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
Project
- Biofuels “Managing Financial Risks in Algae Production for Biofuel and Co-products.”
Hunter Spitzer
Research Specialist
Graduate Students
Rosa Cuppari, MS
Doctoral Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
rcuppari@live.unc.edu
Project
- Columbia Basin “Leveraging Natural Resource Concentration and Conveyance in the Energy Water Food Nexus to Increase Security and Resilience”
François Daudelin
Doctoral Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
fradau@ad.unc.edu
Project
- Infectious Disease
Kieran Fitzmaurice
Master’s student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
kfitzmaurice@unc.edu
Project
- Flooding
Madison Haley
Master’s student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
mchaley@unc.edu
Project
- Central Arizona
Zachary Hirsch
Master’s Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
zhirsch@unc.edu
Project
- Colorado Basin
Christina Petagna
Master’s Student
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
cpetagna@unc.edu
Project
- Tampa Bay
Recent Center Alumni
Rachel Baum, PhD
8 Rivers, Durham, NC
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
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
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
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
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
Yufei Su, PhD
S&P Global, Shanghai
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
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