Center On Financial Risk in Environmental Systems (CoFiRES)

People

Faculty

Greg Characklis, PhD
W. R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor,
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Director, Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems
charack@email.unc.edu

Website:
https://sph.unc.edu/adv_profile/gregory-characklis-phd/


Jordan Kern, PhD
Associate Director, Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems,
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Sciences & Engineering,
Assistant Professor, Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University
jkern@ncsu.edu

Website:
https://kern.wordpress.ncsu.edu//

Projects

  • Biofuels “Managing Financial Risks in Algae Production for Biofuel and Co-products.”
  • Catawba Basin “Evaluating the Physical and Financial Vulnerabilities of Power Systems to Drought in the Southeastern U.S.”
  • California “The Sustainability-Productivity Tradeoff: Water supply vulnerabilities and adaptation opportunities in California’s coupled agricultural and energy sectors”
  • Columbia Basin “Leveraging Natural Resource Concentration and Conveyance in the Energy Water Food Nexus to Increase Security and Resilience”

 

Research Staff

Rachel Kleiman, MS
Graduate Researcher
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
rkleiman@live.unc.edu

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Biofuels “Managing Financial Risks in Algae Production for Biofuel and Co-products.”

Hunter Spitzer
Hunter Spitzer
Research Specialist


Graduate Students


Rosa Cuppari, MS
Doctoral Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
rcuppari@live.unc.edu

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Columbia Basin “Leveraging Natural Resource Concentration and Conveyance in the Energy Water Food Nexus to Increase Security and Resilience”

François Daudelin
François Daudelin
Doctoral Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
fradau@ad.unc.edu

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Infectious Disease

Kieran Fitzmaurice
Kieran Fitzmaurice
Master’s student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
kfitzmaurice@unc.edu

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Flooding

Madison Haley
Madison Haley
Master’s student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
mchaley@unc.edu

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Central Arizona

Zachary Hirsch
Zachary Hirsch
Master’s Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
zhirsch@unc.edu

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Colorado Basin


Christina Petagna
Master’s Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
cpetagna@unc.edu

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Tampa Bay

 

Recent Center Alumni

Rachel Baum, PhD
8 Rivers, Durham, NC

LinkedIn page

Project

  • US Water Utilities “Risk pooling to mitigate drought-related financial losses for water utilities”

Simona Denaro, PhD
RED: Risk Engineering + Development, Milano Italy

Projects

  • Catawba Basin “Evaluating the Physical and Financial Vulnerabilities of Power Systems to Drought in the Southeastern U.S.”
  • Columbia Basin “Leveraging Natural Resource Concentration and Conveyance in the Energy Water Food Nexus to Increase Security and Resilience”


Ben Foster, MS
CEO, Lotic Labs

Project

  • Mississippi Basin “Characterizing and managing the financial risks of drought along the Mississippi River”

David Gorelick, PhD
AAAS Fellow, Washington, DC

LinkedIn page


Andrew Hamilton, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University

Website: https://www.andrewlhamilton.com/

Project

  • California “The Sustainability-Productivity Tradeoff: Water Supply Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Opportunities in California’s Coupled Agricultural and Energy Sectors”

Joy Hill, MS
Pacific Gas & Electric, San Francisco, CA

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Columbia Basin “Leveraging Natural Resource Concentration and Conveyance in the Energy Water Food Nexus to Increase Security and Resilience”

Adam Hise, MS
Ascend Analytics, Boulder, CO

LinkedIn page

Projects

  • California “The Sustainability-Productivity Tradeoff: Water supply vulnerabilities and adaptation opportunities in California’s coupled agricultural and energy sectors”
  • Biofuels “Managing Financial Risks in Algae Production for Biofuel and Co-products.”

Eliot Meyer, PhD
Hazen and Sawyer, Lancaster, PA

LinkedIn page

Project

  • Great Lakes “Managing the financial risks of low water levels in the Great Lakes”

Corey Pahel-Short, MS
North Carolina Electric Cooperatives, Raleigh, NC

LinkedIn page


Yufei Su, PhD
S&P Global, Shanghai

LinkedIn page

Projects

  • California “The Sustainability-Productivity Tradeoff: Water supply vulnerabilities and adaptation opportunities in California’s coupled agricultural and energy sectors”
  • Columbia Basin “Leveraging Natural Resource Concentration and Conveyance in the Energy Water Food Nexus to Increase Security and Resilience”

Hope Thomson, MPH
Project Director, UNC Environmental Finance Center

LinkedIn page


Harrison (H.B.) Zeff, PhD
Research Scientist
Bureau of Reclamation, Boulder, CO
Projects

  • California “The Sustainability-Productivity Tradeoff: Water supply vulnerabilities and adaptation opportunities in California’s coupled agricultural and energy sectors”
  • Galveston Bay “Decision-Making After an Environmental Emergency: Impacts and mitigation of environmental emergency-related contamination events across the-to-outcome continuum”

Characklis Group Alumni

Ms. Marta Andreoni, visiting M.S. student (Politecnico di Milano)

Ms. Laura Bellagamba, visiting M.S. student (Politecnico di Milano)

Mr. Casey Caldwell (M.S.E.E.), Hazen & Sawyer, Denver, CO

Dr. Adrienne Cizek (M.S.E.E.; Ph.D., NCSU),
Project Engineer at Stormwater Solutions Engineering, Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Dr. Mackenzie (Dilts) Boyer (M.S.E.E.; Ph.D., Florida), Faculty Associate, Arizona State University

Ms. Patricia Drummey-Stiegel (M.S.E.E.), Hazen & Sawyer, Raleigh, NC

Mr. Scott Durbin (M.S.E.E.), Sustainable Water Designs, Inc., San Francisco, CA

Mr. Josh Hunn (M.S.), Michael Baker Corp., Washington, D.C.

Ms. Kavya Kasturi (M.S.E.E.), ERG, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Jordan Kern (Ph.D./M.S.), Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

Dr. Brian Kirsch (Ph.D./M.S.), Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc., Denver, CO.

Dr. Leigh-Anne Krometis (Ph.D.), Associate Professor, Virginia Tech

Dr. Joseph Lobuglio, (Ph.D.), Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, North Carolina School of Science and Math

Mr. Reed Palmer (M.S.), Hazen & Sawyer, Raleigh, NC.

Ms. Jocelyn Ramsey (M.S.E.E.), Powel Group, Victoria, BC, Canada

Ms. Sarah Royster (M.S.), Cypress Creek Renewables, Santa Monica, CA

Mr. Steve Russo (M.S.E.E.), New York City Dept. of Education, New York, NY

Ms. Emma (Susick) Brinkley (M.S), IQVIA, Raleigh, NC

Ms. Andrea Traviglia (M.S.E.E.), USEPA, Boston, MA