Energy, Environment & Infrastructure Research
Students interested in energy, infrastructure, and the environment contribute in a variety of ways to RAND research both within the U.S. and around the globe. Student work in this area has supported research on water, transportation, and energy policy, valuation of ecosystem services, and community resilience. Additionally, each year the John and Carol Cazier Initiative for Energy and Environmental Sustainability supports students with up to $40,000 in dissertation-related funding.
Student-Faculty Research Collaborations
Through project-based research, students work with faculty mentors to obtain professional skills and tacit knowledge that courses alone cannot convey. Here are a few recent projects and their resulting research.
Cazier Initiative Promotes Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Through this initiative, students and faculty are working with external stakeholders to turbocharge research and generate new concepts, tools, and methods to improve public policy and the commercial sector.
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Exposure of U.S. Infrastructure to Natural Hazards
Students Lauren Kendrick and Katie Loa (both cohort '12) worked with alum Edmundo Molina-Perez ('11) and professors Jordan Fischbach ('04) and Henry Willis to measure the current exposure of infrastructure to natural hazards, and how much this could increase due to climate change.
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Informing Pittsburgh's Options to Address Lead in Water
With Cazier Initiative support, student Michele Abbott (cohort '14) and professor Jordan Fischbach (cohort '04) reviewed the use of lead in Pittsburgh's water system and the policy options for lead remediation currently being weighed by local decisionmakers.
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