Climate Change and The Energy Evolution In order to address the climate crisis, the global energy system is and must be rapidly reshaped over the coming decades. Much of the energy evolution will be driven by decisions made by the private sector and the institutions that provide them capital. The aim of this course is to (a) explore the relationship between international agreements on climate change, national and local government actions, and the emergence of private governance as factors driving the energy evolution and (b) provide an overview of the critical themes, players, structures, and issues in renewable energy deal making. Students in this course will work first hand with climate and renewable energy practitioners to learn how to evaluate the key factors driving decision making in energy investment today and understand the basics of how the renewable and clean energy business works.

This course will be run as an ABA simulation course. Students will be asked to participate in a variety of hands on exercises, including mock negotiations, mock client meetings, and markups of client climate reports and renewable energy transactional documents. Grading is based on a series of assignments presented throughout the semester, and there is no final exam or paper in this course.

This doctoral-level, academically based community service (ABCS) research seminar empowers local youth in West Philadelphia to identify, research, and address pressing community issues through evidence-based communication strategies. Working directly with Sayre High School partners, graduate students will co-develop research questions and communication campaigns that matter most to youth and their communities. While topics may include climate change, health, violence prevention, or other community concerns, the specific focus will be selected in collaboration with youth partners. Through learning about strategic messaging, social media engagement, and school/community outreach campaigns, students will develop an intervention in groups to foster meaningful community change. The course involves both scheduled seminars and required fieldwork at Sayre High School. Drawing on frameworks from communication theory, behavior change, and Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), students will engage in hands-on projects that empower youth voices and enable community action through communication. Graduate students will learn core theories about behavior change relevant to communication interventions and YPAR. They will gain experience designing and implementing a multi-method or mixed-methods study, combining qualitative with quantitative research techniques to conduct formative research, message design, and testing in partnership with youth. Through this project, students will develop proficiency in data analysis, interpretation, and presentation of findings. The course will also cover ethical and practical considerations in youth-centered research, relationship building, community engagement strategies, and effective facilitation skills. This course provides a unique opportunity for doctoral students to gain practical experience in participatory research while addressing pressing social, environmental, or health issues in the West Philadelphia community.

The course will exam Pacala and Socolow's hypothesis that "Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical and industrial know-how t solve the carbon and climate problem for the next half-century." Fifteen "climate stabilization wedges" i.e., strategies that each have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion ons per year by 2054, will be examined in detail. Technology and economics will be reviewed. Socio-political barriers to mass-scale implementation will be discussed. Pacala and Socolow note "Every element in this portfoloio has passed beyond the laboratory bench and demonstration project; many are already implemented somewhere at full industrial scale".

The course will exam Pacala and Socolow's hypothesis that "Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical and industrial know-how t solve the carbon and climate problem for the next half-century." Fifteen "climate stabilization wedges" i.e., strategies that each have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion ons per year by 2054, will be examined in detail. Technology and economics will be reviewed. Socio-political barriers to mass-scale implementation will be discussed. Pacala and Socolow note "Every element in this portfoloio has passed beyond the laboratory bench and demonstration project; many are already implemented somewhere at full industrial scale".

Climate change represents one of the most urgent threats to humanity's future. Transforming the global economy to manage this threat will require trillions of dollars in capital, creating unprecedented risks as well as opportunities in financial markets. This course uses the tools of financial economics to understand strategies for managing risks and financing climate technologies across a range of asset classes, including carbon markets, project finance, venture capital, private equity, public equities, fixed income, and real assets. Students will also explore how financing strategies interact with public policy and political risk in both the developed and emerging market contexts. The course concludes with debates on corporate purpose, including what role businesses and financial institutions should play in addressing climate change.

The growing field of climate technology requires a multifaceted skill set anchored in a sound understanding of finance and policy. This course is designed for students interested in the climate economy seeking to gain functional proficiency in climate finance and policy. The course will cover four key areas of the climate economy from a finance and policy angle: electrification, carbon management, critical minerals & materials, and breakthrough technologies. The finance portion of the course will deliver a basic understanding of the financial reporting of companies within the given subsector, functionality of the relevant technologies, capital structure of relevant companies, and general business model of relevant companies. The policy portion of the course will deliver a basic understanding of the salient policies and issues facing companies in the aforementioned subsectors as well as sector wide headwinds and tailwinds catalyzed by policy. Throughout the course, students will build a financial model, business plan, and present their end deliverable in a shark tank format at the end of the course with observers drawn from the field to provide networking opportunities.

Coastal and riverside cities worldwide are under increasing pressure from sea level rise and other effects of climate change. Resilience and sustainability are paradigmatic concepts for the ways in which cities address the effects associated with global warming: sea level rise, extreme weather, changing climate, and their impacts on water, food, energy, and housing. This course focuses on the cultural side of resilience and sustainability in four signature cities: Rotterdam (with areas 6 meters below sea level), Nijmegen (which has devised a new way to live with a major river), New York City (which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy), and New Orleans (one of the most vulnerable American cities). Of course, other cities (Amsterdam, Arnhem, Boston, The Hague, Houston, Miami, etc.) will also come into play. In deeply uncertain times, cities such as these confront an array of interconnected choices that involve not only infrastructural solutions, but priorities, values, and cultural predispositions. Ideally, the strategies that cities devise are generated through inclusive processes based on the understanding that resilience and sustainability should be grounded in the cultural life of their communities. When this is the case, resilience and sustainability can become unique and motivating narratives about how cities and their residents co-develop the kinds of hard, soft, and social infrastructure the climate emergency requires. With this in mind, we will analyze the cities’ climate action plans and resilience strategies; explore their cultural histories relative to flooding events; and consult with Dutch and American experts in climate adaptation, governance, community development, and design. The highlight of the course will be travel to the Netherlands during spring break for site visits and discussions with experts.

Our theoretical and computational capabilities have reached a point where we can do predictions of materials on the computer. This course will introduce students to fundamenta l concepts and techniques of atomic scale computational modeling. The material will cover electronic structure theory and chemical kinetics. Several well-chosen applications in energy and chemical transformations including study and prediction of properties of chemical systems (heterogeneous, molecular, and biological catalysts) and physical properties of materials will be considered. This course will have modules that will include hands-on computer lab experience and teach the student how to perform electronic structure calculations of energetics which form the basis for the development of a kinetic model for a particular problem, which will be part of a project at the end of the course. Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Physical Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics. Undergraduates should consult and be given permission by the instructor.

When we think of environmental policies in the USA, we may think of one or more laws geared to improve our nation's air, water, ecosystems, and biodiversity. However, environmental policies and policy-making comprise more than just specific laws and regulations. Making and implementing environmental policy is a process influenced by multiple political, cultural, and economic factors in addition to scientific factors, all of which impact the ability of policies to be effective, that is, to actually improve the environment. In this course, we develop a framework to analyze the effectiveness of the social actors, process and outcomes of environmental policy-making. We ask questions such as: How do policy makers define environmental problems and solutions? Who are the social actors involved in the process? How are policies created and negotiated? What underlying assumptions and realities about the roles of government and society shape policy instruments and design? Are science and risk accurate or distorted? How are social and environmental justice intertwined? To answer these complex questions, we contextualize and critically analyze policies to determine how both government and society impact on regulatory approaches. We study the institutions involved and examine social and ecological outcomes of environmental policies. We also discuss contemporary issues and policy situations that arise throughout the course of the semester, and comment on them in a class blog. Finally, students will select an environmental issue and formulate a policy proposal to recommend to decisionmakers.

The course focuses on devices that convert thermal, solar, or chemical energy directly to electricity, i.e., without intermediate mechanical machinery such as a turbine or a reciprocating piston engine. A variety of converters with sizes ranging from macro to nano scale will be discussed, with the advantages offered by nanoscale components specifically highlighted. Topics will include thermoelectric energy converters and radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), thermionic energy converters (TEC), photovoltaic (PV) and thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells, as well as piezoelectric harvesters. Additional topics may include magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generators, alkali metal thermal-to-electric converters (AMTEC), and fuel cells.

This course covers Earth System dynamics from the viewpoint of deep time. Specifically, the course focuses on (i) the history of our planet and its life, (ii) the physical, chemical and biological feedbacks driving evolution and (iii) the evidence that has given us access into the understanding of the Geologic Time Scale.

An introduction to Earth as a complex system through examination of its atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere, the interactions among these spheres, and of the human impacts on the planet and its responses.

Urban forests provide ecological and socio-economic benefits ranging from improving air, water, and soil quality to creating wildlife habitat to enhancing thermal comfort and the health of individuals and whole communities to increasing property values and more. The course aims to expand understanding of urban forests as socio-ecological systems, with the goal of involving students in urban forest research and stewardship. We will explore the overlap of urban forest ecology and ecosystem services, management, advocacy, and education. Guest speakers from the USDA Forest Service and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation will add to the learning experience. This course includes three required full-day Sunday fieldtrips to the Coastal Plain, Piedmont forests of Philadelphia, and to participate in a tree planting activity in Philadelphia. These trips will enhance appreciation of these important ecosystems. Students will research and present on an urban forest system from Philadelphia or elsewhere and a topic of interest related to course content.

This course will examine the ecological nature of design at a range of scales, from the most intimate aspects of product design to the largest infrastructures, from the use of water in bathroom to the flow of traffic on the highway. It is a first principle of ecological design that everything is connected, and that activities at one scale can have quite different effects at other scales, so the immediate goal of the course will be to identify useful and characteristic modes of analyzing the systematic, ecological nature of design work, from the concept of the ecological footprint to market share. The course will also draw on the history of and philosophy of technology to understand the particular intensity of contemporary society, which is now charachterized by the powerful concept of the complex, self-regulating system. The system has become both the dominant mode of explanation and the first principle of design and organization. The course will also draw on the history and philosophy of technology to understand the particular intensity of contemporary society, which is now characterized by the powerful concept of the complex, self-regulating system. The system has become both the dominant mode of explanation and the first principle of design and organization.

This seminar will explore a collection of ideas influencing energy policy development in the U.S. and around the world. We will discuss all kinds of modern energy policy issues/debates, firmly grounding those discussions around fundamentals of public policy (e.g., market design, market failure, government failure, etc.). Example topics will include: The Inflation reduction act, infrastructure siting, fuel economy standards, and carbon border adjustments, amongst others.

This first course in electronic, photonic and electromechanical devices introduces students to the design, physics and operation of physical devices found in today's applications. The course describes semiconductor electronic and optoelectronic devices, including light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, photovoltaics, transistors and memory; optical and electromagnetic devices, such as waveguides, fibers, transmission lines, antennas, gratings, and imaging devices; and electromechanical actuators, sensors, transducers, machines and systems. ESE 1120 is a prerequisite for this course, but students passing the ESE E&M review module may substitute an ESE approved E&M course.

After introducing basic electrochemical concepts including cell potential and cell thermodynamics, electrochemical kinetics, mass transport and cell overpotentials, redox reactions, electrolytic versus galvanic cells, standard reduction potentials, and key reactions in electrochemical energy conversion and storage, this course will cover the broad impact of electrochemical phenomena on materials. Topics that will be discussed include:

Fuel cells, electrolysis cells, and batteries are all electrochemical devices for the interconversion between chemical and electrical energy. These devices have inherently high efficiencies and are playing increasingly important roles in both large and small scale electrical power generation, transportation (e.g. hybrid and electric vehicles), and energy storage (e.g. production of H2 via electrolysis). This course will cover the basic electrochemistry and materials science that is needed in order to understand the operation of these devices, their principles of operation, and how they are used in modern applications. Prerequisite: Introductory chemistry and an undergraduate course in thermodynamics (e.g. CBE 2310, MEAM 2030)

Basic principles of chemical thermodynamics as applied to macro and nano-sized materials. This course will cover the fundamentals of classical thermodynamics as applied to the calculation and prediction of phase stability, chemical reactivity and synthesis of materials systems. The size-dependent properties of nano-sized systems will be explored through the incorporation of the thermodynamic properties of surfaces. The prediction of the phase stability of two and three component systems will be illustrated through the calculation and interpretation of phase diagrams for metallic, semiconductor, inorganic systems.

Engineers will play an essential role in redesigning systems across scales to meet energy and sustainability goals in mitigating the global climate crisis. This is a foundational course applying chemical engineering principles, in particular mass and energy balances and thermodynamics, to connect microscopic and macroscopic aspects of “energy” from fundamental considerations of heat capacity and electrochemistry to limiting conversion efficiencies of thermal engines and solar cells and planetary energy balances. We will explore technical aspects of device engineering, policy requirements for technology implementation, and societal implications of such implementations. Finally, we will analyze local systems and design and justify possible changes to improve their sustainability.