ESPP Newsletter - Volume 1, Issue 2

WINTERSESSION TRIP

ALUMNI LETTER | OCTOBER 2014

ESPP Takes Florida “The field trip to Florida was certainly a highlight of my winter break. I was very excited to take part in interviewing Lake Placid locals and trying to construct a plausible plan for improved transportation in and around the town.The panel of regional planners, councilors, and professionals to which we presented was certainly helpful and served as a great culmination of the trip.” — ESPP Concentrator

Announcing the 2015 Wintersession Trip Graduate School of Design professor Richard Forman will lead the next January trip to the Sevilleta Field Station, operated by the University of New Mexico and located in central New Mexico (60 miles south of Albuquerque). Concentrators will explore the diverse ecological and biological landscape of the American Southwest. The station lies at the junction of several major ecosystems, and researchers have access to a broad diversity of habitats, including the Chihuanhuan Desert grasslands and shrublands; Colorado Plateau shrub-steppe; juniper savanna; the riparian Rio Grande corridor; and more.

The field trip will run on approximately January 14-21. More information will appear on our website soon.

In January 2014, fifteen concentrators traveled to the Archbold Biological Station, located seven miles south of Lake Placid, Florida, for a week of ecological studies on humanimprinted areas and land-use planning. Led by professor Richard Forman (pictured bottom left), Research Professor of Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; James McCarthy, Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography (top, center); and Alicia Harley ’08, the students visited a variety of habitats; evaluated competing land uses; and developed a land-use plan for a changing Highlands County, Florida landscape, which was later presented to a group of local townspeople.

Alumni Letter ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & PUBLIC POLICY CONCENTRATION

AUGUST 2014

Dear Alumni: It is with great pleasure that I write to you today in our Second Alumni Letter. I would like to thank you once again for participating in our alumni survey. As mentioned in the last Alumni Letter, this information was very useful as we undertook an internal review of the concentration last spring. The Board of Tutors used the data from the survey, on people’s career trajectories and post-graduate education, to formulate a recommendation to modify the requirements for an ESPP degree. While students will still be required to satisfy core requirements in the physical, biological, and social sciences and mathematics; the number of those courses has been reduced. Also, in consultation with their faculty advisor, concentrators will develop an individual plan of study for a series of advanced courses around a particular field of specialization. Through their field of specialization, students will develop expertise in a particular field of study relating to the environment. In their senior year, students will undertake a capstone project in which they conduct an in-depth examination of a particular environmental issue consistent with their field of specialization, applying skills and knowledge gained in their courses and tutorial experiences. For students wishing to be considered for honors, the capstone project will consist of a two-semester senior thesis.

In addition to the reduction in the concentration requirements, we also reduced secondary field requirements in Environmental Science and Public Policy. This spring, we launched a new Secondary Field in Energy and Environment. If you are interested in more information on our new requirements or secondary fields, please visit our website.

I am also pleased to announce plans for a ESPP alumni reunion event. We hope that you will join us for this event. We are considering the potential date of March 27-28, 2015. If you are interested in attending, please fill out the online poll (see right). More details on this event will be forthcoming–be sure to visit our website and facebook page for updates.

I hope to see many of you at our alumni event in 2015!

Paul Moorcroft, Chair On behalf of the ESPP Board of Tutors

ESPP Alumni Event Our first ESPP alumni reunion will involve panel discussions with ESPP alumni, students, and faculty about contemporary environmental issues, as well as time for more personal discussions and conversations. Please visit the following link to participate in the poll: http://bit.ly/1vRltte

Connect With Us Be sure to “like” the Environmental Science & Public Policy Facebook page to learn about events, read articles, and to stay connected to the program.

We are also on LinkedIn, with a special group just for ESPP alumni, faculty and current students. Connect with us to network with other ESPP alumni.

Photo (above, left to right): ESPP senior thesis writers Ethan Addicott, Jun Shepard,Valerie Shen, Emma Lucken, Hannah Morrill, Kristen Wraith, and Basil Williams.

ESPP ALUMNI PROFILE

ALUMNI LETTER | OCTOBER 2014

Meet Emma Lucken ‘14, Recipient of the “Best Senior Thesis in ESPP” Prize “Implementing Bicycle Infrastructure in Contested Environments: A Comparative Analysis of Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Boston”

Preparing for the Future “I think my undergraduate education was incredibly helpful in preparing me for my current position. I have worked in the energy and environment space since I graduated from Harvard undergrad in ‘95. I started in the non-profit and government sector, then realized that I could make the most impact in business and the environment.

I worked with electric utilities including Enron then went back to HBS. After HBS, I co-founded a company called SunEdison. I joined Next Step Living in Boston because I feel strongly that energy efficiency is the solution to a lot of our problems—it truly is the lowest hanging fruit.

The most important advice that I can offer incoming or current ESPP students is 1) talk to as many people as you can and research as much as you can about different career options as the environmental field is so interdisciplinary and there is no ONE perfect track, and 2) gather as many tools in your toolbox as possible so you are prepared for any situation, and follow both your interests and what you do best—that is where you will make the biggest difference!”

–Claire Broido Johnson ‘95, Chief of New Markets and Services, Next Step Living, Inc.

ESPP: Can you describe your senior thesis research and the work it entailed?

Emma: As the planet approaches a critical juncture with respect to climate change, the need for low-carbon transportation infrastructure becomes increasingly important. Cities have begun to address this need through support for bicycling, and their efforts raise a critical question: what strategies can planners and citizens use to successfully implement projects that encourage cycling? Most research on this topic has focused on design issues and physical interventions.

In contrast, my research compared Copenhagen, Rotterdam, and Boston to identify the strategies planners and advocates use to effectively implement bicycle infrastructure. I identified strategies by conducting interviews with over thirty transportation planners and bicycle advocates from these cities, isolating patterns in their responses, and comparing these patterns to existing literature on policy change.

ESPP: What career are you pursuing, and how did ESPP influence your path?

Emma: I currently work as a transportation analyst at the Volpe Transportation Center, which provides federal departments with any assistance they might need on transportation initiatives and research. An ESPP 78 group project on Atlanta’s public transportation system first prompted my interest in transportation planning. The ESPP program also provided me with opportunities to develop this interest by offering concentration credit for transportation and urban planning courses at the Graduate School of Design, the Harvard Kennedy School, and MIT. “I was extremely impressed by Emma’s thesis.The scale of her project was highly ambitious and the final product compares extremely well with the theses that I see in graduate programs at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.When Emma broached the idea for her project, which involved extensive fieldwork in three countries, I must say that I wondered whether such a study could be completed in the year available. I should not have worried! Not only did Emma succeed in establishing relationships with a large number of relevant contacts in each of her three study cities–Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Boston–but she also managed to conduct extensive and revealing interviews with these important players in bicycle infrastructure planning and policy. Emma’s project is impressive not least because it reflects her desire to research something that has been little studied and has real world consequences. Notably, she wanted to use the thesis as an opportunity to begin an important line of research that she intends to

ALUMNI LETTER | OCTOBER 2014

ESPP ALUMNI PROFILE

develop further, both academically and professionally, after graduation. I admire this willingness to engage with the complex issue of transportation policy and to be driven by intellectual curiosity around a topic that doesn’t have a natural home at Harvard.” —Michael Hooper, Associate Professor of Urban Planning, Graduate School of Design

ESPP Senior Thesis Poster Presentations The annual Senior Thesis Poster Presentations took place this past April, and drew a crowd of students, faculty, alumni and parents in support of graduating ESPP seniors. The following students presented their research, and later earned degrees from Harvard College during Commencement exercises on May 29, 2014.

wEthan Addicott, Characterizing a Three-Step Putative Formaldehyde Oxidation Pathway in Neurospora crassa

wEmma Lucken, Implementing Bicycle Infrastructure in Contested Environments: A Comparative Analysis of Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Boston wSamita Mohanasundaram, From our Gardens to our Bodies: The Leukemogenic Potential of the Agricultural Pesticide Mancozeb wHannah Morrill, Human Nature: Analysis of Social Capital from the Perspective of Disaster wValerie Shen, Cause of the Pause: Exploring the 21st Century Global Warming Hiatus wJun Shepard, The Business of Energy Policy: Analyzing the Impacts of Policies and Businesses on Solar Electricity Rates in Massachusetts wBasil Williams, Silent Sound: Uncertainty and Responsibility in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill wKristen Wraith, Respecting Pacha Mama:The Value of Tradition in Peruvian Agriculture

Photos (clockwise, from left): Basil Williams in Alaska;Valerie Shen and her thesis advisor, professor Daniel Schrag (SEAS, EPS); Ethan Addicott; Kristen Wraith immersed in field work in Peru; and Hannah Morrill and her thesis advisor, professor William Clark (HKS).

Inspiring Career Paths “My undergraduate education provided not only essential technical preparation for my present research, but was also the source of the intellectual motivation to pursue a career in environmental science in the first place. Before I ‘discovered’ the ESPP concentration during my sophomore year, I felt a bit at a loss about how to negotiate my various interests in many scientific disciplines. The ESPP concentration allowed me to put together an interdisciplinary course of study with a rigorous foundation in ecology, chemistry, physics, and statistics.

I found the process of developing, researching, and writing a Senior Thesis and the mentorship that I received during this experience particularly enjoyable, and it inspired me to pursue a career in environmental research.”

–Jaclyn Hatala Matthes‘07, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Dartmouth College

ESPP ALUMNI PROFILE

ALUMNI LETTER | OCTOBER 2014

Meet Emma Lucken ‘14, Recipient of the “Best Senior Thesis in ESPP” Prize “Implementing Bicycle Infrastructure in Contested Environments: A Comparative Analysis of Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Boston”

Preparing for the Future “I think my undergraduate education was incredibly helpful in preparing me for my current position. I have worked in the energy and environment space since I graduated from Harvard undergrad in ‘95. I started in the non-profit and government sector, then realized that I could make the most impact in business and the environment.

I worked with electric utilities including Enron then went back to HBS. After HBS, I co-founded a company called SunEdison. I joined Next Step Living in Boston because I feel strongly that energy efficiency is the solution to a lot of our problems—it truly is the lowest hanging fruit.

The most important advice that I can offer incoming or current ESPP students is 1) talk to as many people as you can and research as much as you can about different career options as the environmental field is so interdisciplinary and there is no ONE perfect track, and 2) gather as many tools in your toolbox as possible so you are prepared for any situation, and follow both your interests and what you do best—that is where you will make the biggest difference!”

–Claire Broido Johnson ‘95, Chief of New Markets and Services, Next Step Living, Inc.

ESPP: Can you describe your senior thesis research and the work it entailed?

Emma: As the planet approaches a critical juncture with respect to climate change, the need for low-carbon transportation infrastructure becomes increasingly important. Cities have begun to address this need through support for bicycling, and their efforts raise a critical question: what strategies can planners and citizens use to successfully implement projects that encourage cycling? Most research on this topic has focused on design issues and physical interventions.

In contrast, my research compared Copenhagen, Rotterdam, and Boston to identify the strategies planners and advocates use to effectively implement bicycle infrastructure. I identified strategies by conducting interviews with over thirty transportation planners and bicycle advocates from these cities, isolating patterns in their responses, and comparing these patterns to existing literature on policy change.

ESPP: What career are you pursuing, and how did ESPP influence your path?

Emma: I currently work as a transportation analyst at the Volpe Transportation Center, which provides federal departments with any assistance they might need on transportation initiatives and research. An ESPP 78 group project on Atlanta’s public transportation system first prompted my interest in transportation planning. The ESPP program also provided me with opportunities to develop this interest by offering concentration credit for transportation and urban planning courses at the Graduate School of Design, the Harvard Kennedy School, and MIT. “I was extremely impressed by Emma’s thesis.The scale of her project was highly ambitious and the final product compares extremely well with the theses that I see in graduate programs at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.When Emma broached the idea for her project, which involved extensive fieldwork in three countries, I must say that I wondered whether such a study could be completed in the year available. I should not have worried! Not only did Emma succeed in establishing relationships with a large number of relevant contacts in each of her three study cities–Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Boston–but she also managed to conduct extensive and revealing interviews with these important players in bicycle infrastructure planning and policy. Emma’s project is impressive not least because it reflects her desire to research something that has been little studied and has real world consequences. Notably, she wanted to use the thesis as an opportunity to begin an important line of research that she intends to

ALUMNI LETTER | OCTOBER 2014

ESPP ALUMNI PROFILE

develop further, both academically and professionally, after graduation. I admire this willingness to engage with the complex issue of transportation policy and to be driven by intellectual curiosity around a topic that doesn’t have a natural home at Harvard.” —Michael Hooper, Associate Professor of Urban Planning, Graduate School of Design

ESPP Senior Thesis Poster Presentations The annual Senior Thesis Poster Presentations took place this past April, and drew a crowd of students, faculty, alumni and parents in support of graduating ESPP seniors. The following students presented their research, and later earned degrees from Harvard College during Commencement exercises on May 29, 2014.

wEthan Addicott, Characterizing a Three-Step Putative Formaldehyde Oxidation Pathway in Neurospora crassa

wEmma Lucken, Implementing Bicycle Infrastructure in Contested Environments: A Comparative Analysis of Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Boston wSamita Mohanasundaram, From our Gardens to our Bodies: The Leukemogenic Potential of the Agricultural Pesticide Mancozeb wHannah Morrill, Human Nature: Analysis of Social Capital from the Perspective of Disaster wValerie Shen, Cause of the Pause: Exploring the 21st Century Global Warming Hiatus wJun Shepard, The Business of Energy Policy: Analyzing the Impacts of Policies and Businesses on Solar Electricity Rates in Massachusetts wBasil Williams, Silent Sound: Uncertainty and Responsibility in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill wKristen Wraith, Respecting Pacha Mama:The Value of Tradition in Peruvian Agriculture

Photos (clockwise, from left): Basil Williams in Alaska;Valerie Shen and her thesis advisor, professor Daniel Schrag (SEAS, EPS); Ethan Addicott; Kristen Wraith immersed in field work in Peru; and Hannah Morrill and her thesis advisor, professor William Clark (HKS).

Inspiring Career Paths “My undergraduate education provided not only essential technical preparation for my present research, but was also the source of the intellectual motivation to pursue a career in environmental science in the first place. Before I ‘discovered’ the ESPP concentration during my sophomore year, I felt a bit at a loss about how to negotiate my various interests in many scientific disciplines. The ESPP concentration allowed me to put together an interdisciplinary course of study with a rigorous foundation in ecology, chemistry, physics, and statistics.

I found the process of developing, researching, and writing a Senior Thesis and the mentorship that I received during this experience particularly enjoyable, and it inspired me to pursue a career in environmental research.”

–Jaclyn Hatala Matthes‘07, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Dartmouth College

WINTERSESSION TRIP

ALUMNI LETTER | OCTOBER 2014

ESPP Takes Florida “The field trip to Florida was certainly a highlight of my winter break. I was very excited to take part in interviewing Lake Placid locals and trying to construct a plausible plan for improved transportation in and around the town.The panel of regional planners, councilors, and professionals to which we presented was certainly helpful and served as a great culmination of the trip.” — ESPP Concentrator

Announcing the 2015 Wintersession Trip Graduate School of Design professor Richard Forman will lead the next January trip to the Sevilleta Field Station, operated by the University of New Mexico and located in central New Mexico (60 miles south of Albuquerque). Concentrators will explore the diverse ecological and biological landscape of the American Southwest. The station lies at the junction of several major ecosystems, and researchers have access to a broad diversity of habitats, including the Chihuanhuan Desert grasslands and shrublands; Colorado Plateau shrub-steppe; juniper savanna; the riparian Rio Grande corridor; and more.

The field trip will run on approximately January 14-21. More information will appear on our website soon.

In January 2014, fifteen concentrators traveled to the Archbold Biological Station, located seven miles south of Lake Placid, Florida, for a week of ecological studies on humanimprinted areas and land-use planning. Led by professor Richard Forman (pictured bottom left), Research Professor of Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; James McCarthy, Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography (top, center); and Alicia Harley ’08, the students visited a variety of habitats; evaluated competing land uses; and developed a land-use plan for a changing Highlands County, Florida landscape, which was later presented to a group of local townspeople.

Alumni Letter ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & PUBLIC POLICY CONCENTRATION

AUGUST 2014

Dear Alumni: It is with great pleasure that I write to you today in our Second Alumni Letter. I would like to thank you once again for participating in our alumni survey. As mentioned in the last Alumni Letter, this information was very useful as we undertook an internal review of the concentration last spring. The Board of Tutors used the data from the survey, on people’s career trajectories and post-graduate education, to formulate a recommendation to modify the requirements for an ESPP degree. While students will still be required to satisfy core requirements in the physical, biological, and social sciences and mathematics; the number of those courses has been reduced. Also, in consultation with their faculty advisor, concentrators will develop an individual plan of study for a series of advanced courses around a particular field of specialization. Through their field of specialization, students will develop expertise in a particular field of study relating to the environment. In their senior year, students will undertake a capstone project in which they conduct an in-depth examination of a particular environmental issue consistent with their field of specialization, applying skills and knowledge gained in their courses and tutorial experiences. For students wishing to be considered for honors, the capstone project will consist of a two-semester senior thesis.

In addition to the reduction in the concentration requirements, we also reduced secondary field requirements in Environmental Science and Public Policy. This spring, we launched a new Secondary Field in Energy and Environment. If you are interested in more information on our new requirements or secondary fields, please visit our website.

I am also pleased to announce plans for a ESPP alumni reunion event. We hope that you will join us for this event. We are considering the potential date of March 27-28, 2015. If you are interested in attending, please fill out the online poll (see right). More details on this event will be forthcoming–be sure to visit our website and facebook page for updates.

I hope to see many of you at our alumni event in 2015!

Paul Moorcroft, Chair On behalf of the ESPP Board of Tutors

ESPP Alumni Event Our first ESPP alumni reunion will involve panel discussions with ESPP alumni, students, and faculty about contemporary environmental issues, as well as time for more personal discussions and conversations. Please visit the following link to participate in the poll: http://bit.ly/1vRltte

Connect With Us Be sure to “like” the Environmental Science & Public Policy Facebook page to learn about events, read articles, and to stay connected to the program.

We are also on LinkedIn, with a special group just for ESPP alumni, faculty and current students. Connect with us to network with other ESPP alumni.

Photo (above, left to right): ESPP senior thesis writers Ethan Addicott, Jun Shepard,Valerie Shen, Emma Lucken, Hannah Morrill, Kristen Wraith, and Basil Williams.