I am interested in understanding how technology can be deployed to solve society’s problems. Inevitably, this requires that foresight be exercised to identify problems, as well to figure out how the obstacles associated with the adoption of new technologies might be overcome and pitfalls avoided.
For information on completed research projects, please see the publications page. This page lists ongoing projects, as well as past and present collaborators.
We estimate the lifetime magnitude and distribution of the private and public benefits and costs of currently installed distributed solar PV systems. Using data for recently-installed systems, we estimate the balance of benefits and costs associated with installing a non-utility solar PV system today. We also study the geographical distribution of the various subsidies that are made available to owners of rooftop solar PV systems, and compare it to distributions of population and income.
To deeply decarbonize the global energy system, a diverse portfolio of clean energy technologies must be deployed. Some of these are perceived poorly by the public, which would hamper their expansion. Nuclear power exhibits this phenomenon clearly. Extensive research over decades underscores the public’s difficult relationship with nuclear power: people perceive it as riskier than it actuarially is. In this paper, we conduct two surveys in which respondents are asked to evaluate nuclear power’s acceptability. For half of them, the technology is stripped of its label.
The goal of this project is to make explicit the heuristics by which experts decide whether or not a particular part is suitable for additive manufacturing (AM).
Addressing the major challenges facing our society, like fighting climate change or protecting children from polio, requires the engagement of a well-informed public. Citizens must be able to discriminate between fact and falsehood in the face of misinformation about science and public policy, misinformation that may be deliberately spread with the intent to support to a particular ideology or economic interest. This project will examine the mechanisms by which misinformation takes root and persists, and the produce new knowledge on the effectiveness of different ways preventing this from happening.
