Emily Shorin | 2015 | Interns

Emily Shorin (’16)

Ambler, PA

Dana Mead Intern

Civil and Environmental Engineering Major

US Department of Energy

This summer I had the opportunity to work in the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis at the Department of Energy. Within that group I was on the Climate, Environment, and Efficiency team, which works on a range of topics including greenhouse gas inventory, resilience to climate change, appliance efficiency standards, and methane emissions. The main project that I worked on was for the Partnership for Energy Sector Climate Resilience, which is a new program at the DOE to help electric utility companies, who voluntarily choose to participate, improve their resilience to major climate change events. The first deliverable for the electric companies to give to the DOE is a vulnerability assessment, in which they assess the risks their assets face to future climate change-related threats. My project was to develop a guide to help the power companies develop a vulnerability assessment. Steps included defining motivations, determining the probability of current and future threats from climate change, identifying potential effects on assets, and prioritizing vulnerabilities. The guide also provides many links to resources including vulnerability assessments from other electric companies, and climate data from scientists.

Every day at work I was inspired by the incredibly intelligent people who were so passionate about the intersection between energy and climate change. It was also really neat for me to see a number of talented female role models who were in upper level positions in the office. I felt spoiled with chances to meet Ernie Moniz, the Secretary of Energy and a former professor at MIT, to tour the White House, and to have lunches each week to meet people from around the office and hear about their current and past experiences. Everyone in the office was willing to chat with me one-on-one about what they do and I felt truly welcomed in the work environment.