Jennie Stephens’ Research and Publications
My research focuses on three areas:
I. Carbon Management: Energy Technology Innovation and Energy Policy for Climate Change Mitigation
II. Sustainability, Climate Change and Education
III. Environmental Geochemistry
Selected Publications in Each Research Area
I. Carbon Management: Energy Technology Innovation and Energy Policy for Climate Change Mitigation
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. Vol. 75, p. 1224-1246 PDF
Stephens, J.C. & Keith, 2008. Assessing Geochemical Carbon Management. Climatic Change. Vol. 90, No. 3. p. 217-242 PDF
Stephens, J.C. Growing Interest in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) for Climate Change Mitigation. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy. Fall 2006. Vol. 2, Issue 2. PDF
Stephens, J.C. 2005. Coupling CO2 Capture and Storage with Coal Gasification: Defining "Sequestration-Ready" IGCC. BCSIA Discussion Paper 2005-09, Energy Technology Innovation Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2005. PDF
Stephens, J.C. & B. van der Zwaan. 2005 CO2 Capture and
Storage (CCS): Exploring the Research, Development, Demonstration, and
Deployment Continuum" BCSIA Discussion Paper 2005-08, Energy Technology
Innovation Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2005.
PDF
II. Sustainability, Climate Change and Education
Stephens, J.C. & A.C. Graham. 2008. Climate Science to Citizen Action: Urgent Need to Energize Non-Formal Climate Science Education. EOS. American Geophysical Union’s Publication. Vol. 89. No. 22. p. 204-205 PDF
Stephens, J.C.; M.E. Hernandez, M. Román, A.C. Graham, & R.W. Scholz. 2008 Higher Education as a Change Agent for Sustainability in Different Cultures and Contexts. International Journal for Sustainability in Higher Education. Vol. 9. No. 3 p. 317-338 PDF
Stephens, J.C. 2007. Community Engagement in a First-Year Seminar. New England Faculty Development Consortium (NEFDC) Exchange. Volume 17. No. 2. Spring 2007. p. 3-4 PDF
Stephens, J.C. 2002. Environmental Responsibility in Academia, Ph.D. Graduate Minor in Science, Ethics, and Society. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA PDF
III. Environmental Geochemistry
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 PDF
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 PDF
Stephens, J.C. 2002. Response of Soil Mineral Weathering to Elevated Carbon Dioxide. Ph.D. Thesis. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA PDF
My Research In Context
The primary goal of all of my work, including my research, my teaching and my community engagement, is to contribute to and accelerate a societal transition toward sustainability with a particular focus on responses to climate change. My research has been evolving within the realm of the exciting new field of sustainability science, a field that embraces interdisciplinary research that internalizes the link between knowledge and action and is defined by the problems it addresses rather than the disciplines it employs. Sustainability science has emerged in response to growing societal awareness of the complexity, magnitude and growing urgency of climate change and other human-environment challenges, and also in response to acknowledgement that results of conventional academic research, which is traditionally defined by specific disciplines in a reductionist approach, often does not contribute directly to urgent societal needs. My scholarly interests have developed with influence and support from this emerging integrative and applied approach to academic research. In my research, I seek to integrate technical, scientific and social considerations of climate change mitigation, attempting to contribute to productive societal responses to this major challenge. The overarching goal of my research is to improve understanding of social and institutional factors contributing to innovation in energy technology systems.
My research spans several different scales including global and international considerations, the national level landscape, sub-national state-level variation, and even local community and institutional considerations. While some of my research has a distinct international component, much of my work has had an explicit or implicit focus on the United States. Considering the United States’ disproportionate contribution to accumulating atmospheric CO2 concentrations, the comparatively slow pace of U.S. social, political, and technological change related to climate change and the potential for the United States to take a demonstrative leadership role on climate change mitigation and energy technology innovation, I hope that my focus on the United States has potential to influence societal responses around the world on these immense global challenges. My work can be characterized as both interdisciplinary and multi-scalar – the variation in my work has only been possible due to a network of collaborators in different fields, sectors, institutions, and countries. I have nurtured and developed productive collaborative relationships with colleagues at Harvard, MIT, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M, University of Calgary, Carleton University, US Geologic Survey, University of Michigan, The Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN), Swizz Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Stockholm Environmental Institute, and the National Technical University of Tucuman, Argentina.