Sarah Jordaan is an Associate Professor of Industrial Ecology Life Cycle Assessment at the Department of Civil Engineering and the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design, McGill University.  Her interdisciplinary research focuses on combinations of life cycle assessment, techno economic analysis, and technology innovation to develop solutions for a more sustainable energy future.  She has published 40 peer reviewed articles (including in journals such as Nature Climate Change, Science, Environmental Science & Technology), a book, and she has completed over 40 invited  and 20+ conference presentations.  She earned her doctorate in Environmental Design from the University of Calgary in 2010 and her Bachelor of Science (Physics) was completed at Memorial University in 2003. Prior to McGill, she held positions at Harvard University, the Electric Power Research Institute, the University of Calgary, UC San Diego, and the Johns Hopkins University. As an awardee of the 2022 Education Leadership Award from the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) and active member of ACLCA since 2008, she has been publishing on LCA of energy technologies for over a decade and teaching the topic for over six years.  She seeks to bridge disciplinary knowledge for students and prepare them to take on challenges in decision-making whether they pursue a career in academia, industry, the public sector or a non-profit organization.

Postdoctoral Scholar

Xiao is a postdoctoral scholar with ETAPA in the Department of Civil Engineering at McGill University, working on incorporating life cycle and techno-economic analyses into integrate assessment models.  Previously, he was a visiting doctoral student with ETAPA (Washington DC) from the department of Hydropower & Water resources in Wuhan University (2020-2023). His research interests include renewable energy system operations, energy economics and policy, energy-land-environment nexus, and techno-ecology synergy. In his PhD, he addressed the hydropower operations considering its techno-economic-ecology synergy. He has designed a whole model for long-term renewable investments, forward contract, boundary and self-scheduling in spot markets. He explores the deployment of renewables worldwide, to effectively limit GHG emissions, from a multi-disciplinary view. (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiao-sean-Li/research)

Research scholar

Sai Jayaraman Ramesh graduated from McGill University with a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at SSNCE, Anna University, India. His areas of interest include water treatment, renewable energy, and life cycle assessment. His current work explores greenhouse gas emissions of natural gas.

Research scholar

Adithya Srikanth is a graduate in Bioresource Engineering from McGill University, with a concentration in Environmental engineering. He worked on his master’s project under Prof. Jordaan on a harmonization approach to assess the potential of forest-based Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) as a carbon-negative technology in Canada. He is currently working on a project for the National Petroleum Council (NPC) of the US, under Prof. Jordaan and Dr. Garvin Heath from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), on developing a meta-model for greenhouse gas emissions from the US natural gas supply chain. 

Graduate student

Vibhor is a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) student in Civil - Environmental Engineering at McGill University. He has a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Chemical Engineering from SUNY University at Buffalo (2016 - 2020). He currently works under Prof. Sarah Jordaan and as part of the NIH funded GeoHealth Hub to examine the existing vehicle life-cycle assessment (LCA) databases and compare them to the vehicle fleet in Lima, Peru. Data gaps will be identified where there is no existing data for specific vehicle types, and a literature review will be conducted to fill the data gaps for those vehicles. He plans to use his knowledge and skills to pursue meaningful work in the transport or energy sector.

Graduate student

Yisen is a Master of Science student in the Department of Civil Engineering at McGill University, where he also obtained his Bachelors of Engineering in Civil Engineering. Under Prof. Sarah Jordaan, he works on the life cycle and techno-economic assessment of electric vehicle batteries, investigating their potential for re-use in stationary grid storage systems. He is particularly interested in the economic and policy implications of adopting green technologies. In his free time, he likes to read novels and play the ukulele.

Undergraduate student

Malik is a third-year Bioresource Engineering student with a burning passion for energy systems, industrial ecology and life cycle assessments. With a strong background in engineering principles and a steadfast commitment to sustainability, he is determined to make a positive impact on the world through innovative and sustainability-oriented research.

Undergraduate student

Anna is a 4th-year undergraduate student at McGill University pursuing a bachelor's in Civil Engineering. She is interested in energy sustainability and is currently doing research related to the feasibility of circular economies for Lithium-ion Batteries.

Undergraduate student

Maya is in her final year of completing her bachelor's in Bioresource Engineering.  She is interested in the renewable energy sector, and how it can affect the sustainability of electricity generation. She is conducting research on existing life cycle assessments of electricity generation and data collection for power plants in Canada.

Research assistant

Tana is a recent graduate of McGill University with a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering. Throughout her academic journey, she gained extensive experience through three research assistantships, specializing in wastewater treatment, energy analysis, and environmental sustainability. Currently, she is engaged in the development of robust Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods, assessing the environmental impacts of energy options in Canada and the U.S. She will soon commence her role as an Engineering Consultant at Hatch Ltd. in Montreal, where she will focus on domains such as mining, energy, and infrastructure.

Undergraduate student

Youssef is currently a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He is interested in clean energy technologies, such as hybrid electric propulsion systems and Sustainable Aviation Fuels, and their utilization within the aviation industry. Youssef's current work involves investigating the upstream greenhouse gas emissions occurring within the natural gas supply chain. His interests include playing tennis, planespotting, and listening to music.

Doctoral student

Isaiah is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He previously obtained his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at Rutgers University. He works under the direction of Prof. Paulette Clancy and is collaborating with Prof. Sarah Jordaan on techno-economic assessment and life cycle assessment of a catalytic carbon utilization process. His other research interests include nanomaterials development for semiconductor and energy storage applications and the use of machine learning to accelerate materials discovery.

Research Assistant

Emily is a first-year undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering. She is interested in sustainability and wants to further explore clean energy. As Dr. Jordaan’s Research Assistant, she helps with data collection and review. Upon graduation, Emily plans to pursue a career as an environmental engineer and to work with renewable energy technology.

Doctoral Student (International Affairs)

Juliana is a DIA student, where she is focusing on analyzing the financial impediments to the large-scale use of mini grids for electricity access in Sub Saharan Africa. Juliana’s has degrees in Education, Public Health, Sociology, Monitoring and Evaluation, in addition to extensive work experience and certifications in the Energy Sector. Juliana is a US national, born in Nigeria. She has her post graduate degrees from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, George Washington University, USA, and is currently enrolled in the Doctor of International Affairs program at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington, DC. She is the 2nd Vice Chair of the World Bank Group Staff Association.  

Summer Research Fellow (2020, 2021)  / Research Scholar

Shreya is currently a second-year graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), pursuing her Master of Arts degree with concentrations in Energy, Resources & Environment, and International Economics. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences (with a specialization in Economics, Political Science and Psychology) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in India. Shreya had been Dr. Jordaan’s Research Assistant prior to her transition as an ETAPA Summer Research Fellow. As an RA, she assisted Dr. Jordaan with a myriad of data collection and review tasks. Shreya aspires to help cities and businesses across the world adapt to the changing world, through their transition to a low carbon future. She is particularly interested in renewable energy policy research and in designing sustainable and clean energy-based solutions in the power and associated infrastructure sectors.  Shreya is also a self-described music geek, movie nerd and pop-culture aficionado !

Summer Research Fellow (2020) / Research Scholar

Siyuan Hu is currently an M.A. candidate at JHU SAIS, concentrating in International Economics and Energy, Resource and Environment. He obtained his first M.A. in East Asian Studies from University of Arizona, B.S. in mathematics and B.A. in Japanese Language from UCSB and had previous worked in environmental protection agencies in southwestern China.

Postdoctoral Scholar

Tao is a postdoctoral research fellow with ETAPA at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University in May 2020. His research interests include the energy-land-environment nexus, energy systems analysis, life cycle assessment, and uncertainty characterization and quantification. In his PhD, he put forward a whole-building-energy modeling-based model for determining the energy demand for food service in restaurants. He also put forward a multilevel-modeling-based uncertainty characterization approach for addressing the uncertainty associated with the temporal and geographical variations in life cycle assessment. 

Doctoral student

Andrew is a current 4th year doctoral candidate in chemical engineering at Cornell University and a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He previously obtained his Bachelor of Engineering Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Western Ontario. In May of 2019, Andrew moved to Johns Hopkins University with his PI, Prof. Paulette Clancy, and began collaborating with Prof. Sarah Jordaan on carbon capture, utilization, and storage. His research interests include materials development, techno-economic analyses, and energy policy solutions for sustainable energy systems. Upon graduation, Andrew plans to pursue a career in Canadian science policy with a focus on the environment, climate, and natural resources.

Summer Research Fellow (2020)

Shuwen (Ivy) Zheng graduated from John Hopkins SAIS in 2020, concentrating on International Economics and China Studies. She has a B.A. from the University of Hong Kong in Economics and Finance. Before coming to SAIS, she worked as a field research fellow in Kenya and Tanzania for two years 

Summer Research Fellow (2020) / Research Scholar

Patrick Nahhas is a May 2020 graduate from the Johns Hopkins SAIS University with a focus in Energy, Resources and Environment. Previously, he attended the George Washington University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Geography. Patrick’s interest in energy stems from growing up in a formerly coal dominated area in Western Pennsylvania and being a citizen of energy poor Lebanon. Interests include vexillology, sports, music, traveling, and exercising.

Postdoctoral Scholar (2017 -2019)

Dr. Sakineh Tavakkoli is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She obtained her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include coupling energy and environmental systems modeling, life cycle assessment, techno-economic assessment, geographic information systems, and systems level optimization to evaluate the sustainability of energy systems. In her PhD, she developed a systems-level optimization framework to help decision making for sustainable shale gas wastewater management.

Additionally, she is interested in developing graph theoretic approaches to understand the resilience of complex interconnected networks. 

Summer Research Fellow (2019)

Cory Combs is a SAIS alumnus whose present research focuses on energy and technology development in the Asia Pacific. He previously conducted research in astrophysics at Yale University and worked abroad for three years prior to his graduate studies.

Summer Research Fellow (2019)

Hi, my name is Jacob (Junghun) Lee. I am a recent graduate student from Johns Hopkins University SAIS. I concentrated on international economics and energy, resources, and environment. I am a self-disciplined and easy-going person. I enjoy hiking, cooking, and talking with people. 

Summer Research Fellow (2019)

Jun Park is recently completing MA program, concentrating in Energy, Resources and Environment at the School of Advanced International Studies. She has been assisting Prof. Jordaan in her work of renewable systems integration project (RSIP). After a summer spent as a research fellow with Prof. Jordaan, Jun learned key quantitative methods applied to energy policy analysis as well as developed a new skill to work with mapping from collected data compilation. During her work on the RSIP, Prof. Jordaan motivated her to participate in a poster contest at the Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Symposium. After selected, she presented the RSIP poster to researchers and practitioners. During the symposium, she had an opportunity to network with people from a variety of clean energy fields. Also, after taking a course “North American Climate Policy in a Warming World”,  she used her learning from the research work and reinforced her understanding of climate policies. The research experience has inspired Jun to continue both academic and career pursuits in renewable energy sustainability and energy technology innovation. After graduation, she will work for the Financial Advisory and Banking Department at the World Bank and keep exploring the area where there are challenging issues for the energy sector. 

Research scholar (2018-2019)

Lisa Martine Jenkins is a journalist and 2018 SAIS graduate focused on environmental and energy policy. She worked for Sarah Jordaan from 2017 to 2019, and their research evaluating US policy options for managing spent nuclear fuel in the face of sea level rise was published by Energy Policy in January 2020. Along with her second co-author Robert Alvarez, Lisa presented the research to the Congressional Research Services in March 2020. Lisa currently covers energy for the polling and media company Morning Consult. She is based in Washington, D.C. and originally from California. 

More of her work is available on her website, lisamartinejenkins.com 

SAIS alumnus, former LCA student (2019)

John Poor is a business development professional and the recipient of a Masters in International Economics & Law from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His research focus centered around international trade and agriculture, with particular emphasis on supply chain resilience. 

Currently, John is working with a team of four to found and grow Homni LLC, an international supply chain consultancy with aims to transform agriculture into the leading industry for social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

John lives in Washington D.C. with his former SAIS colleague, Jessup teammate, co-founder of the Law and International Organizations Society, co-funder of the Fund for Education Abroad College Breakout Scholarship, co-rider for the cross-country Cycling for Access project, and fiancé, Sarahann Yeh.

Research Assistant (2019)

Michael Yu is a student of economics. His core research interests are in urban agglomeration dynamics and social choice with extensions to growth accounting and institutional design. 

Research Assistant (2019)

Brian Webster is a recent honors graduate of Johns Hopkins University SAIS, with a focus on International Political Economy. He is currently researching the implications of AI for Power Cycle Theory. 

Online Curriculum Assistant (2018 - 2019)

Lindsey Breier received an MA in International Economics & Development from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C. in 2019. While at SAIS, she concentrated her studies in sustainable food systems development and completed a year-long consultancy with the first plant-based asset management firm in Mexico. She also developed the Online Basics of Environment course for the ERE program, alongside Akanksha Goyal and under the guidance of professor Sarah Jordaan. For the course, Lindsey wrote graduate-level modules covering various environmental topics including environmental economics, climate change, and sustainability. 

Professionally, Lindsey works in sustainable agriculture and agribusiness consulting. She has previously worked with GAIN, ACDI/VOCA, and IFPRI and currently consults for TechnoServe and GIC Group. Her work provides a better understanding of the links between human, animal, and environmental health (‘one health’) within global food chains. She aims to support investments in sustainable food systems which result in responsible social, health, and environmental outcomes. 

More of her work is available on her LinkedIn webpage: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lbreier

Online Curriculum Assistant (2018 - 2019)

Akanksha Goyal is a MA candidate at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University concentrating in Energy Economics and Environment. She worked under Prof Jordaan to develop Online Basics of Environment Module and is currently interning at American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy on Utilities Scorecard Project. Akanksha studied Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering in undergraduate and enjoys exploring data driven solutions to global environmental and energy challenges.