Omolade Adunbi
Director of the African Studies Center, Professor of Anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies, Professor of Law (courtesy), Faculty Associate, Program in the Environment
Contact: [email protected]
Biography: Omolade Adunbi is a political anthropologist and an Associate Professor at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS). His areas of research explore issues related to resource distribution, governance, human and environmental rights, power, culture, transnational institutions, multinational corporations and the postcolonial state. His latest book, Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria (Indiana University Press, 2015) addresses issues related to oil wealth, multinational corporations, transnational institutions, NGOs and violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. His current research focuses on the growing interest of China in Africa’s natural resources and its interrelatedness to infrastructural projects. His teaching interests include transnationalism, globalization, power, violence, human and environmental rights, the postcolonial state, social theory, resource distribution and contemporary African society, culture and politics.
Affiliation(s) Program in the Environment Donia Human Rights Center African Studies Center
Field(s) of Study Transnationalism and Governance, Human and Environmental Rights, Oil and Natural Resource Politics
Biography: Omolade Adunbi is a political anthropologist and an Associate Professor at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS). His areas of research explore issues related to resource distribution, governance, human and environmental rights, power, culture, transnational institutions, multinational corporations and the postcolonial state. His latest book, Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria (Indiana University Press, 2015) addresses issues related to oil wealth, multinational corporations, transnational institutions, NGOs and violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. His current research focuses on the growing interest of China in Africa’s natural resources and its interrelatedness to infrastructural projects. His teaching interests include transnationalism, globalization, power, violence, human and environmental rights, the postcolonial state, social theory, resource distribution and contemporary African society, culture and politics.
Affiliation(s) Program in the Environment Donia Human Rights Center African Studies Center
Field(s) of Study Transnationalism and Governance, Human and Environmental Rights, Oil and Natural Resource Politics
Eunshin Byon
Associate Professor
Contact: [email protected]
Biography: Eunshin Byon is an Associate Professor with the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include optimizing operations and management, data science, and simulation optimization in energy and sustainability applications.
Biography: Eunshin Byon is an Associate Professor with the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include optimizing operations and management, data science, and simulation optimization in energy and sustainability applications.
Brendan Kochunas
Assistant Professor
Contact: [email protected]
Biography: Professor Kochunas’s research focuses on computational modeling of nuclear power systems and high performance computing. He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2013, a master’s from UC Berkeley in 2008, and his Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in 2006. As a PhD student Prof. Kochunas started development of the Michigan Parallel Characteristics Transport Code (MPACT), and continues to be one of the principle developers. MPACT has become part of a larger software suite for the Virtual Environment for Reactor Analysis (VERA) that received an R&D 100 in 2016, and has been used to improve the simulation and analysis of over 150 different nuclear reactor operating cycles. Additionally, MPACT has been used within industry to support the safe start-up of Watt’s Bar Unit 2 (May 23, 2016) and the first two AP1000 reactors in the world to reach criticality (June/August 2018). Prof. Kochunas’s interests include next generation nuclear reactor design and operation, computational methods for reactor physics, and hybrid energy systems (e.g. nuclear-renewable) modeling.
Biography: Professor Kochunas’s research focuses on computational modeling of nuclear power systems and high performance computing. He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2013, a master’s from UC Berkeley in 2008, and his Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in 2006. As a PhD student Prof. Kochunas started development of the Michigan Parallel Characteristics Transport Code (MPACT), and continues to be one of the principle developers. MPACT has become part of a larger software suite for the Virtual Environment for Reactor Analysis (VERA) that received an R&D 100 in 2016, and has been used to improve the simulation and analysis of over 150 different nuclear reactor operating cycles. Additionally, MPACT has been used within industry to support the safe start-up of Watt’s Bar Unit 2 (May 23, 2016) and the first two AP1000 reactors in the world to reach criticality (June/August 2018). Prof. Kochunas’s interests include next generation nuclear reactor design and operation, computational methods for reactor physics, and hybrid energy systems (e.g. nuclear-renewable) modeling.
Pamela Jagger
Professor of Environment and Sustainability; SEAS PhD/Postdoc Program Director
Contact: [email protected]
Biography: Pam Jagger is an applied political economist whose research focuses on the dynamics of poverty and environment interactions in low-income countries. She leads the interdisciplinary Forest Use, Energy, and Livelihoods (FUEL) Lab, and is the Director of the National Science Foundation funded Energy Poverty PIRE in Southern Africa (EPPSA), a 5-year collaborative program to support research and training on the topic of energy access in Southern Africa. Over the past decade, Dr. Jagger has conducted quantitative impact evaluation studies of household energy interventions, including clean cooking interventions in Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi. She has also led research on energy access in rapidly urbanizing low-income settings in Myanmar. Contributing new knowledge on the effectiveness of programs and policies for improving energy access for the poor and ultra-poor is a major focus of her work. She regularly engages with the policy makers and practitioners. Dr. Jagger is a Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan with a joint appointment in the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy. She has worked as a policy research scholar with the World Bank, Resources for the Future, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the Center for International Forestry Research. She has lived and worked in Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Biography: Pam Jagger is an applied political economist whose research focuses on the dynamics of poverty and environment interactions in low-income countries. She leads the interdisciplinary Forest Use, Energy, and Livelihoods (FUEL) Lab, and is the Director of the National Science Foundation funded Energy Poverty PIRE in Southern Africa (EPPSA), a 5-year collaborative program to support research and training on the topic of energy access in Southern Africa. Over the past decade, Dr. Jagger has conducted quantitative impact evaluation studies of household energy interventions, including clean cooking interventions in Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi. She has also led research on energy access in rapidly urbanizing low-income settings in Myanmar. Contributing new knowledge on the effectiveness of programs and policies for improving energy access for the poor and ultra-poor is a major focus of her work. She regularly engages with the policy makers and practitioners. Dr. Jagger is a Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan with a joint appointment in the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy. She has worked as a policy research scholar with the World Bank, Resources for the Future, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the Center for International Forestry Research. She has lived and worked in Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Wencong Su
Chair and Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dearborn
Contact: [email protected]
Biography: Dr. Su’s current research interests include power and energy systems, renewable energy, electrified transportation systems, automated and connected vehicles, and cyber-physical systems.
Biography: Dr. Su’s current research interests include power and energy systems, renewable energy, electrified transportation systems, automated and connected vehicles, and cyber-physical systems.