty by Primary Interest
Areas of Interest Climate ChangeEcologyEnergyGovernanceWaterInternational Climate Change ERG CORE David Anthoff David Anthoff is an environmental economist who studies climate change and environmental policy. He co-develops the integrated assessment model ... Continue Reading »
ERG Admissions FAQ
Below is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) we receive and their answers. If you don’t find what you need on this page, please email us at erggrad@berkeley.edu. [bs_collapse ... Continue Reading »
Master’s Degree Curriculum Requirements (MA or MS)
The purpose of the ERG Master’s program is to educate the next generation of interdisciplinary leaders. Specifically, students are taught the range of methods and subjects they should be able ... Continue Reading »
Summer Instructors
The Energy and Resources Group summer instructors understand the complex and interdisciplinary nature of sustainability. All have significant experience teaching and/or professional experience in the subject areas of their courses. ... Continue Reading »
Sustainability Minor/Certificate FAQs
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Learning What is the difference between synchronous vs. asynchronous instruction, and online courses vs. remote instruction courses? Courses originally offered online (i.e. Energy and Society and Water ... Continue Reading »
Affiliated Faculty
ERG has a small core faculty but a much larger group of affiliated faculty. Affiliated faculty are based in other departments on campus or at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ... Continue Reading »
Minor/Certificate in Sustainability — Courses
Summer 2022 Curriculum ERG’s minor and certificate require a minimum of five courses and 15 total units of coursework, completed over one or two summers (or for a UC Berkeley ... Continue Reading »
Faculty (4 results)
Top
Andrew D. Jones
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Dr. Jones is an Earth scientist who works at the interface of human and environmental systems. His research uses quantitative models and data analysis to understand climate change and human-Earth system interactions at decision-relevant scales. He also collaborates with social scientists and interacts closely with stakeholders to understand how science can effectively provide actionable insight into strategies for increasing resilience of energy water, food, and urban systems.
Youjin Chung
Assistant Professor
Youjin Chung is Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Equity with a joint appointment in the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.
Margaret Torn
Adjunct Professor
The focus of my work is carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and trace-gas flux between soil and atmosphere. I conduct research on soil carbon, global change, and the impacts of human activities on ecosystem processes.
John Harte
Professor of the Graduate School
John Harte is a physicist turned ecologist. His research interests span ecological field research, the theory of complex systems, and policy analysis. Current interests include applying insights from information theory to the analysis of complex ecosystems and empirical investigation of climate-ecosystem feedback dynamics.
Students (6 results)
Top
Anjali Katta
MA
Anjali Katta (she/her) is a Masters student in the Energy Resources Group. She is interested in environmental, climate, and economic justice on both local and international scales. She has a ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- development
- energy
- Energy Democracy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- environmental justice
- Internationalism
- just transition
Zora Ott
MA
Zora is a MA student at the Energy and Resources Group. She is interested in just energy and mobility transitions and how socio-spatial, technical, and everyday citizen knowledge, can be ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- Climate justice
- development
- energy
- Environmental / Climate Equity
- gender
- governance
- participation
- rural areas
- transition pathways
- transportation
María Villalpando Páez
PhD
María is interested in exploring rural and peasant women’s role in the advancement of food sovereignty and in understanding the complex negotiation processes between communities, individuals, and the environment in ... Continue Reading »
Eleanor Adachi
MPP, MS
Eleanor Adachi (she/her) is a Master’s student in both the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. She is passionate about designing policies ... Continue Reading »
Liyang Wang
MS, PhD
Liyang is a PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group and a Senior Research Associate at Berkeley Lab. Her research interest is at the intersection of decision science, climate ... Continue Reading »
- climate
- decision-making
- economics
- energy
- Energy System Modeling
- environmental justice
- technology adoption
- uncertainties
Tzipora Wagner
MS
The Role of Stakeholder Networks in Urban Water System Innovation (MS ’20) Tzipora’s is interested in water resources and the role of technology in promoting sustainability, especially in the developing ... Continue Reading »
Alumni (21 results)
Top
Adam Hanbury-Brown
MS, PhD
Predicting the future of forests under global change: the critical role of the regeneration process (PhD ’22) Adam is a PhD focused on ecosystem modeling and remote sensing. His research ... Continue Reading »
- Agriculture
- climate
- Earth System Models
- ecology
- Forest Regeneration
- Movement Ecology
- remote sensing
- Vegetation Dynamics
- Wildlife Ecology
Joseph Rand
MS
Environmental, Economic, and Social Trade-Offs of Hydropower Relicensing (MS ’16) Joseph is interested in the social, environmental, and economic trade-offs in energy development, and in particular the social conflicts arising ... Continue Reading »
Laura Moreno
MS, PhD
Everyday Transformations of Food to Waste: What and Why Food is Discarded in U.S. Households (PhD ’19) From digging through trash to looking inside of people’s refrigerators, Laura researches household-level ... Continue Reading »
Janine White
MS
Public Participation and the Hazardous Waste Management Planning Process in Alameda County (’89 M.S.)
- energy development/environmental degradation linkages
- hazardous substances and waste management
- public policy and participation
- risk perception
- waste treatment
David Von Hippel
MS, PhD
The Effect of Intensive Organic Matter Utilization on Soil Quality: Protecting the Soil Resource Without Giving Up On Biomass (’83 M.S.) An Analysis of an Ethanol-Producing Solar-Bioconversion Process Using the ... Continue Reading »
- Demand Side Management
- integrated resource planning
- international energy/environment modelling and sustainable development
Mark Stout
MA
Comparative Power Analysis of the California Electric Utility Industry Deregulation Process (’97 M.A.)
- electric utility restructuring
- environmental quality and social justice
- expanding renewable energy and energy efficiency
- progressive social movements
- sustainable transportation and land use
Susan Pantell
MA, PhD
Uncertainties in Cost-Benefit Analysis of Chlorofluorocarbon Use (’85 M.A.) Toxic Groundwater Pollution:Understanding the Politics and Organizational Process of Regulatory Response (’92 PhD)
Ashley Muspratt
MS, PhD
Health, Hygiene and Safe Drinking Water: A Process Documentation of an Education and Technology Intervention in the Behram Slum, Mumbai, India (06 MS) “Don’t Think of ‘Waste’ Water”: Evaluation and ... Continue Reading »
- sustainability indicators and the convergence of environmental with social and cultural sustainability
- water and sanitation in developing countries with a particular focus on China and other parts of Asia
Michael Matz
MA
Citizen Participation in Water Quality Regulation: Evaluating the Total Maximum Daily Load Process at Sonoma Creek (’05, MA)
Philippe Martin
MS, PhD
Qualitative Analysis: The Method and Its Use in Modeling the Influence of Space on Ecosystems (’86 M.S.) Forest Succession and Climate Change: Coupling Land-Surface Processes and Ecological Dynamics (’90 Ph.D.)
- atmosphere/biosphere interactions
- carbon cycling
- climate change and public health - especially malaria
- energy and resources geopolitics
- integrated environmental assessment
- terrestrial biosphere modeling
Dannette Lambert
MA
Political Opportunities and Framing Processes in Resistance to Uranium Mining: The Joar Case (’08 MA)
- environmental justice
- scientific understanding of environmental problems
- the study of social and behavioral issues
Ronald Kukulka
MS
Industrial Cogeneration in the California Food Processing Industry: An Analysis of the Potential and Barriers (’77 M.S.)
Ann Kinzig
PhD
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Ann Kinzig Ph.D. ’94 Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University Perhaps more than most alumni, Ann Kinzig’s intellectual path has traversed ERG’s interdisciplinary ... Continue Reading »
Edgar Hertwich
MS, PhD
Science and Value Judgement in the Toxic Impact Evaluation of Products, Processes, and Companies (’96 M.S.) Toxic Equivalency: Addressing Human Health Effects in Life Cycle Impact Assessment (’99 Ph.D.)
Adam Brandt
MS, PhD
Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel: Modeling the Carbon Emissions Consequences of a Transition to Low-Quality and Synthetic Petroleum Sources (’05 MS) Greenhouse gas impacts of declining hydrocarbon resource quality: ... Continue Reading »
Erica Newman
MS, PhD
Erica’s niche is fire, particularly in the ecologically sensitive region of French Polynesia. She has already been trained as a physicist, but her curiosity draws her to ecology. ERG has become a unique place for Erica to explore her aspirations in the biological sciences alongside those who have successfully trekked through similar transitions. Read in her own words how Erica has fine-tuned her fascinations while at ERG.
- anthropogenic impacts on fire regimes
- California chaparral
- climate change and biodiversity interactions
- Fire ecology and natural disturbance
- French Polynesia cloud forests and wet montane forests
- macroecology
Cleo Woelfle-Erskine
MS, PhD
In the tradition of Barad and Haraway, I practice Science and Technology Studies (STS) “from the inside”, drawing on my own natural science training to inform the theoretical frameworks I ... Continue Reading »
- community science
- groundwater-surface water interactions
- mediterranean streams
- rainwater harvesting
- salmonids
- Stephanie Carlson Lab
- watershed rehabilitation
Daniel Sanchez
MS, PhD
Daniel L. Sanchez holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Energy and Resources. He is interested in quantitative analysis to inform public policy, focusing on bioenergy and climate policy. His past research focused on design, deployment, and commercialization of bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) technologies. Daniel has previously held positions with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Green for All, and the California Public Utilities Commission.
Pierce Gordon
MS, PhD
Investigating Innovation Practice: Cross-disciplinary Studies in International Development (PhD ’18) As a NSF, Chancellor’s, and InFEWS Fellow in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), Pierce investigates frameworks, methodologies, and contexts ... Continue Reading »
- Actors/History in International Development
- Berkeley Expert System Technologies (BEST) Laboratory
- Design
- Design Thinking
- development
- Development Engineering
- Evaluation
- Impact Evaluation
- Marginalization
- Sub-Saharan Africa
Michael Cohen
MS, PhD
Michael Cohen puts the power and complexity of the grid into students' hands via a video game. We asked Michael about his innovative project and his unique experience at ERG. "In addition to developing the game itself, I am working with teachers at local high schools to develop curriculum around it and try it out with their students this year. I hope to not only create a solid educational product but also gain some insights into how technology can be used to support learning about complex systems in general."
- EMAC
- energy
- Energy System Modeling
- Integration of renewable electricity into power systems
- Video Gaming for Education
Juan Pablo Carvallo Bodelon
MS, PhD
Mind the Gap: Bridging Strategies for Universal Energy Access (PhD ’19) Since graduating as an electronics engineer in 2004, JP Carvallo has been working, studying, and researching different aspects of ... Continue Reading »
- electricity and energy markets
- Latin America
- national systems of innovation
- Renewable energy policy and institutions
- sustainability in less industrialized economies
News (18 results)
Top
ERG’s Dan Kammen in TIME on The Case Against Deep Seabed Mining
October 26, 2022
ERG’s Dan Kammen recently published an op-ed in TIME about the hazards of deep-sea mining. Kammen and co-author Sylvia Earle argue that deep-sea mining would greatly disrupt the natural sequestration ... Continue Reading »
New Study by Coalition of ERG Researchers Reveals True Social Cost of Carbon
September 1, 2022
Researchers from Rausser College’s Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Resources for the Future (RFF) have released a new estimate that the social cost of carbon (SCC), a key metric ... Continue Reading »
ERG Professor David Anthoff Provides a “Social Cost of Carbon” Roadmap
March 23, 2021
ERG assistant professor David Anthoff in a team of researchers recently published new analysis in the journal Nature, listing a series of measures the Biden administration should consider in recalculating the social cost of carbon (SCC). “Economic analysis is at the heart of the regulatory process in the U.S. and will therefore play a major role in shaping and informing the ambitious climate goals from the new administration,” Anthoff stated. “Our recommendations offer a roadmap for how this can be done in a way that is both scientifically rigorous and transparent.”
housing policy is climate policy Kammen and Senator Wiener: For America’s cities
March 25, 2019
In an op-ed today in the New York Times, professor Dan Kammen and state Senator Scott Wiener are blunt: “To solve the climate crisis, we have to solve the housing crisis.”
Alumna Laura Schewel Talks Transportation Analytics in ITS International
February 28, 2019
The January/February 2019 edition of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) International features an interview with ERG alumna Laura Schewel (MS ’11). Schewel is the CEO of Streetlight Data, a transportation analytics ... Continue Reading »
Energy by Whom? With ERG Alumna Nikky Avila
November 26, 2018
Nikky Avila (PhD ’18) was recently featured on the podcast “Somebody Call a Doctor.” Avila discusses how distributed energy technologies are disrupting conventional electricity planning paradigms and enabling social innovation. She ... Continue Reading »
Faculty and Alumni Encourage You to Vote! ERG Students
October 10, 2018
As the November 6, 2018 midterm elections approach, the Energy and Resources Group faculty, students, and alumni are taking action to increase voter participation. We encourage all voices to be heard ... Continue Reading »
Energy New ERG Courses Focus on Data
June 26, 2018
The Energy and Resources Group has announced two new courses this fall addressing current, timely topics in energy and environment. Registration is open.
Lyft Commits to Cancelling Out its Carbon Emissions – Will it Make a Difference?
May 23, 2018
Lyft announced its plans last month to purchase carbon offsets to cancel out the carbon emissions created by its drivers. It’s also part of a larger strategy to lessen Lyft’s ... Continue Reading »
WA Solar Powered “Net-Zero Community” on Lopez Island
March 6, 2018
ERG alumni Chris and Chom Greacen explain the vision and execution that brought to life the Common Ground community on Lopez Island, WA. Read about the project’s origins and objectives, efficiency ... Continue Reading »
Environmental Science Journal for Kids Gets Impact Assessment from ERG’s Siegner and Dimitrova
July 12, 2017
A foundational assumption is that if young readers are exposed to original scientific research presented in accessible manner, they will develop a better understanding of the scientific method and process.
ERG-led THIMBY Wins Categories in Tiny House Competition
October 25, 2016
The Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) team won several categories in the 2016 Sacramento Municipal District Tiny House Competition.
ERG at the Paris Climate Talks
December 1, 2015
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris has begun and will continue until December 11th. Energy and Resources Group faculty, students and alumni will be playing an active role at the conference and the many peripheral activities.
Torn Awarded Honorary Doctorate
May 6, 2015
ERG professor recognized for climate research at the University of Zurich
Zoë Chafe leads new WHO Report
March 12, 2015
"We wanted to help policymakers and members of the general public understand that household heating with biomass is a complicated issue," says ERG PhD candidate Zoë Chafe.
Anthoff & Team in Science on Social Cost of Carbon Pizer
December 6, 2014
Which way forward for the social cost of carbon? Environmental economists explain next steps in Science Magazine.
ERG Alum on the Executive Mansion’s Solar Installation
May 28, 2014
Watch White House scientists, including Dr. Cyrus Wadia (ERG MS'06, PhD'08), talk about the White House's shift toward renewables.
ERG PhD awarded as Ashoka Fellow
April 21, 2014
Fermin Reygadas receives top international award for social entrepreneurs.