Ph.D. Alumni

Shardul Agrawala

(Fall 2006/Spring 2007) Head, Environment and Economy Integration Division, OECD, Paris, France

(STEP 1999) Administrator, Climate Change, Environmental Directorate, OECD, Paris, France

Shiri Avnery

(STEP 2012) Principal and founding member of Thistle.Inc. – Environmental food service provider, San Francisco, CA

Rachel Baker

(STEP 2017)

Hélène M. Benveniste, PhD*21
STEP Ph.D. 2021

Hélène is a fifth year PhD candidate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, working under the advisory of Professor…

Hrijoy Bhattacharjee

(STEP 2010) Private Consulting

Maya Buchanan

(STEP 2017) Climate change expert at ICF, New York, NY

Xu Chen
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Nicolas Choquette-Levy
Visiting Postdoctoral Research Associate

Takeaways: I think one of my most valuable lessons at SPIA was to give equal weight to not just how environmental policy should work in theory, but also how it plays out (or could play out) on the ground. That includes political considerations about how policies are shaped by the political process, both in their formulation and implementation. It sounds like common sense, but it's actually hard to do in an academic context: as a policy researcher, how do you account for competing stakeholder objectives, messy decision-making processes, and power imbalances all while navigating uncertain economic and environmental conditions? I think SPIA gave me a well-rounded set of tools to research these multifaceted questions with depth and rigor.

Future Plans: I started as a Postdoctoral Researcher this past January in the Earth & Environment Department at Boston University. I am working on developing models to test future climate change, migration, and conservation policies in collaboration with stakeholder groups in Senegal and Brazil.

Christopher Crawford
Postdoctoral Research Associate

Takeaways: Science is only one part of solving environmental problems! More than a matter of simply adopting a tidy technical solution, solving these problems also requires an understanding of social, political, and practical constraints in addition to the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to environmental issues. Developing an interdisciplinary foundation is extremely helpful, but this does not mean just one person necessarily needs to do all of those things. Collaborating across diverse disciplines, expertises, and industries is key! I have learned as much, if not more, about this aspect of environmental policy from the life and work experiences of my professors in SPIA than I have from books and research articles.

Future plans: Chris will be doing a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship with the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist starting this September.  

Richard Duke

(STEP 2002) Special Assistant to the President at the White House  since July 2016; formerly  Deputy Director for Climate Policy and Associate Director for Energy and Climate Change,  White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, Council of Environmental Quality, Washington, DC

Graduates of the STEP doctoral program pursue varied careers in the academic, government, nongovernmental and private sectors. Below is a list of all STEP graduates to-date.