Schar School Professor David M. Hart Appointed Senior Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations

Andrew J Schappert — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 19:49:56 +0000

Schar School Professor David M. Hart Appointed Senior Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations Andrew J Schappert Fri, 10/11/2024 - 15:49

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David M. Hart

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Professor David M. Hart of the Schar School of Policy and Government at ��AV has been appointed as Senior Fellow for Climate and Energy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He joins CFR to expand research and outreach in their Energy Security and Climate Change Program. He will also help Senior Fellow Varun Sivaram launch a new crosscutting initiative on climate change.

“I am excited to partner again with my colleague and coauthor,” said Hart. In 2020, he and Sivaram (along with Colin Cunliff, Julio Friedmann, and David Sandalow) published a strategic framework for clean energy innovation, Energizing America. In this monograph, they outline how a significant federal research and development investment would propel clean energy technology to market faster, simultaneously strengthening the U.S. economy and combating climate change. Many of their recommendations were incorporated into federal appropriations and other legislation during the Biden administration.

“David brings to CFR both deep understanding of the research literature on technological innovation and practical knowledge of the political art of the possible, gleaned from his time in the White House and the D.C. policy community,” said Sivaram. “I am excited to work with him to strengthen U.S. leadership of the global transition to clean energy.”

David M. Hart

Hart’s outreach with the council will build on his large body of work examining clean energy and climate-tech innovation policy. His research areas will include the interplay between trade policy and climate change; and bringing emerging technologies to commercial scale and expanding their adoption globally.

He also devotes attention to educating the next generation of policy experts. With funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Hart led a boot camp designed to introduce early-career scientists to the policy process so that they might position their research more effectively to influence policymakers. He also mentors several doctoral students in the Schar School’s public policy program, providing them with experience conducting funded research. Doctoral student Chad Smith collaborated with Hart in developing the Global Energy Innovation Index, an assessment of how much national governments contribute to clean energy innovation, noting that the United States’ contribution has declined since 2016. A recent Journal of Environmental Management article, co-authored with doctoral student Hyeseon Na, introduces the concept of “future avoided emissions,” or how higher-income countries might export advanced machinery to help reduce carbon consumption in lower-income countries.

Hart is a veteran in this policy space, having served both as assistant director for innovation policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2011 to 2012 and as director of the Center for Clean Energy Innovation at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation from 2016 to 2022. In 2023, Hart was named a lifetime fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

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Strong Research Skills and Internships Open Doors For December Graduate

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:23:56 +0000

Strong Research Skills and Internships Open Doors For December Graduate Andrew J Schappert Tue, 12/05/2023 - 16:23

Government and International Politics major Lydia Sigman interned in Senator Bob Casey’s office while taking classes at Mason.

Graduating senior Lydia Sigman could write the manual for college success—develop professional skills through internships, learn research skills through faculty-led projects, and secure a position with state government by graduation. This government and international politics major and Honors College student took full advantage of every ��AV opportunity and it shows. “I've always enjoyed politics and history, and I wanted to figure out how that interest would transfer into a real career,” says this Pennsylvania native who chose Mason for its proximity to D.C.

Using internships as a way to explore careers in public service, Sigman worked both in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and also in U.S. Senator Bob Casey’s office. “While interning in the U.S. Senate, I was still able to take classes and be with my friends on campus, which solidified all the reasons I chose Mason in the first place,” she explains.

Sigman also honed her research skills through the Schar School’s Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP) where students are paired with faculty to conduct original research. Students develop presentation skills by participating in research fairs, and many become co-authors on publications as a result of their participation. Sigman first joined a team of students led by Professor Jennifer Victor which documented caucus relationships in the US Congress. The subsequent semester, Sigman worked with Professor Jonathan Gifford to write a case study examining why the public-private partnership for Interstate 69 construction was terminated earlier than scheduled. The topics Sigman explored illustrate the diversity of Schar School faculty expertise.

“I am excited to do policy work in my home state!”

Sigman points to the applicability of what she learned to her career development: “Having worked on large papers in classes and as a research assistant in the URAP project, I felt prepared to do a lot of research. I took those skills directly to my internship where I helped write briefings for the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture. This required clear and confident skills in research and writing that I had developed as a student.”

Sigman credits her research experience as the reason she secured her first position post-graduation. In January, she will begin working full-time with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in Harrisburg. Says Sigman, “I am excited to do policy work in my home state!”