Xi Xi is a Master’s student for the Energy Resource group. Xi Xi uses interdisciplinary methods such as quantitative modeling techniques and policy analyses to assess impacts on emissions, energy use, and other socio-economic indicators. Xi Xi looks forward to applying her knowledge in the context of international development. Xi Xi would also like to study how developing countries may be affected by or benefit from tensions between China and the West related to China’s emerging role in international development and international climate politics.
In RAEl she is researching US-China climate policy, decarbonization in Africa, and China’s role in Africa, among other topics.
Prior to joining ERG, Xi Xi earned a BA from Wellesley College. Xi Xi has worked for the Institute for Global Decarbonization Progress (iGDP), Abt, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC).
Xi Xi also enjoys traveling in their free time.
Ari Ball-Burack is a first year PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Dr. Dan Kammen. He studies data and computational tools to inform effective decarbonization policy. Specifically, he is interested in incorporating key complexities such as justice and equity, behaviorally realistic decision-making, and technological innovation in energy policy decision support tools. His current research investigates decarbonization policy interactions at the national and global levels, distributional equity in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and representations of consumer adoption in multi-sector energy system models.
Ari graduated from Williams College, where he studied Computer Science and Physics, and received MPhil degrees in Advanced Computer Science and Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining ERG, he worked as a researcher at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Ari enjoys running, playing music, and quality time with loved ones (ideally in nature).
Jess Kersey is a fourth-year PhD student broadly interested in technology, regulation, and policy to improve energy access and climate adaptation efforts across multiple geographies including East Africa, Latin America, and island nations. Jess is also a research affiliate of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and consults with ESMAP, the Asian Development Bank, and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet.
Her current work focuses on deconstructing urban/binary spatial categorizations and highlighting how examining energy poverty with greater spatial nuance reveals access barriers for the growing populations in informal and/or peri-urban communities. She leads the Spotlight Kampala project, which is a multi-stakeholder research partnership to understand energy access affordability, safety, formality, reliability, and quality in informal settlements.
Jess holds dual bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering and political science from Virginia Tech. She previously worked as an energy engineer with AECOM’s Energy business line providing technical, project management, and business development support for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainability projects. She has a diverse engineering background which includes experience in energy, construction management, and disaster relief both domestically and internationally including work in Haiti, Panama, El Salvador, the US Virgin Islands, and Iraq.
Sam Miles is a Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group, and in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.
His research focus is at the intersection of the scalability challenge for electricity mini-grids and the socio-economic characteristics of urbanization in Africa, particularly for the artisans and entrepreneurs who constitute the ‘productive’ users of such energy systems. He will engage with these questions as an INFEWS (Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems) NSF scholar.
Previous to life at ERG, Sam worked as a freelance writer covering technology in emerging markets, an educator at the African Leadership University in Mauritius, and as an international development consultant based in West Africa. He holds an MA in International Energy from Sciences Po — Paris and a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale.
My interests range from the integration of renewables into existing grids,the possibility of indigenes (especially women) in rural communities producing their own power or at least understanding its workings and the interaction between science and policy making in developing countries. I would love to study in the Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) or the Energy Modeling, Analysis and Control Group (EMAC)
Jess Carney is interested in understanding how sustainable energy integration impacts power grids and electricity markets. She received her undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University in 2018, where she majored in Environmental Science and minored in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. She has held internships at the Independent System Operator or New England (ISO-NE), studying environmental policy and its effect on carbon emissions and energy prices, and at the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), analyzing the impact of high renewable penetration on system stability and integrating state renewable goals into transmission planning procedures.
She has wide-ranging interests that include renewable energy integration, grid stability, energy access, and energy literacy and education.
Hilary received her B.A. in Government and Biological Sciences, with a concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the latter, from Cornell University, where she graduated in 2015. At ERG, Hilary is interested in exploring the science-law nexus and the factors – political, economic, and social – that inform the translation of science into legislation. Her academic interests additionally include topics in sustainable development, climate change education, restoration ecology, water and energy efficiency, and environmental justice. Hilary was previously involved in researching energy and wildlife issues as an intern with the NRDC’s Northern Rockies office, and in the year before coming to ERG, she spent some time pursuing another passion, working in Malawi on a death penalty sentence rehearing project. Hilary is a Gates Foundation Millennium Fellow.
Kenji is a Ph.D. student with the Goldman School of Public Policy and a researcher in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. His current research interests include empirical studies and quantitative modeling on the effectiveness of renewable energy policies in developing and developed countries for effective decision making. He is also interested in developing better tools for quantitative assessment of the multiple benefits of climate policies such as energy access, job creation, and technology development and transfer.
Kenji has more than 10 years of professional experiences in the area of Japan’s and international environmental policies as a Deputy Director for Market-based Climate Policy of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, a Managing Director of the Global Environment Centre Foundation, etc. For example, he has spearheaded and managed various government energy incentive programs for funding energy efficient and renewable energy projects in Japan as well as in Southeast Asia and Africa under the Joint Crediting Mechanism, bilateral cooperation scheme between 14 countries and Japanese Government. He has also initiated and led international cooperation initiatives on environmental policy planning, capacity building, and technology transfer focused on low-carbon city development with Japanese municipalities for Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Vientiane (Lao PDR), and other cities. He has negotiated at COP 18 and 19 of the UNFCCC as an international negotiator of the Japanese delegation on technology transfer. Outside of environmental policies, he is a creator and a leading trainer of policy analysis training courses for Japanese policy professionals.
He holds an MPP with the Smolensky Prize (the Best Advanced Policy Analysis (master’s thesis)) from UC Berkeley, for which Dan Kammen was his APA advisor. Kenji has a MEng and a BEng in Chemical Engineering from University of Tokyo.