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Sustainable Systems Analysis Group
People | in alphabetical order
Amir AghaKouchak
Co-PI | UC Irvine

Amir is an Associate Prof. in UCI's Dept. of Civil & Envtl. Engineering with a joint appointment in Earth System Science. His research combines remote sensing techniques and physically-based and statistical approaches in order to develop more reliable models of large-scale hydrologic systems.


Susanne A. Benz
Postdoc | UC San Diego

Susi earned her PhD in APplied Geosciences at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany in 2016. She now works as part of the Big Pixel Initiative at UCSD on urban heat islands and their connections to energy and water systems.


Jack Brouwer
Co-PI | UC Irvine

Jack is a Professor in UCI's Depts. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with a joint appointment in Civil & Envtl. Engineering. His research includes dynamic modeling of fundamental processes that govern energy conversion devices such as fuel cellsas well as analyses of integrated energy systems.


Jennifer Burney
Co-PI | UC San Diego

Jen is an Associate Prof. in UCSD's School of Global Policy & Strategy and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her research focuses on achieving global food security and mitigating climate change.


Steven J. Davis
Lead PI | UC Irvine

Steve is an Associate Prof. in UCI's Dept. of Earth System Science with a joint appointment in Civil & Envtl. Engineering. He researches energy and agricultural systems, the impacts of pollution and environmental change, international trade, and “lock-in” of environmental problems.


Robert Fofrich
PhD Candidate | UC Irvine

Robert is a second year PhD student at UCI who received his B.S. in Earth System Science at UC Irvine in 2016. His research interests include the infrastructural inertia of CO2 emissions and the adaptive capacity of agriculture.


Jesus Arellano Gonzales
PhD Candidate | UC Davis

Jesus is a PhD candidate in Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis. His current research focuses on the welfare and productivity effects of climate change in the agriculture of developing countries and possible adaptation strategies in the short and long run.


Chaopeng Hong
Postdoc | UC Irvine

Chaopeng earned his PhD from the Dept. of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University in 2017 under the supervision of Profs. Qiang Zhang and Kebin He. Chaopeng is now researching the combined effects of air pollution and warming on California perennial crops and the drivers of global land use emissions.


Morgan Levy
Postdoc | UC San Diego

Morgan earned her PhD from the Energy Resources Group at UC Berkeley in 2016. Her research focuses on hydrology and water resources; land use and climate change impacts to human health and the environment; human-environmental system dynamics; and environmental data science


Michael Mackinnon
Research Scientist | UC Irvine

Michael earned his PhD in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at UCI. His research focuses on assessing the air quality impacts of transportation services as they exist now and may evolve in the future.


Alexandre Martinez
PhD Candidate | UC Irvine

Jesus is a PhD candidate in Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Irvine. His research concerns the food security consequences of agricultural drought, including how impacts are transferred via trade.


Frances Moore
Co-PI | UC Davis

Fran is an Assistant Prof. in the Dept. of Environmental Science & Policy at UCD. Her research research seeks to improve our understanding of the economic and social impacts of climate change and to better understand our ability to adapt to those impacts.


Nathaniel D. Mueller
Collaborator | UC Irvine

Nathan is an Assistant Prof. in the Dept. of Earth System Science. He researches the interactions among climate, water resources, and agricultural management to promote global food security and more sustainable agricultural landscapes.


Yue Qin
Postdoc | UC Irvine

Yue earned her PhD from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 2017 under supervision of Prof. Denise Mauzerall. Yue is now researching the interaction of global food-energy-water systems, including the flexibility of water uses and vulnerability to changing snowmelt.


Scott Samuelsen
Senior Personnel | UC Irvine

Scott is the HORIBA Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Environmental Engineering at UCI. His research on energy systems, gas turbine combustion technology, fuel cells and fuel cell systems, microgrid/smart grid technology, and fueling infrastructure for alternative vehicles.


Brian Tarroja
Research Scientist | UC Irvine

Brian earned his PhD in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at UCI. His research focuses on assessing the operation and environmental performance of energy systems as they may evolve in the future.


Dan Tong
Postdoc | UC Irvine

Dan earned her PhD from the Dept. of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University in 2017 under the supervision of Profs. Qiang Zhang and Kebin He. Dan is now researching "committed" CO2 emissions and geophyscial constraints on energy systems dominated by variable renewable sources.


Peng Zhu
Postdoc | UC San Diego

Peng earned his PhD in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University in 2017. His research examines land-use change and agriculture using models and satellite data, evaluating the effects on global climate, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem goods and services.