UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The spring 2023 Celebrating Women in Energy and Water Research seminar series continues on Thursday, March 16, with two seminars by Erin Baker, distinguished professor of industrial engineering and operations research at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The free seminars are open to Penn State faculty, staff and students.
The first discussion, “Where Math Meets Social Justice,” will be held at 11 a.m. in 402 Steidle Building. Baker will discuss her passions for math and social justice and how they led her to become faculty director of the Energy Transition Institute, which focuses on stakeholder-engaged research at the intersection of energy technology and social equity.
The second talk, “Sustainable Power Planning Robust to Multiple Models: Meeting Mexico’s 2050 Climate Goals,” will be held at 4 p.m. 401 Steidle Building. The talk will center on Baker’s work tackling the key questions countries face when setting climate goals and ways to achieve them. Using Mexico as a case study, Baker will discuss how to sidestep the issues found in the top-down, multi-model approach by employing a bottom-up electric power system model. Baker suggests the bottom-up model helps policymakers and planners better identify the critical geographic investment areas and successful pathways when comparing integrated assessment models.
Baker has a doctoral degree in engineering economic systems and operations research from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. She combines operations research methods and economics to decision-making under uncertainty, focusing on energy justice and publicly funded energy technology research and development portfolios in the face of climate change.