Carnegie Mellon University

Destenie Nock

Destenie Nock

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy

Address
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Bio

Dr. Destenie Nock is an Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Engineering and Public Policy (EPP). She joins CMU having received her Ph.D. in 2019 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. There, she performed energy systems modeling and analysis in both New England and Sub-Saharan Africa, using multi-criteria decision analysis and applied optimization to better equip policy makers to understand energy planning options. In her previous work she assessed the sustainability of different future scenarios for electricity generation in the New England region.

Nock built models that analyzed how changes in the power plants used to supply energy would impact the job creation, environmental health and economic viability of various communities. Using these techniques, she was able to identify the trade-offs between different future electricity scenarios in terms of their sustainability for the region. She applied a similar systems approach to Sub-Saharan Africa by developing an electricity planning tool, which incorporated stakeholder preferences for equality and makes recommendations for national electrification planning. Nock’s broad research interests are focused around using mathematical modeling tools to address societal problems related to sustainability planning, energy policy, equity, and engineering for social good. She brings to CMU a breadth of professional experience, having worked in industry, national labs, and government settings on issues related to energy systems.

Education

BS in Electrical Engineering & Applied Math from North Carolina A&T State University
MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development from Queen's University Belfast
PhD in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from University of Massachusetts Amherst 

Research

Nock's research is focused on using systems modeling, and applying optimization and decision analysis tools to determine paths for increasing a person's quality of life. In one line of research she evaluates the sustainability and reliability of the electricity grids in different energy systems. Another line of work used applied optimization to look at national electrification planning and energy access goals in the developing world.