Princeton students explore clean energy and sustainability at Wintersession
From a behind-the-scenes-tour of a wastewater treatment facility to a day-long event exploring a wide range of climate careers, the Andlinger Center’s Wintersession programs drew over 150 Princeton students and researchers to engage deeply with today’s energy and environmental challenges.
Now in its fifth year, Wintersession is a two-week, university-wide program offered between the fall and spring semesters. The program is geared toward teaching students, faculty, and staff at Princeton new skills and nourishing their intellectual curiosity.The Andlinger Center’s nine Wintersession offerings, which included site tours, panel discussions, and interactive workshops, allowed students to explore technologies for converting waste biomass into energy, hear about recent advances toward commercializing fusion energy, and witness a demonstration-scale microgrid in action.
“Through the contributions of our alumni, industry partners, and researchers, we were able to offer students and researchers an up-close look at topics that span the energy transition,” said Iain McCulloch, the director of the Andlinger Center, the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment, and a professor of electrical and computer engineering. “We are deeply grateful to everyone involved in planning this highly successful series of events.”
The Andlinger Center’s programs were spearheaded by Harry Warren ’79, an energy industry veteran and a non-resident fellow at the Andlinger Center. In addition to organizing the programs, Warren led events on carbon capture and the intersection of AI and the energy system.
“The breadth of programs that the Andlinger Center offered during Wintersession — and the wide-ranging expertise of those who contributed to those programs — demonstrates that the center’s mission to educate the next generation of energy and environmental leaders shared by so many, both inside and outside of the Princeton community,” said Warren.
Attendees from diverse backgrounds said they appreciated hearing candid insights from energy experts and practitioners. Field trip participants particularly enjoyed seeing concepts from their coursework being implemented in real-world scenarios.
“The Andlinger Center’s Wintersession series on climate and energy has been a highlight of my winter every year,” said Louis Hoffenberg, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering who attended several programs. “I always leave with new perspectives on challenges in energy, from large-scale electrification to the best routes for scaling up carbon dioxide removal. I’ll be at the Andlinger Center’s series every year until I graduate.”
The full list of the Andlinger Center’s Wintersession offerings included:
January 14
- Modern Waste-to-Energy, a tour of ReWorld’s Union County Resource Recovery Facility, a thermomechanical waste treatment plant in Rahway, New Jersey, led by Ange Nzihou, a Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow.
January 15
- AI and the Electric Grid, a panel discussion moderated by Andlinger Center non-resident fellow Harry Warren ‘79 on how the expansion of data centers for AI will impact the United States energy system. Panelists included Jesse Jenkins, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; Brent Alderfer, co-founder of E-ffiliates member Community Energy; and Kelly Morgan, research director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
January 16
- Advances Toward Commercial Nuclear Fusion, a panel discussion organized by Arturo Dominguez, head of the science education office at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), and David Gates, chief technology officer at Thea Energy. Panelists also included Laura Berzak Hopkins, associate laboratory director for strategy and deputy chief research officer for PPPL; and Elizabeth Paul, assistant professor of applied physics and mathematics at Columbia University.
- A Tour of PPPL, led by Arturo Dominguez and the PPPL staff.
January 17
- Geoengineering to Address Climate Change, an interactive workshop organized by Robert Socolow, professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering and senior scholar at Princeton. Socolow was joined by Nadir Jeevanjee, a research physical scientist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory; and Philip Duffy, chief scientist at Spark Climate Solutions and recent White House Climate Science Advisor.
January 21
- Advances in Wastewater Treatment, a tour of a Veolia wastewater treatment plant on Long Island, New York, organized by non-resident fellow Angela Fasnacht.
January 22
- Electric Microgrid in Action, a tour of facilities at E-ffiliates member Siemens’ Princeton research center, including its microgrid demonstration, led by Ange Nzihou.
January 23
- Careers in Cleantech, a program organized by non-resident fellow Tom Leyden ’77 to allow students to explore diverse career pathways in clean energy and sustainability. Panelists included many Princeton alumni, including Alistair Berven ’17, Ben Brenner *20, Joan Cannon ’15, Lauren Edelman ’14, and Fiona Wilson ’11. Other panelists included representatives from E-ffiliates member companies — Jim Carlson of Komline and Christopher Chen from New Jersey Resources — as well as Yeimy Báez, graduate student in the School of Public and Internation Affairs, and Molly Jones, chief operating officer of C-Change Conversations.
January 24
- Carbon Capture and Removal Deep Dive, a review of carbon dioxide capture technologies and the status of pipeline transportation and geologic sequestration, co-led by Harry Warren ’79 and Mark Taylor *11, co-founder of market analysis firm Sightline Climate.