Placement: PhD Public Policy, Michigan
Theo was a Pre-Doctoral Fellow with EPIC and primarily worked on the Social Cost of Carbon project. When it comes to his research, Theo’s interested in making the representation of energy systems and energy use in Integrated Assessment Models more realistic and useful.
“These tools are a key component of our ability to think about national and global energy policy issues.”
Before coming to EPIC, Theo completed his Master of Science in Environmental Science and Policy (MSESP) degree at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and a BS mechanical engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In addition to pursuing his master’s degree, Theo lived in Cairo, Egypt for three years where he worked as a project manager at an environmental consulting firm.
A conversation Theo had with a high school physics teacher originally spurred his interest in the causes and implications of climate change, and therefore, energy topics. As a result, Theo took undergraduate courses while at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign on many of the technical aspects of energy use and recognized he was interested in questions about the impact of energy use on society.
Having participated in the James Bartlett Fellowship Program, Theo is already familiar with “a lot of the great researchers and exciting research being done” at EPIC.