Twelve undergraduates have enrolled in the energy track of the Program in Technology & Society. The energy track of this cross-disciplinary certificate program, offered in partnership with the Keller Center, aims to bring together students from across divisions and provide them with a comprehensive program of courses, research, and activities focused on energy technologies and their impact on society and the environment. The students currently participating are Margaret Bertasi ’14, Alex Bi ’17, Jaimie Fan ’17, Ryan Fauber ’15, Sharon Gao ’15, Kevin Griffin ’17, Christie Jiang ’17, Daniel Kim ’17, Paige Shaw ’17, Jenna Spitzer ’17, Aditya Trivedi ’16, and Bridget Zakrzewski ’17.

At the program’s annual symposium on April 29, 2014, the first graduating senior to receive the energy track certificate, Margaret Bertasi (HIS), presented an analysis of how environmental changes brought about by coal use in 19th century Britain spurred the beginnings of the modern environmental movement. Ryan Fauber (NES) presented the results of his junior project “Examining American Values Rhetoric in Senate Foreign Relations Documents as a Function of Changing Energy Security Policy at the Moment of the 1973 Oil Crisis.”

The Program in Technology & Society offers students a choice of two tracks of study: Energy or Information Technology. The energy track was developed to provide students with a greater understanding of the shaping, development, and deployment of energy solutions for the benefit of society as well as a sense of the trade-offs presented by these different solutions. Undergraduates from all divisions are eligible to participate in the program, although it is primarily geared toward humanities and social science concentrators.