Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Environmental Science and Policy
Education
B.A. Environmental Science & Public Policy, Harvard, 1997
M.S. Environmental Science & Engineering, Caltech, 1998
Ph.D. Environmental Science & Engineering, Caltech, 2002
Current Research and Teaching
Research interests: sustainability science, technologies and policies to mitigate climate change, energy technology innovation, CO2 capture and storage, renewable energy, role of universities as change agent for a social transition toward sustainability
JENNIE STEPHENS is a participant in “Going Global – International Working Sessions on Sustainability in Higher Education,” an international collaboration aimed at developing pedagogical and practical insights on advancing sustainability in higher education across continents, disciplines and cultures.
Stephens’ research, teaching, and community engagement focuses in various ways on accelerating a societal transition toward sustainability, with a particular focus on climate change mitigation, energy technology innovation, and energy policy to facilitate a transition in energy systems. Jennie has particular interest in technologies that have potential to satisfy increasing demand for energy in both developed and developing countries without increasing CO2 emissions and the policies that could promote and support the deployment of these technologies. In addition to interest in renewable energy, technologies associated with capturing and storing CO2 have been one recent focus of her work.
Stephens has recently begun a new cross-disciplinary research project examining the interconnected, regional-level, socio-political influences on diffusion and deployment of emerging energy technologies. Jennie collaborates with and is an affiliate of the Energy Technology Innovation Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Jennie teaches courses on climate change, energy systems, sustainability at the university, and environment, society, and technology.
EN 101 Sustainability Science: Environment, Society, and Technology
Spring Semester
EN 103 The Sustainable University
Fall Semester
EN 124 Global Warming: How to Respond?
First-Year Seminar/Fall semester - not offered every year
EN 207/IDCE 30205 Climate Change, Energy, and Development
Fall Semester
IDCE 30226/EN 295 Energy & Climate Social Change Research Seminar
Spring Semester
Stephens was awarded a National Science Foundation grant from the Science and Society program to support collaborative research on Diffusion of Emerging Energy Technologies within a State Context, a collaboration among Clark University, the University of Minnesota and Texas A&M ($390,000 over three years; Clark will receive $133,294). This project examines the interconnected, state-level, socio-political influences on deployment of emerging energy technologies with potential to contribute to an energy system transformation for climate change mitigation. She also entered a $10,000 subcontract agreement with Harvard University for research on “Carbon Management Technologies: Sociopolitical Dimensions of Innovation.”
Stephens, along with collaborators E. J. Wilson and T. R. Peterson published “Socio-Political Evaluation of Energy Deployment (SPEED): An Integrated Research Framework for Analysis of Energy Technology Deployment” in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. She is now on the Editorial Board for the journal Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy.
Stephens is a prolific guest speaker giving presentations in many different venues all over the country. She presented results of her research on comparative state-level discourse and media analysis on the potential of carbon capture and storage technology at the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) meeting in San Antonio, Texas and at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in Boston, Mass. She also presented on “Challenges of Integrating the Advancement of Coal Gasification Technology and CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology” at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting also in Boston. She also gave invited talks on her research related to the challenges of wind technology deployment at Middlebury College in Vermont and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
In January 2008 she co-chaired a session on “Diverse Perspectives on Climate Change Education – Integrating Across Boundaries” at the National Council on Science and Environment Annual Meeting on “Climate Change: Science and Solutions.” Also in January she presented at the Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) at MIT on an international collaborative project on “Institutions of Higher Education as Agent for Change in Advancing Sustainability in Different Cultures and Contexts.”
Stephens was an integral part of a community forum discussion in October (2007) related to a controversial proposed new coal-fired power plant in Wiscassett, Maine; as an invited speaker at the Chewonki Foundation Carbon Capture and Storage Seminar, she presented on the “Environmental and Social Implications/Challenges of Advancing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)”. During this event over 100 invited stakeholder participants learned about the environmental impacts of the proposed power plant; the proposal was eventually defeated.
Contributing to the organization of the campus-wide Difficult Dialogues semester-long climate change symposium, Jennie worked with other Clark faculty to develop a series of events on campus engaging on the issue of climate change. Among those events was the very successful campus-wide Focus the Nation climate-change “teach-in” on January 31, 2008 in which she organized 28 faculty representing 13 different departments/institutes in a series of 8 different panel sessions throughout the day. During these sessions faculty presented from their disciplinary perspective on the challenges of climate change and engaged in dialogue on these challenges with students and the broad Clark community.
Selected Publications
Stephens, J.C., E.J. Wilson, & T.R. Peterson. 2008. Socio-Political Evaluation of Energy Deployment (SPEED): An Integrated Research Framework for Analysis of Energy Technology Deployment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. (Accepted In Press). Available on line since January 2008
Stephens, J.C.; M.E. Hernandez, M. Román, A.C. Graham, & R.W. Scholz. 2008. Education as a Change Agent for Sustainability in Different Cultures and Contexts. International Journal for Sustainability in Higher Education. Volume 9, Issue 3 (accepted, in press, publication date July 2008)
Stephens, J.C. 2008 (in press) “Socio-political drivers of deliberate carbon storage” Invited chapter in The Science and Technology of Carbon Sequestration: Assessment and Verification of Natural and Deliberate Carbon Sinks eds. McPherson, J.M. and Sundquist, E. American Geophysical Union. Publication expected summer 2008.
Stephens, J.C. 2006. Growing Interest in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) for Climate Change Mitigation. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy. Fall 2006. Vol. 2, Issue 2.
Stephens, J.C. & B. van der Zwaan. 2005. The Case for Carbon Capture and Storage. In Issues in Science and Technology. Fall, 2005. p. 69-76.
Stephens, J.C. and J.G. Hering. 2004. Factors Affecting the Dissolution Kinetics of Volcanic Ash Soils: Dependencies on CO2, pH and organic acids. Applied Geochemistry. Vol. 19, No. 8, p. 1217-1232.
Stephens, J.C. and J.G. Hering. 2002. Comparative Characterization of Volcanic Ash Soils Exposed to Decade-Long Elevated Carbon Dioxide Concentrations at Mammoth Mountain, California. Chemical Geology. Vol. 186 No. 3-4, p. 301-313.
Stephens, J.C. 1997-98. Factors limiting the acceptance and use of innovative environmental technologies: A case study of the Solar Aquatics SystemTM (SAS) technology for wastewater treatment.
Journal of Environmental Systems. Vol. 26, No. 2, p. 163-170.
Selected Presentations
Stephens, J.C., E.J. Wilson, E. and C. Mitchell. 2007 Deploying Emerging Energy Technologies: An Interdisciplinary Framework. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Conference: Science and Technology for Sustainable-Well-being. February 15-19. 2007, San Francisco, CA.
Stephens, J.C. and P. Verma. “Carbon Management and Stakeholder Perceptions in the U.S.A. and India” Presented at the Earth System Science Partnership Global Environmental Change Open Science Conference. November 9-12, 2006. Beijing, China.
Stephens, J.C. “The Role of Environmental Advocacy Groups in the Advancement of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)” 5th Annual Conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration. May 10, 2006. Alexandria, Virginia.(co-author P. Verma)
Stephens, J.C. “Increasing Interest in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Social, Economic, and Political Factors” 6th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment, Energy for a Sustainable and Secure Future. January 26, 2006. Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Washington, DC.
Awards
Jennie Stephens has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant from the Science and Society program to support collaborative research on Diffusion of Emerging Energy Technologies within a State Context, a collaboration among Clark University, the University of Minnesota and Texas A&M. The total amount of this collaborative award is $390,000 over three years - Clark University will receive $133,294.
This project examines the interconnected, state-level, socio-political influences on deployment of emerging energy technologies with potential to contribute to an energy system transformation for climate change mitigation. This applied research focuses on two very different emerging energy technologies, wind power and carbon capture and storage (CCS); both have large potential to change the energy technology landscape and to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions. The research will compare the many non-technical factors influencing energy technology decision-making in geographically and politically diverse states. The project is designed to improve energy-technology decision-making for climate change mitigation.
Stephens was selected among 100 young scientists from around the world to participate in the 2nd International Young Scientists’ Global Change Conference in Beijing, China, November 7-8, 2006. This conference was sponsored and organized by START, global change SysTem for Analysis, Research, and Training and all participants were fully funded to travel to Beijing and present their research.
Jennie Stephens' Curriculum Vitae
Jennie Stephens' Personal Webpage
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