Brissa Acevedo is a Ph.D. student in the dual degree Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto. Brissa holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Her undergraduate research focused on quantifying the adverse impacts of shampoo, wastewater treatment, and renewable energy. Brissa researches community perceptions and impacts on regional decarbonization investments, advised by Dr. Baruch Fischhoff and Dr. Lia Patrício.

Emily Allendorf is a second year PhD student in CMU's department of Engineering and Public Policy. She is currently using techno-economic analysis and machine learning to assess the feasibility of adopting short-term technologies for steel decarbonization. More broadly, she is interested in how machine learning and optimization can be leveraged to understand the adoption of industrial decarbonization and electrification technologies. Prior to CMU, she worked for 2.5 years at the RAND Corporation. Her work used modeling and simulation across many applications, including climate-conflict modeling, critical minerals supply chains, and commercial space launch acquisitions. She also has a B.A. from UCLA where she pursued a dual degree in Statistics and Political Science.

Hannah Boyles is a first year PhD student in the department of Engineering and Public Policy. Hannah is from Amsterdam, the Netherlands and received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2022. Prior to starting at CMU, Hannah spent two years as a consultant in the federal sector, working on engineering analysis for the Department of Energy Appliance and Equipment Standards Program. Hannah’s research focus is on decarbonization pathways for the iron and steel industry.  

​Annabel Qihui Hu is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at Heinz College. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics, Finance, and Statistics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her master’s degree in Economics from Duke University. Annabel is passionate about environmental economics, with a research focus spanning air quality, monitoring, and environmental justice. Her current research focuses on the impacts of blast furnace closures in the iron and steel industry on local air quality and employment.

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John Mantus is a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy. His research combines economic analysis, atmospheric modeling, and large-scale geospatial data to study the environmental, public-health, and market consequences of energy and industrial systems. His current work estimates air-pollution damages across global critical-mineral supply chains and examines how disruptions to energy infrastructure affect fuel markets.

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Zaina is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, co-advised by Dr. Valerie Karplus and Dr. Peter Adams. She is currently researching green industrial development in Southern Africa and its economic, air quality, climate, and environmental justice impacts. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Rutgers University, where she did a senior thesis on the exposure of different racial groups to nitrogen dioxide pollution within metropolitan regions across the US. 

Jillian Miles is a third year PhD student in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy from Richmond, Virginia. She received her B.S. in Systems Engineering from the George Washington University in 2018, and then spent four years as a federal sector consultant working on topics such as renewable energy adoption and critical mineral strategy. She currently researches the labor, equity, and financial implications of industrial decarbonization.

Hannah Morin is pursuing a Joint PhD in both Engineering and Public Policy and Materials Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on lithium ion battery technology, economics, and policy, with a recent focus on EV fast charging battery diagnosis and lab to commercialization modeling. Before joining Carnegie Mellon, she completed a Chemistry BSc and a Public Policy MA (conc. Energy and Environmental Policy) from the University of Chicago.

Tamar Moss is a first-year PhD student in the Department of  Engineering and Public Policy (EPP), advised by Dr. Valerie Karplus. She received her B.A. in Environmental Studies from Brandeis University in 2021. She has previously worked with energy system optimization models and then served as a Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Innovator Fellow at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. She is interested in distributional impacts of the clean energy transition. 

Judy is a second-year PhD student in the department of Engineering and Public Policy, co-advised by Dr. Valerie Karplus and Dr. Nicholas Muller. Her research models the climate change, air quality, and environmental equity impacts of industrial decarbonization pathways, currently focusing on the iron and steel industry. Before coming to CMU, she spent three years working as an engineering consultant for clients in the mining and metals industry across Canada, USA, Central America, and Asia, which sparked her interest in industrial decarbonization, environmental justice, and sustainable development. Judy holds a B.Eng. in Honours Mechanical Engineering from McGill University, where she did undergraduate research on flame instabilities in airborne metal particle combustion.

John Paul Pieper is a PhD student in the Laboratory for Energy and Organizations (LEO) group in Engineering and Public Policy (EPP), advised by Dr. Valerie Karplus and Dr. Kate Whitefoot. His research focuses on electric vehicle manufacturer responses to critical material supply chain uncertainties. He graduated from Purdue University with a M.S and B.S in Environmental and Ecological Engineering.

Michelle Wang is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, co-advised by Dr. Valerie Karplus and Dr. Christophe Combemale. Her research focuses on the economic and workforce implications of large-scale data center deployment. She studies how data center-driven electricity demand affects electricity infrastructure expansion, labor needs, and regional economic development.

Wei Xiao is a PhD student in the Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) Department of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), advised by Professor Valerie Karplus. Her research focuses on the economic, environmental, and public health impacts of industrial decarbonization, with a focus on the iron and steel industry. She is currently studying the costs, CO2 emissions, and air quality impacts of decarbonizing the existing integrated steelmaking industry through carbon capture and sequestration.