PhD students

Email
amcb6@cam.ac.uk

Supervisors
Professor Srinivasan Keshav and Professor David Reiner

Research topic
Using AI to decarbonise residential and commercial buildings

Research interests
Solar PV, V2X, bidirectional EV charging, stationary storage, HVAC optimisation, home energy management systems, building control, reinforcement learning, transformers, LLMs

Biography
Anaïs is a PhD student and Gates Scholar in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge (since October 2023). She previously studied Computer Science (BSc) at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. Her research investigates the use of AI for the decarbonisation of buildings.

Previously, she has explored the design and operation of sustainable energy systems for residential homes, incorporating technologies such as solar PV, stationary batteries, and bidirectional EVs. Her work led to the development of SOPEVS, an innovative algorithm that personalises the joint sizing and operation of solar PV and storage for single-family homes. Additionally, she created SPAGHETTI, a synthetic data generation tool for modelling EV usage traces.

Currently, her research focuses on in-context Reinforcement Learning for the operation of commercial buildings.

Email
mec79@cam.ac.uk

Supervisors
Professor Clare Grey and Professor Oren Scherman

Research topic
Aqueous-organic redox flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage

Research interests
Batteries, materials, hard-tech, techno-economics, industry, deep decarbonisation, sustainable development

Biography
Mark is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry working under the joint supervision of Professors Clare Grey and Oren Scherman. His work involves the screening, synthesis, and testing of new redox-active materials relevant to battery-based stationary storage. He is fully supported by a Prince of Wales Commonwealth Scholarship.

Prior to his PhD, he conducted work in 5 scientific research groups (including at Stanford, Berkeley, and KAUST), two multinational engineering corporations (3M and Nutrien), and a UN specialised agency (UNIDO) covering topics in energy ranging from fundamental materials research to renewable energy policy. To date, his work has resulted in a co-authored UN positioning paper, 2 patent applications and several peer-reviewed publications, including in the journal Nature. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University, where he was president of the Stanford Energy Club, and a master’s degree from Cambridge.

Email
asgd2@jbs.cam.ac.uk

Supervisors
Professor Matthew Grimes and Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville

Research topic
Strategic identity positioning and innovation in the energy sector

Research interests
Energy policy, climate change mitigation/adaptation, innovation, system dynamics, organisational identity.

Biography
Ariel (Ari) de Fauconberg is a PhD candidate in the Organisational Theory and Information Systems group at Cambridge Judge Business School. She is co-supervised by Professors Matthew Grimes (primary) and Jennifer Howard-Grenville.

Ari’s current research focuses on understanding the challenges that large organisations – particularly those in the oil and gas industry – face as they pursue alternative energy-related innovation. She is fully supported in her research as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

Prior to her PhD studies, Ari worked as a Research Fellow at Babson College, conducting studies on clean energy entrepreneurship and female-led, high growth, high-potential firms. Ari holds a Master of Philosophy in Innovation, Strategy & Organisation from the University of Cambridge, an MBA (Hons) from Bentley University, and a Master of Philosophy in Geography & the Environment (Dist.) from the University of Oxford.

Email
pd423@cam.ac.uk

Supervisors
Professor Srinivasan Keshav  and Dr Emily Shuckburgh

Research topic
Complementarity of distributed renewables and its effect on the transmission grid

Research interests
Renewable forecasting, energy transmission grid, climate models, probabilistic modelling, artificial intelligence

Biography
Petr is a PhD student at the AI for Environmental Risk research (AI4ER) CDT, University of Cambridge (since October 2019). He previously studied Physics (MSci) at the University of Cambridge as well.

He’s looking at the possibility of using multiple renewable energy sources, distributed spatially across large areas, to complement each other and reduce the uncertainty of the total energy supply in an electric grid. To assess this, he uses AI methods learned on meteorological data and the newest climate models.

The goal is to quantify the stability gained by connecting existing grids into a larger super-grid. Also, to analyze how connected the grid needs to be to harness this complementarity.

Email
mg570@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor
Professor Paul Warde

Research topic
Contemporary socio-economic history of how renewable energy achieved cost competitiveness in key European markets, 1986-2017

Biography
Mercedes Galindez is a part-time PhD student in the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) at the University of Cambridge. She is reading her PhD on Economic History under the supervision of environmental historian Professor Paul Warde. Mercedes holds a MPhil in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor’s degree in history from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina). She has worked in the energy industry for the last 7 years and is currently the Financing Group Senior Business Development Manager at law firm Slaughter and May.

Email
dm2007@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor
Dr Kamiar Mohaddes

Research interest
Macroeconomics of climate change; economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services; transition dynamics and climate risks.

Biography
Darragh McLaughlin is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Economics. Darragh’s research interests spans topics such as environmental economics and the macroeconomics of climate change to climate risks and the economics of biodiversity and ecosystems services. Prior to the PhD, Darragh worked as an associate economist at the Central Bank of Ireland working primarily on inflation modelling and analysis. Darragh obtained an MSc in Economics at the University of Edinburgh and a BSc in Economics and Finance at University College Dublin.

Email
dn406@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor
Professor Laura Diaz Anadon

Research topic
Interactions between the financial system and the energy sector

Research interests
Energy investments, energy innovation, energy policy.

Biography
Daniel is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG), Department of Land Economy. His research focuses on the interactions between the financial system and the energy sector, and particularly on the impact of financial institutions on the pace of technological innovation in energy. He is supervised by Professor Laura Diaz Anadon.

Daniel has held several positions in Spain’s official sector, including at the Ministry of Energy, where he was directly involved in the design and implementation of energy policy from 2016 to 2018. He has also worked in the banking sector, more recently leading the design of financial products aimed at energy efficiency, renewable power and CO2 emissions offsetting. He holds a Master in Economics and Finance from CEMFI and a Degree in Economics from Universidad Carlos III in Madrid.

Email
hv271@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor
Professor David Howarth

Research topic
The regulation of cyber security in the electricity system

Research interests
Energy policy, energy law, systems theory, information law.

Biography
Henri is a PhD candidate at the Department of Land Economy. His research deals with the regulation of cyber security and cyber threats in the electricity system. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the KU Leuven (Belgium), and a double degree master’s degree in law from the KU Leuven (Belgium) and the University of Zürich (Switzerland). Before starting his PhD, Henri worked as a researcher at the University of Oslo, where he worked on the legal framework for prosumers in the European Union.

Email
amw217@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor
Dr Kamiar Mohaddes

Research topic
Economics of biodiversity and the environment

Biography
Alessa is a PhD student at the Faculty of Economics under the supervision of Dr Kamiar Mohaddes. Her research analyses the economic costs of biodiversity depletion, deforestation, and climate change. She holds an MPhil in Economic Research from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Economics from the University of Aberdeen. Prior to starting her PhD, Alessa worked as a Senior Economist in consulting, focusing on sustainability, natural resources, and biodiversity.

Email
hx279@cam.ac.uk

Supervisors
Professor Stuart Scott and Professor John Miles

Research interests
Power system modelling, energy system modelling, energy storage scheduling,  and electricity planning.

Biography
Hanzhe is looking at designing energy system model with high temporal, spatial and technical resolution and use it to find the optimal energy flexibility solution including energy storage, interconnection and low-carbon generation for the system. He is currently working on designing mechanisms to dispatch different energy flexibility providers for power system and expanding this research to the whole energy sector by analysing hydrogen in the future energy sector. The goal is to quantify the energy flexibility gap, choose proper technologies and improve dispatching mechanisms for the future power system.

Email
jz568@cam.ac.uk

Supervisors
Professor Laura Diaz Anadon and Professor David Reiner

Research interests
Climate change adaptation policy, climate risks and vulnerabilities, sustainable finance and central banking, energy system resilience, energy and environment-oriented technological innovation.

Biography
Jiashu is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on climate change adaptation policy, sustainable finance, and energy system resilience. His doctoral research is fully funded by the Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust.

He is also a part-time Research Associate at the Royal Meteorological Society. Previously, Jiashu worked on structuring and delivering infrastructure investment projects across the Middle East and Central Asia. He worked for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
He holds an MPhil in Environmental Policy (Cantab), a Master in International Economic Policy (Sciences Po), and a BA (Sciences Po).

Email
hz355@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor
Dr Kamiar Mohaddes

Research interests
Macroeconomics; climate and environmental economics; transition dynamics and climate policy.

Biography
Henning Zschietzschmann is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Economics. Henning’s research interests span topics on environmental economics, macroeconomic development, spatial economics and optimal policy responses to intensifying climate change and environmental disasters. Prior to the PhD, Henning worked as a sustainability strategy consultant for hard-to-abate industries and carbon markets. Henning obtained an MPhil in Economics at the University of Cambridge and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Management at the University of Oxford.