Placement: PhD Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy | NSF Awardee

As a Pre-Doctoral Fellow with EPIC, Dan was interested in policy issues that combine economics and the natural sciences. He received his undergraduate degree with Honors in Economics from Swarthmore College. Though his undergraduate studies did not specifically focus on environmental/energy economics, he was interested in “high-stakes public policy issues that require multiple disciplines,” such as global warming.

Before coming to Chicago, Dan worked as a research assistant with Michael Greenstone at MIT. He has since worked on a variety of papers and topics concerning environmental and energy economics. In one project, he calculated the gains in life expectancy due to the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970. In another project, he estimated the carbon potential of fossil fuel reserves and the associated impact on global temperatures.

“All of this research has huge policy relevance – that’s one of the best parts of working at EPIC,” Dan said.

Dan had also taken graduate courses at UChicago in preparation for his own research career.

“It’s been great to combine classes with my research for EPIC. I’ve been totally immersed in cutting-edge research, between the graduate classes, weekly seminars, and projects for EPIC.”

Moving forward, Dan hoped to learn much more about the research process and continue to explore his own research interests.