I'm honored and excited to have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at
@UTAustin
! I am grateful to so many people who have helped me reach this point: supportive colleagues in
@ut_orie
and
@utmechengr
, mentors throughout the academic community, reference letter
I was very honored to receive the 2020 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the
#Energy
Systems Division (ESD) of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE)
@iisenet
. I also look forward to deepening my involvement in IISE as a new ESD Board Member.
#orms
@StopAntisemites
@ucsantabarbara
As a professor, this is infuriating and embarrassing to see. Unabashed anti-Semitism and terrorist sympathizing in academia. God knows what they're teaching in the UCSB Sociology department.
I am honored to be named the Runner-Up for the Early Career Best Paper Award by the
@INFORMS
Section on
#Energy
, Natural Resources, and the
#Environment
(ENRE). My paper "Urban land use and transportation planning for
#climate
change mitigation: A theoretical framework" was
I'm grateful to be chosen as the next President-Elect of the
@INFORMS
Section on Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment (ENRE)
@ENRE_INFORMS
. My term as President will begin in 2024. Big thanks to all who voted and see you in Indianapolis next week
@INFORMS2022
!
#Hydrogen
isn't a zero, low, or high
#carbon
fuel. Like
#electricity
, it's an
#energy
carrier whose
#GHG
implications depend on how it's produced. Real promise of H2 is it offers a viable
#decarbonization
pathway for end-uses that are difficult to electrify (e.g. heavy industry).
Breaking News: Many see hydrogen as the future of clean energy. But the way industry aims to produce it would be worse for the climate than burning natural gas, a new study said.
I'm delighted to receive a
@UTexasGlobal
Faculty Research Seed Grant to build new research collaborations between
@UTAustin
and
@IIASAVienna
! I will visit IIASA with a
@ut_orie
PhD student this summer to begin new research on demand-side
#climate
change mitigation strategies. We
Happy to share my new paper in Energy Policy with
@Qianru_z
,
@busbyj2
,
@globalsarang
, David Adelman, and
@SheilaOlmstead3
:
"Enhancing policy realism in energy system optimization models: Politically feasible decarbonization pathways for the United States"
I'm honored to be appointed as holder of the endowed Banks McLaurin Fellowship in Engineering at
@UTAustin
@CockrellSchool
. I look forward to using its resources to further my research, teaching, and service.
#HookEm
#WhatStartsHere
🤘
One thing I love about
#operationsresearch
is that I constantly encounter new application domains where our methods are valuable, and then get to learn all about them! It's a terrific discipline for "generalists" who are intellectually curious about many domains, and one of the
I'm very proud of Connor Colombe, my
@ut_orie
PhD student, who won the 2023 Dennis J. O'Brien
@USA4EE
Best Student Paper Award! Connor presented his paper "The Effects of Policy Uncertainty and Risk Aversion on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Investments" in a special
I'm flattered that the students of the
@utmechengr
Graduate Student Board (MEGSB) chose me to receive their Best Advisor award! Advising and mentoring our outstanding students in the
@CockrellSchool
@UTAustin
is what makes being a professor here so fun and rewarding.
#HookEm
🤘
I saw a license plate in my neighborhood that began with the letters KKT.
I thought, wow, an
#orms
#optimization
expert, how clever!
But then I remembered that most people are normal.
#academia
This weekend marks 5 years since my
#PhD
graduation
@StanfordEng
@Stanford
. Here I am with my advisor, John Weyant, after the hooding ceremony. Such a fun and memorable event!
@yashar
Finally someone with a backbone! Bravo to University of California Regent Jay Sures for writing with moral clarity and conviction, and standing up to the terrorism apologist fringe in academia. 👏
Two new
#postdoc
positions
@EnergyUT
@UTAustin
!
We are seeking two outstanding researchers to explore scale-bridging challenges in micro-to-macro systems modeling, with applications in
#energy
. Job postings are now live:
1)
2)
@HarvardChabad
@BillAckman
@Harvard
Harvard alum here and I am with you 100%. We will continue to pressure the administration to do more to combat antisemitism and support Jewish students because so far their behavior has been cowardly, hypocritical, and unacceptable.
Today I'm moderating a panel on "Critiques of Macro-Energy Systems Research and Our Responses as a Field" as part of the
@StanfordEnergy
Macro-Energy Systems Workshop. It's been fantastic organizing this event with
@pjlevi
,
@JesseJenkins
,
@emilygrubert
,
@inesliaz
, and others!
I've visited many
#cities
and
#Austin
's Hike and Bike Trail is one of the absolute best urban trails anywhere. 10+ uninterrupted miles of shoreline on both sides of Lady Bird Lake with beautiful trees and skyline views. What a gift from leaders with foresight, incl. Lady Bird!
Tuesday
@INFORMS2021
I'll speak on the panel "Getting Started in Public Sector
#OperationsResearch
" (TB05) sponsored by
@INFORMS_PSOR
. Join live (CC Ballroom E) or virtually (Theater 5) at 7:45am Pacific time for a fascinating discussion! Here's a preview of my remarks.
@INFORMS
My
@ut_orie
PhD graduate Qianru Zhu has accepted a job at the Electric Power Research Institute (
@EPRINews
), where she will join their
#Energy
Systems and
#Climate
Analysis program research staff. I'm very proud of Qianru and can't wait to see what she accomplishes! 🤘
@INFEWS_UT
I'm pleased to share this pair of new papers in Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure that I wrote with my former
@ut_orie
PhD student
@Qianru_z
and collaborators from
@BerkeleyLabEMP
. In these papers we:
- Survey the available information on the costs of extreme weather ...
I am excited to begin a two-year term on the Board of the
@INFORMS
Section on Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment
@ENRE_INFORMS
as its Secretary-Treasurer. We have nearly 400 members and are sponsoring 77 sessions at
@INFORMS2020
going on now. Check them out this week!
In our new
@MacroEnergySys
perspective piece in
@iScience_CP
we (1) review common critiques of macro-energy systems models, (2) highlight some recent and ongoing work to address them, and (3) identify high-priority research directions. Open access paper:
I was very flattered to receive this gem of a student comment from my
@utmechengr
Engineering Finance class:
"Favorite class I have taken at UT- hands down best professor as well. Leibowicz is the GOAT."
My new Energy Policy paper reveals a consistent pattern in the diffusion of transport systems, and discusses what it means for the future. We need to understand the past before we can make good choices about where we go from here.
Earlier this week, my
@ut_orie
PhD student Nan Zhang successfully defended his dissertation titled "
#Optimization
Tools for Emerging Challenges in Power Systems." Nan has done a lot of fantastic work on
#algorithms
for
#battery
storage operation under uncertainty, coordinating
It felt great to be back lecturing in the classroom for the first time since March 2020! I'm proud that 100% of my Applied
#Probability
students
@ut_orie
are choosing to wear masks to protect themselves and each other. 🤘
#HookEm
#ProtectTexasTogether
@AvivaKlompas
@Harvard
I'm a
@Harvard
alum and am totally disgusted by the current administration. They condone anti-Semitism on campus while coddling the students who are openly pro-Hamas. Beyond parody.
Congratulations to
@ut_orie
PhD student
@baturaycalci
on successfully defending his dissertation! Prof. Jon Bard and I co-supervised his dissertation titled "
#NaturalGas
Market Applications of Multi-Agent
#Optimization
," which used complementarity-based equilibrium modeling and
@StopAntisemites
I am a
@Stanford
alum and this behavior by a faculty member is appalling, unacceptable, and embarrassing. David is clearly an antisemitic bigot who should have no place at the university.
It was wonderful having such a packed house at our
@INFORMS
Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment (ENRE) section Business Meeting and Reception last night
@INFORMS2023
. Congratulations to all of our Best Paper Award winners and thanks to the committee chairs + members!👏
Very excited about this new research project with
@RewWax
,
@BDLeibowicz
, and Chuck Mason on the economics of carbon capture, utilization and storage. Thanks
@SloanFoundation
for this great opportunity!
Starting today, 4 of my
@ut_orie
PhD students are defending their dissertations in 1 week! First up is Milad Naeini, whose dissertation "Uncertainty in Cost-Benefit Analysis of
#Climate
Policy: Climate-Economy Model Evaluation and Extension" I co-supervised with Prof.
@EBickel
.
One of my favorite activities as a
#professor
is writing recommendation letters to help talented, hard-working people achieve their goals. Whether it's for
#gradschool
, a new job, or a promotion, I find writing letters such a cool and rewarding way to help people achieve success.
This is fantastic from
@USPS
📭🚚🔌
Delivering mail with
#ElectricVehicles
just makes so much sense. Lower
#GHG
emissions, less
#AirPollution
, less noise. Lower maintenance costs. And large fleets can coordinate charging schedules to lower
#electricity
costs and emissions.
Cool
#highereducation
fact:
#Texas
now leads the U.S. in number of R1
#research
universities with 11 (tied with California). Remarkably, Texas had only 4 of them as recently as 2010. 📈🤯
The ascent of Texas
#universities
is a crucial driver of our rapid economic growth.
I'm excited to be organizing the ORIE Seminar for the Spring 2023 semester. It'll feature great talks on
#orms
and
#optimization
with
#energy
as a big theme and several
@ut_orie
alumni in our lineup. I look forward to seeing all of the speakers over the next few months!
Welcome back,
@ut_orie
Longhorns! We hope to see you on Friday afternoons for another semester of the ORIE Seminar. Here is our exciting Spring 2023 lineup featuring leading experts from academia, national labs, and private industry.
#orms
#HookEm
🤘
1/ Last week, I helped host a workshop on Macro-Energy Systems, building on ideas we laid out in a paper published last summer - here's a thread about that paper and my hopes for the field.
Evening walk meeting with my
@ut_orie
PhD student Batu Calci. Great and safe way to meet up during these strange times - nothing technical, just catching up and talking about
#orms
and energy. Plus, we do our most creative thinking on the move!
#MaskOn
#ProtectTexasTogether
This afternoon I will give a guest lecture to Public Affairs students in Prof.
@raivarun81
's class at
@TheLBJSchool
, titled "Operations Research Methods for Energy Policy and Strategy Decision-Making." I'm looking forward to meeting these students and sharing
@ut_orie
work! 🤘
After two virtual/hybrid
@INFORMS
Annual Meetings, it was so great to see my fellow
@ENRE_INFORMS
board members in person at
@INFORMS2022
! Thanks to our outgoing President Miguel Anjos for leading us these past two years, and welcome to our new board member Luce Brotcorne.
Growing up in
#NewYork
, we were taught far too little about the city's formative years as the Dutch colonial capital of New Netherland 🇳🇱.
This book was great! It highlights New Amsterdam's legacy in setting
#NYC
on course to be the world's great commercial, multicultural hub.🗽
Downtowns with direct rail connections to the airport are the best conference locations. Taking
@SoundTransit
light rail from
@flySEA
to
@iisenet
#IISEAnnual2022
in Seattle is fast, good for the environment, and super cheap ($3). ✈🚉🏙
The power sector is the easiest sector to decarbonize and where emissions are already falling rapidly, yet a disproportionate fraction of mitigation modeling work focuses on it. We urgently need more demand-side research on transportation, buildings, and industry.
US electric power sector emissions decreased by ~10% in 2019, a big change from a 1.2% increase in 2018. Unfortunately there was little progress in transportation, industry, buildings, or other sectors. Our new estimates for total US GHG emissions in 2019
I recommend this paper from the Journal of Economic Perspectives on new electricity
#transmission
in the United States:
Building long-distance transmission is expensive and difficult. I am not as discouraged by this fact as others.
The paper wisely ...
I'm so proud of my
@ut_orie
PhD student Max Brozynski for successfully defending his dissertation today! Thank you to his other committee members Profs.
@EBickel
,
@jhasenbein
,
@MichaelEWebber
, and Sheila Olmstead. Congratulations Max! 👏🎓🤘
Getting outside for a run 🏃♂️ is a great break from all the hours indoors at a big conference. I loved the gorgeous fall colors 🍁🍂 along the White River Trail right near
@INFORMS2022
in Indianapolis!
We finally decided to do the Texas summer thing and escape to
#Colorado
! Really enjoying all the beautiful and diverse scenery in the Centennial State. 🏞️🌲🏔️
🎉Newly accepted paper!🎉 How to integrate air quality + health considerations into power sector decarbonization strategies?
We identified 4 priorities based on our own modeling insights + great work from others.
@YangOu363
Paper link: 1/6
Connor Colombe, my
@ut_orie
PhD student, has been named a Finalist for the 2023 Dennis J. O'Brien
@USA4EE
/
@IA4EE
Best Student Paper Award! He will present his research on the
#economics
of scaling up
#carbon
capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in a special session at the ...
My new paper in Computers & Operations Research with
@ut_orie
PhD graduate Gopika Jayadev, Prof. Jonathan Bard, and student
@baturaycalci
uses bilevel
#optimization
to model the strategic interactions between
#LNG
exports and domestic
#naturalgas
markets.
A family of beavers suddenly moved into our
#Austin
neighborhood last month. Nature's
#engineers
. I photographed one yesterday, and we think he should be named Beavo to go along with Bevo XV
@TexasMascot
.
Students often come talk to me about whether they should do a
#PhD
.
The first question I always ask is, "Do you think it would be FUN?"
This is the key. If a PhD program is fully funded (should be), could only boost your career, and you'll ENJOY it, then go for it!
#gradschool
New paper with
@ut_orie
PhD candidate and
@INFEWS_UT
fellow Erick Jones
@engineer_living
is now out! We modeled the energy-water nexus at distributed scales and assessed the benefits of community-scale investment and systems integration.
I'm excited to share that we've received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish an NSF Research Traineeship on food-energy-water systems at UT Austin! Read more about our new project here:
As an alumnus of the
#YoungScientists
Summer Program
@IIASAVienna
, I highly recommend it to any PhD student doing
#research
on global change 🌍. The three summers I spent at IIASA helped me grow as a researcher and were an all-around great time (the castle 🏰 is cool too)!
📢to
#PhD
students interested in working in a castle in Europe alongside IIASA
#researchers
and students from all over the 🌎.
✅Applications are open for the 3-month IIASA
#YoungScientists
Summer Program (
#YSSP
).
👉Please share with your networks:
Cities are increasingly important climate policy actors, but few models have been applied to study mitigation pathways on this scale. Check out our new journal article on Austin's ambitious plan to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050:
Save the date for the 2022 Macro Energy Systems Workshop June 20-21 in person at Stanford University. Abstracts will be due ~March 15. Stay tuned for more info!
I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Bala Sambasivam to my research group as a new Postdoctoral Researcher! Bala will be co-supervised by Prof.
@jhasenbein
and me
@ut_orie
, and also be part of
@EnergyUT
's Micro-to-Macro (m2M) Systems Modeling initiative with
@CareyWKing
and a great team.
Social cost of
#carbon
estimates have risen in recent years. In our new paper,
@ut_orie
PhD student Milad Naeini, Prof.
@EBickel
, and I investigate (1) the reasons for the increase and (2) how surprised we should be by its magnitude. Check it out here:
PhD defense doubleheader in my research group
@ut_orie
today!
-Qianru Zhu: Operations Research Models of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies at Diverse Scales
-Erick Jones: Multi-Systems Optimization: Intermittent Generation, Flexible Demand, Emerging Technologies
With these cool
@UTAustin
@zoom_us
backgrounds, it looks like I'll finally get to lecture in the EERC building this semester. Made it to the big time! 🤘
@CockrellSchool
For our new paper in Applied Energy,
@ut_orie
PhD student Nan Zhang and I teamed up with researchers from
@BerkeleyLabEMP
to evaluate the economic benefits that could be realized through better coordination of utility-scale and distributed
#Electricity
.