Dr. Uday Varadarajan
Uday Varadarajan is a principal in the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Electricity Practice and Resident Associate at Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy. Before joining RMI, Uday was a Principal at CPI Energy Finance, managing their San Francisco team. At CPI, he led the development of innovative financial, regulatory, and policy data analytics and tools that are helping consumers, utilities, and communities in states across the US realize the benefits from a just and equitable transition from uneconomic dirty resources to clean energy. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, he served as a program examiner in the U.S. White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where oversaw the budget for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and the cost assessment and approval of the first $8 billion in DOE loans to automakers, including loans to Tesla and Nissan to build electric vehicles. Before joining OMB, he was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Energy and then on detail to the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, Appropriations Committee. He came to DC after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in theoretical physics in the Weinberg Theory Group at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Lilly Winfree
Lilly Winfree is a Product Manager at data.world. She has her PhD in neuroscience, and is active in the open data, open source, and open science communities. In her free time, you’ll find Lilly hanging out with her dogs, running, baking, eating tacos, or reading sci-fi.
Twitter | GitHub
Dr. Joshua Rhodes
Joshua D. Rhodes, Ph.D. is a Research Associate at The University of Texas at Austin, and a Founding partner of IdeaSmiths LLC. His current work is in the area of smart grid and the bulk electricity system, including spatial system-level applications and impacts of energy efficiency, resource planning, distributed generation, and storage. He is also interested in policy and the impacts that good policy can have on the efficiency of the micro and macro economy. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes and is an AXIOS Expert Voice. He sits on the boards of the Texas Solar Energy Society and Pecan Street Inc. (Data Advisory Board). He holds a double bachelors in Mathematics and Economics from Stephen F. Austin State University, a masters in Computational Mathematics from Texas A&M University, a masters in Architectural Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He enjoys mountain biking, rock climbing, and a good cup of coffee.
Twitter | Forbes | Webber Energy Group
Priya Donti
Priya Donti is an assistant professor in MIT’s EECS department. She is also a co-founder and chair of Climate Change AI, an initiative to catalyze impactful work in climate change and machine learning. Her work lies at the intersection of machine learning, electric power systems, and climate change mitigation. Specifically, her research explores ways to incorporate domain knowledge (such as power system physics) into machine learning models.
Website | Climate Change AI | Marginal Emissions Factors Estimates
Brendan Pierpont
Brendan is an independent electricity sector expert who has worked in advocacy and research to advance clean energy and climate solutions. Previously he was a Senior Analyst in the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, where he supported advocacy work across regions with economic analysis and sector expertise. Prior to the Sierra Club, Brendan was a Principal with Climate Policy Initiative, where he conducted research and analysis focused on electricity markets, power system flexibility, and economics of new energy technologies. He holds an MS from Stanford University, where he studied energy systems analysis. He lives in Portland OR and enjoys the outdoors, music, cooking and creating delicious food, and getting tackled by his toddlers.
Twitter
David Pomerantz
David Pomerantz is the executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog organization working to expose attacks on renewable energy and counter misinformation by fossil fuel and utility interests. Prior to joining EPI, David spent eight years working with Greenpeace to move the electric sector away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. David previously worked as a reporter for newspapers in Boston and New York City. A transplanted New Yorker, David now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Energy and Policy Institute