Anyuat, John Arou

Anyuat John Arou, is a lec­turer of Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­sity of Juba in Juba, South Sudan. He is also the CEO of the Renew­able Energy Coun­cil of South Sudan (RECOSS).

His Research focuses on Power Sys­tems Stud­ies; espe­cially power qual­ity Con­trol in vari­able renew­able resources (VRE) – Based Micro­grids. Arou grad­u­ated from Nde­jje Uni­ver­sity, Kam­pala, Uganda, and received the Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Elec­tri­cal Power from New­cas­tle Uni­ver­sity, New­cas­tle Upon Tyne, UK and cur­rently pur­su­ing Doc­tor of Engi­neer­ing in Elec­tri­cal & Com­puter Engi­neer­ing from the Yoko­hama National Uni­ver­sity, Yoko­hama, Japan.

Con­tact: anyuat2​0​0​0​@​gmail.​com

Kersey, Jess

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.

Martha Hoffmann

In her doc­toral stud­ies in Ger­many, Martha is work­ing on the real­iza­tion of a socially just and accepted energy tran­si­tion. For this, she plans to add social and eco­log­i­cal aspects to the cur­rent tech­ni­cal and eco­nom­i­cal focus within energy tran­si­tion plan­ning processes. The devel­op­ment of an inte­grated energy sys­tem model will assess the impact of energy mar­ket reforms on com­mu­nity and house­hold level as well as their impli­ca­tions for dis­trib­u­tive jus­tice. Her inter­ests, broadly, encom­pass, energy jus­tice, the energy tran­si­tion, energy mod­el­ing, and Open Source meth­ods and strategies.

Her work is super­vised by Prof. Dr. Pao-​​Yu Oei from the Depart­ment of Energy and Envi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment at Europa-​​Universität Flens­burg (EUF).

Martha wrote her mas­ters degree the­sis  at the TU Berlin in the research group Off-​​Grid Sys­tems at the Reiner Lemoine Insti­tut and devel­oped the sim­u­la­tion tool Off­grid­ders, which sizes elec­tri­fi­ca­tion options. Fol­low­ing  this, from 2019 to 2021, she worked as a researcher at the Reiner Lemoine Insti­tut and was respon­si­ble for the project man­age­ment within the scope of the H2020 research project E-​​LAND, in which RLI devel­ops and applies a sim­u­la­tion tool for sec­tor cou­pled energy sys­tems (Multi-​​Vector Sim­u­la­tor).

Martha’s fel­low­ship is financed through the C-​​BEAR+ project (link: https://reiner-lemoine–insti​tut​.de/​e​n​/​c​-​b​e​ar/) , funded by the Fed­eral Min­istry for Eco­nomic Affairs and Cli­mate Action of Germany.

She will be a vis­it­ing scholar at RAEL for Spring 2023

Con­tact: martha.​hoffmann@​rl-​stiftung.​de

Joyceline Marealle

Joyce­line is a Tan­zan­ian who holds a bachelor’s degree in chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing from the Uni­ver­sity of Rochester.

Her research inter­est lies in energy decen­tral­iza­tion, diver­si­fi­ca­tion, eco­nom­ics and pol­icy mak­ing to empower women and improve the stan­dard of liv­ing in East Africa.

She cur­rently works at the Renew­able & Appro­pri­ate Energy Lab­o­ra­tory on Off grid sys­tems in remote areas in East Africa.

Prior to her MS, Joyce­line interned at MIT and con­ducted research on alu­minum bat­ter­ies for elec­tric vehi­cles. Addi­tion­ally, since 2017 she has been work­ing to empower mar­gin­al­ized young women of New Hope For Girls Orga­ni­za­tion in Tan­za­nia. Among her recent projects is her team win­ning a $10,000 Davis Project for Peace Fel­low­ship to estab­lish a green­house farm­ing busi­ness to act as a sus­tain­able income gen­er­a­tor for the girls.

Sam Miles

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.

Annelise Gill-​​Wiehl

At ERG Annelise has con­tin­ued the study of com­mu­nity energy solu­tions, with both cook­ing and com­mu­nity exten­sion ser­vices focal areas for her ana­lytic and field studies.

Annelise Gill-​​Wiehl stud­ied envi­ron­men­tal engi­neer­ing and inter­na­tional devel­op­ment stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of Notre Dame.  There, she worked with the Keough School of Global Affairs’ Asso­ciate Dean for Pol­icy and Prac­tice, Sara Siev­ers, through the Kel­logg Inter­na­tional Schol­ars Pro­gram. They inves­ti­gated how to incor­po­rate the pref­er­en­tial option for the poor into pol­icy. Gill-Wiehl’s own research inves­ti­gates energy infra­struc­ture and the bar­ri­ers to tech­nol­ogy adop­tion. Gill-​​Wiehl and Pro­fes­sor Siev­ers piloted a Com­mu­nity Tech­nol­ogy Pro­gram in Shi­rati, Tan­za­nia through a Kel­logg Research Grant.

While an under­grad­u­ate she interned for the Foun­da­tion of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment in Masaka, Uganda. Addi­tion­ally, Gill-​​Wiehl con­ducted roughly 200 house­hold energy sur­veys through an Expe­ri­enc­ing the World Fel­low­ship to inves­ti­gate energy infra­struc­ture in Shi­rati. Her research inter­ests are at the inter­sec­tion of engi­neer­ing and pol­icy in the East African con­text. She hopes to pur­sue a PhD to fur­ther inves­ti­gate these issues.

The­sis Title: Pilot of Com­mu­nity Tech­nol­ogy Work­ers in Shi­rati, Tanzania

Gbemisola “Gbemi” Akinsipe

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)

Yu, Hilary

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.

Kuan, John Akol Akol

Akol Kuan is a civil engi­neer­ing major and Maser­Card Foun­da­tion Scholar at UC Berkeley.

In RAEL, Akol is focus­ing on the design and oper­a­tion of clean energy mini-​​grids for refugee com­mu­ni­ties, with a project focused on the UNHCR Kakuma Refugee Camp.  Kakuma is a town in north­west­ern Turkana County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR refugee camp, estab­lished in 1969. The pop­u­la­tion of Kakuma town was over 180,000 in 2016, hav­ing grown from around 8,000 in 1990.

Patel, Serena

Ser­ena is an Energy Engi­neer­ing major at UC Berke­ley, where she is engaged in num­ber of activ­i­ties, including:

Work­ing at the Stu­dent Envi­ron­men­tal Resource Cen­ter under the Zero Waste Research Cen­ter to help food ven­dors achieve zero waste goals, cre­at­ing a cul­ture of zero waste within the stu­dent body through edu­ca­tion, and con­duct­ing research on com­postable plas­tics recycling.

Dur­ing the Spring 2018 semes­ter Ser­ena is lead­ing a group of 9 stu­dents in work­ing with the local non­profit, Grid Alter­na­tives, to install solar pan­els on low income fam­ily homes in Sali­nas, Cal­i­for­nia dur­ing spring break. Her respon­si­bil­i­ties include co-​​facil­i­tat­ing a class about energy access, equity, energy pol­icy, and solar energy tech­nol­ogy in Cal­i­for­nia as well as coor­di­nat­ing hous­ing, fundrais­ing, and trans­porta­tion to the location.

In RAEL Ser­ena is focus­ing on the design, oper­a­tion, power sys­tems opti­miza­tion, and social impacts of the clean energy mini-​​​​grid pow­er­ing the Human Needs Project in Kib­era, Kenya.”