The Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) Program encourages Master's and PhD students to acquire a sophisticated understanding of key issues at the intersection of science, technology, and policy. STEP blends scientific knowledge and methods with social science and practitioner perspectives in ways that yield practical solutions to the major scientific, environmental, and technological challenges facing the world today.
Several certificate and fellowship opportunities comprise the STEP Program, which is centered in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. STEP provides a larger umbrella for Princeton graduate students generally interested in science policy, and has deep connections to the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), the High Meadows Environmental Initiative (HMEI), and the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP). Students work closely with distinguished STEP faculty, who come from diverse academic backgrounds, including natural science, engineering, and social science departments, to integrate their science and policy interests.
STEP Certificate Advisor
Alumni & Student News
This year, we are thrilled to celebrate the graduation of 18 students.
Shuaizhang Feng is currently professor of economics and the Dean of the School of Economics, and the Dean of the Institute of Economic and Social Research at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. From 2008-2010, he was a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Michael Oppenheimer’s research group at C-PREE in the School of Public and International Affairs.
Ramón Cruz MPA ’02 recently was elected as the Sierra Club’s president of the Board of Directors. He is the first Latino president in the organization’s 128-year history.
As part of a series exploring the disciplinary variety of 2020 senior thesis research, PEI writes about the work of Princeton student Naomi Cohen-Shields '20 on air pollution in China. Working under the advising of Prof. Denise Mauzerall, Cohen-Shields pursued research to understand whether China's extensive efforts to improve its air quality affected communities differently across regions and socioeconomic levels.
Nicolas Choquette-Levy, a PhD student in the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) cluster of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, was recently awarded the Mikhalevich Award from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) for his research paper on smallholder farmers' adaptation to climate change.