Principal Investigator

michael craig

Michael Craig is an Assistant Professor of Energy Systems in the School for Environment and Sustainability and in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. Michael grew up in Hershey, PA, the Sweetest Place on Earth. He received a B.A. in Environmental Studies (specializing in Ecology and Biology) from Washington University in St. Louis, an M.S. in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. In between and after his graduate education, he worked at Oceana and the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. How climate change and other environmental issues will impact humans and natural systems motivates his research. He counts himself extremely fortunate that the gets to work with amazing people, including all the other members of the ASSET Lab.

Research Area Specialists

Franklyn kanyako

Franklyn received his PhD in Industrial Engineering and Operations research from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2021. His PhD research focused on R&D investment in low carbon energy technologies under deep uncertainty. After working as a postdoctoral researcher at Tufts University in 2021-23, Franklyn joined the ASSET Lab at the University of Michigan in January 2024. His current research focuses on Negative Emissions Technologies integration in energy systems.

PhD Students and Candidates

papa yaw owusu-obeng

Papa Yaw is a 2nd year PhD student at University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. He holds a MEng in Industrial and Management Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Papa Yaw’s research interests focus on energy management and financial models to optimize electricity access and resiliency of hybrid microgrids. Prior to graduate school, Papa Yaw worked for the Ghana Energy Commission in promoting electrification in remote communities. He has also worked with the Environmental Defense Fund in designing a resiliency hub microgrid in West Oakland. Papa Yaw grew up in Ghana and is passionate about electricity access, particularly in developing countries.

UM photo.jpg — pamela wildstein

Pamela is a 2nd year PhD student in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, her research interests include wholesale electricity markets, distributed energy resource aggregations, and decarbonization. Prior to graduate studies, Pamela worked for the Cornell Climate Smart Solutions Program. She holds a B.S. in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences from Cornell University, where she specialized in climate change policy and sustainable city planning, and an MS in Sustainable Systems from the School for Environment and Sustainability. Pamela is passionate about energy policy and understanding the energy transition.

max vanatta

Max is a 2nd year PhD student in the School for Environment and Sustainability. He is particularly interested in modelling and analysis of infrastructure, technology development and policy as they impact our society and the world we live in. Max’s current research analyzes the technoeconomic value of small modular reactors in decarbonizing industrial heat. His prior research quantified the environmental impacts of electrifying boda bodas (or motorcycle taxis) in Kampala, Uganda. Max holds a Master's of Energy Systems Engineering from UM. Before coming to the University of Michigan, Max studied architecture and design.

Marisol Garrouste

Marisol Garrouste is a 4th year Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan's Nuclear Engineering program. She holds a Master of Science and Executive Engineering from Mines Paristech in France. Marisol's research interests focus on Integrated Energy Systems, in particular the interaction between nuclear reactors, other carbon-free technologies and various markets. She investigates their key policy and economics enablers as well as the range of consequences on grid reliability and profitability. Marisol is a Graduate Fellow at the Idaho National Laboratory and currently studies the production of carbon-free synthetic transportation fuels from nuclear energy.

Martha christino

Martha is a 1st year PhD student in the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability on a dual track for a second degree in the Climate and Space program. She holds bachelor's degrees in Atmospheric Science/Meteorology and Civil Engineering from Penn State. Martha's research interests focus on combining climate and energy models to create resilient infrastructure. She has specialized in understanding the interdisciplinary threats climate change poses and is passionate about integrating climate security into the national security agenda.

camilo toruno-taylor

Camilo is a 1st year PhD student in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, utilizing their skills in model-based systems engineering to guide climate action policy. From a young age, Camilo’s concern for the environment drove them to pursue interdisciplinary learning, including studying water recycling and vertical agriculture, as well as exploring renewable energy at Dartmouth where Camilo earned a B.E. in Engineering Sciences and developed synthetic biology tools as a researcher at a biofuels R&D company. Camilo recognized the power of energy modeling in driving climate action through collaborating to advise Dartmouth’s energy transition plans, and motivated by a sense of urgency refocused on the field for their graduate studies.

haochi wu

Haochi is a visiting PhD student in the ASSET Lab from School of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University. Haochi’s research focuses on energy system design and its role in mitigating and adapting to climate change. Haochi is also interested in power system operation, advanced energy conversion & management technologies.

Master’s Students

graham fordice

Graham is a Master's student at the School for Environment & Sustainability, specializing in sustainable systems. His research focus is on quantifying residential energy burdens from climate change that has already occurred and on projecting future energy burdens under different climate change scenarios. He is also interested in understanding the benefits and challenges of different methods in moving towards a carbon neutral economy. Graham grew up in Saline, Michigan, just south of the University of Michigan. Here, he also obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Climate Science and Impacts engineering. Graham has felt passionate about climate and the environment since a young age, and he is excited to play some role in helping find solutions to the current crisis.

Undergraduate Students

andrew schallwig

Andrew is a 4th year undergraduate student in the College of Engineering studying Computer Engineering. He looks to align his background in computation with climate and energy research, while emphasizing the necessity for just and equitable energy development. His current research focuses on energy burden in the United States under various energy development and climate change scenarios. He is also interested in applying novel machine learning techniques to energy grid analysis and system control, a subject closely linked to his undergraduate studies.

Alumni

mai shi

Mai was a visiting PhD student from the School of Environment, Tsinghua University. His research at the lab analyzed the impacts of climate change on the value of rooftop solar photovoltaics across the United States. He has since returned to Tsinghua to complete his PhD.

Srihari (Hari) Sundar

Hari completed his PhD, supervised by Michael, in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan in 2023. His prior work was in materials informatics and data driven modeling. His research at ASSET Lab analyzed meteorological drivers of resource adequacy failures in power systems, and robust decision-making for power systems under deep climate uncertainty. Hari is joining the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory as a Research Engineer in the Grid Planning and Analysis Center.

Ritvik jain

Ritvik graduated with an MS from the School for Environment & Sustainability in 2023. His research focused on understanding residential energy burdens under future climate conditions using computational energy models. He is now a Consultant with Energy and Environmental Economics.

An pham

An received her PhD in Energy Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. She finished her 2-year fellowship with ASSET Lab in June 2023. Her research focused on grid-scale deployment of negative emissions technologies and technoeconomic analysis of emerging technologies, including thermal energy storage in households. She is now a Research Engineer at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the Accelerated Deployment and Decision Support center and the Grid Planning and Analysis Center.

zihan ye

Zihan graduated in December 2023 with a dual master's student studying sustainable energy systems. Zihan grew up in China, where she obtained her bachelor's in new energy science and engineering. During her undergraduate in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, she had interned as a sustainable urban plan engineer and renewable power plant lean consultant. Her MS thesis quantified meteorology drivers and storage reliability in high renewable energy penetrated power systems.

bhavesh rathod

Bhavesh graduated with an M.S. in Sustainable Systems from University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. He now works at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory with the REopt model to help communities and companies decarbonize their buildings.

larson lovdal

Larson graduated with a dual Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and the School of the Environment and Sustainability. He focused on the intersection of technology and finance, while engaging critically with the social contexts of these solutions, in order to accelerate a more equitable clean energy transition. He has worked in renewables investment banking, energy strategy & facilities consulting, and residential construction. He is now a Clean Energy Finance Expert at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the Accelerated Deployment and Decision Support center.

**Reshmi ghosh**

Reshmi graduated with a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2021. She is now a ML Scientist at Microsoft AI. She researched the reliability of power systems in the future under large renewable energy integration scenarios using data-driven analysis.

deep patel

Deep graduated with an M.S. from the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS) at the University of Michigan. He is now a Senior Product Manager at Amazon.

amanda farthing

Amanda graduated with a Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering (College of Engineering) and Sustainable Systems (School for Environment and Sustainability) at the University of Michigan in 2021. She now works as a Research Engineer in the Modeling and Analysis Group at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Her work quantified the value of distributed solar plus storage for public buildings with respect to bill savings, resilience, and climate and health benefits.

Meiye （May） Wang.jpg — meiye wang

May graduated with a Master’s from the Sustainable Systems track of the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan in 2021. She now works as a Data Analyst performing vehicles grid integration analysis at The Mobility House, an EV software company aiming to create a zero-emission energy and mobility future. Her thesis quantified the value of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) in a future California power system.