Eight graduate students concluded academic-year research fellowships with University of Chicago faculty as part of the James Bartlett Fellowship Program in Energy and Environmental Policy and the DRW Graduate Fellowship in Economics & Policy. The fellows contributed to cutting-edge research projects on topics including energy consumption, nuclear power, and corporate sustainability commitments. Through spending a full academic year working closely with faculty mentors, the fellows have formed invaluable connections, gained months of hands-on research experience, and developed new skills for their academic and professional journeys.
Learn more about the fellows’ experiences in their own words below.
Praveen Chandar Devarajan
DRW Fellow; Mentor: Fiona Burlig, Assistant Professor, Harris School of Public Policy
Praveen Chandar Devarajan worked with Fiona Burlig studying the effects of time of use pricing on customer energy consumption and price. Their research applied identifying techniques such as regression discontinuity to California utility service PG&E’s phased roll out of time of use pricing for retail customers over 2021 and 2022. Chandar Devarajan’s role was to help bring large scale data at an hourly level to data at customers and bills level. This involves creating an ETL pipeline to clean, transform and load the data into usable formats.
“[The fellowship] has given me an introduction to working with large scale utilities data. I’m interested in now completing this RDD regression and perhaps look at the application of similar research to other areas. Working on this research has also given me more experience and context within the Energy and Environment domain, to build on this work for other projects and research areas.”
Haoran Gao
DRW Fellow; Mentor: Shaoda Wang, Assistant Professor, Harris School of Public Policy
Haoran Gao worked with Shaoda Wang on a project aiming to document the decline in the growth of nuclear power plants globally, and to understand the mechanisms driving such changes. Specifically, Gao examined whether campaign contributions from fossil fuel special interest groups increased after Chernobyl, and whether such contributions became strongly associated with negative votes on nuclear-related bills after Chernobyl.
“This internship has been instrumental in shaping my future career in public policy. The research project I worked on seamlessly integrated policy relevance with rigorous empirical analysis. Engaging with real-world policy issues through a scholarly lens has deepened my understanding of the intersection between research and policymaking. This experience has not only refined my ability to tackle policy-relevant questions but also reinforced my commitment to pursuing a career where I can contribute meaningful insights to public policy debates.”
Lina Gonzalez
Bartlett Fellow; Mentor: Kim Wolske, Research Associate Professor, Harris School of Public Policy
Lina Gonzalez worked with Kim Wolske on research to understand the behavioral factors influencing household decisions around adopting energy efficiency technologies — including rooftop solar, smart thermostats, insulation, and energy-efficient appliances. A key part of her role was supporting Professor Wolske in updating a forthcoming book on energy adoption from a behavioral science perspective. Gonzalez conducted in-depth literature reviews, focusing on studies from the last seven years, to ensure the content reflected the most recent research in the field.
“The internship allowed me to apply theoretical concepts in a real-world context, reinforcing what I was learning in class about decision-making, heuristics, and policy design. It taught me that promoting energy transition requires more than just financial incentives—it also demands attention to how people think, feel, and act. Combining both economic and behavioral insights has been instrumental in shaping how I approach complex energy and climate policy challenges.”
Nikhil Konatham
Bartlett Fellow; Mentor: Hajin Kim, Assistant Professor, Law School
Nikhil Konatham worked with Professor Hajin Kim analysing corporate sustainability reports, using natural language processing (NLP) analysis and follow-up regression analyses, to assess their reporting standards in terms of robustness and quantitative nature. Following the conclusion of the fellowship, Konatham will be joining Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting firm.
“Being involved with a faculty member throughout the span of an academic year was very helpful in making lasting impact to the project I was working on. While technical successes in specific tasks abound in most research engagements, the fellowship has enabled me to get deeply involved in ideation and steering the overall project towards its broader goals. This was only possible because of the long-term engagement and familiarity developed throughout.”
Yun Liu
DRW Fellow; Mentor: Hajin Kim, Assistant Professor, Law School
Yun Liu worked with Professor Hajin Kim on the analysis of ESG reports to identify patterns of inauthentic communication using natural language processing and machine learning techniques. Liu played a key role in organizing and curating large-scale ESG document datasets, developing metadata extraction pipelines, and evaluating named entity recognition models for regulatory variables. Her work included designing and testing algorithms to improve the detection of relevant disclosures, automating metadata management, and ensuring data quality for downstream analysis.
“During my fellowship, I significantly strengthened my skills in data science, including advanced natural language processing (NLP), machine learning model evaluation, and large-scale metadata management. I gained hands-on experience with BERT and domain-specific entity recognition models, learned to design robust data pipelines for unstructured text, and enhanced my proficiency in Python and related tools. Additionally, I developed project management and interdisciplinary collaboration skills, working alongside experts in law, policy, and computer science. These experiences have prepared me to tackle complex challenges in data-driven research and have broadened my ability to communicate technical results to policy-oriented audiences.”
Clarice Tee
Bartlett Fellow; Mentor: Eyal Frank, Assistant Professor, Harris School of Public Policy
Clarice Tee collaborated with Professor Eyal Frank and his colleagues at UBC on a research project analyzing the socioeconomic impacts of the Natura 2000 network in the European Union. Her role involved processing and analyzing extensive geospatial and socioeconomic datasets to assess how the designation of protected areas under Natura 2000 influences economic indicators such as employment, income levels, and land use patterns. This work aimed to provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of conservation policies in balancing ecological preservation with socioeconomic development.
“This internship was instrumental in shaping my future career in public policy by providing hands-on experience in environmental data analysis and policy research. The process of developing a comprehensive panel dataset from 1980 to 2021 honed my abilities in data wrangling, geospatial analysis, and statistical modeling. This experience not only deepened my understanding of environmental policy but also reinforced my commitment to pursuing a career that integrates data-driven analysis with policy development.”
Zixin Zhou
Bartlett Fellow; Mentor: Michael Greenstone, Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor, Economics
Zixin Zhou worked with Professor Michael Greenstone preparing class materials, refining codes and labeling data in a natural language processing (NLP) task.
“I have learnt valuable experience in data processing, teamworking, and how to build effective connections. These experiences greatly empower me for future research and working.”
Zhichun Zhu
Bartlett Fellow; Mentor: Shaoda Wang, Assistant Professor, Harris School of Public Policy
Zhichun Zhu worked with Shaoda Wang to research the interaction between the Chinese central government and local governments. Zhu collected data on standards published by both central and local authorities, aiming to understand how changes in these standards reflect lobbying dynamics. This summer, Zhu will continue his research assistant work with Professor Wang as a DRW Fellow. He will then begin a pre-doctoral position at EPIC-Beijing.
“One major success is that it [the fellowship] allowed me to sharpen my data cleaning and processing skills, learn more complex programming techniques, build a strong connection with my supervisor, and strengthen my ability to manage and complete tasks independently. It was also a period of rigorous academic training that significantly enhanced my research capabilities.”