STEP Educational Program

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 - Fall 2022

David S. Wilcove
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute

Alumni & Student News

Congratulations to Our 2023 Graduates!
May 29, 2023

Please join us in celebrating the graduating students affiliated with C-PREE this year. We have a great cohort of 18 graduating students that have been involved with our work during their time at Princeton. MPA and MPP students who pursued the environmental component of the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) Certificate,…

Beyond the Negotiations at COP27
Jan. 6, 2023

At the center of any COP are the multilateral negotiations, which have traditionally focused on agreeing to common targets and frameworks for implementation applying to all countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This was true of COP27. But with most of the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement…

Opinion: To Keep the UN Framework Relevant, More Countries Should Provide Climate Finance
Dec. 8, 2022

Amidst multiple intersecting crises – huge climate impacts, food and energy shortfalls, crippling debt burdens – the old way of delivering development finance is clearly failing everyone, especially the most vulnerable. There are now reforms on the table that would deliver real impact. At the centre of these is the “

COP27: Princeton Student Blog
Nov. 8, 2022
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) is taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from November 6-18, 2022. This year, Princeton is sending a delegation of graduate students, researchers, and faculty to attend the proceedings. 

At…

STEP PhD Student Brian Lee Receives Best Student Publication Award from National Taiwan University
Aug. 11, 2022

Brian Lee, 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 2021-22 Best Student Publication Award in the College of Bioresources and Agriculture at National…

Tackling Climate Change’s Most Complex Phenomena
Nov. 9, 2021

A new partnership between Princeton University’s Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE) and the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) is pairing students and researchers to work on solutions to today…

Student Blog: STEP Ph.D. Guide to Picking Courses
Oct. 22, 2021

The Science Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) PhD program at SPIA aims to leverage multidisciplinary research approaches to address environmental and technological issues facing our world. Students…

Student Blog: Policy Research on Energy & the Environment through STEP Ph.D.
Sept. 16, 2021

The Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) PhD program in SPIA has been my actual and virtual home for the past two years, and for those itching to tackle interdisciplinary policy problems in the…

Congratulations to our 2021 STEP Graduates!
May 12, 2021

This year, we are thrilled to celebrate the graduation of 18 students.

Q&A with Shuaizhang Feng, Former C-PREE Postdoc
Jan. 28, 2021

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.