Brian Sergi (E 2019)
(he/him)
About
Brian Sergi took an interdisciplinary approach to his PhD in Engineering and Public Policy, looking at issues related to the impacts of energy systems from both techno economic modeling and public perception approaches. In the first half of his dissertation, he explored how communicating information on the health and climate impacts of energy technologies affects public support for cleaner energy technologies using surveys deployed in both the U.S. and China. For the second half, he worked to quantify these climate and health benefits through an accounting of the health damages associated with U.S. emissions, and subsequently used that data to explore how co-optimization of health and climate benefits could enhance the benefits of emissions reductions. After defending his dissertation in 2019, Sergi joined the research staff at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO, where he currently supports a range of research related to decarbonization of the energy system. On the Steinbrenner Graduate Fellowship, Sergi noted that “the fellowship was instrumental in providing me the financial means to pursue research in my area of interest, and I am very grateful for the support!”
Publications during PhD
Sergi, B., Davis, A., & Azevedo, I. (2018). The effect of providing climate and health information on support for alternative electricity portfolios. Environmental Research Letters, 13(2), 024026. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9fab
Sergi, B., Babcock, M., Williams, N.J., Thornburg, J., Loew, A., & Ciez, R.E. (2018). Institutional influence on Power Sector Investments: A case study of on- and off-grid energy in Kenya and Tanzania. Energy Research & Social Science, 41, 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.04.011
Sergi, B., Azevedo, I., Xia, T., Davis, A., & Xu, J. (2019). Support for emissions reductions based on immediate and long-term pollution exposure in China. Ecological Economics, 158, 26–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.12.009
Sergi, B., Adams, P.J., Muller, N.Z., Robinson, A.L., Davis, S.J., Marshall, J.D., & Azevedo, I.L. (2020). Optimizing emissions reductions from the U.S. Power Sector for climate and Health Benefits. Environmental Science & Technology, 54(12), 7513–7523. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b06936
Sergi, B., Azevedo, I., Davis, S.J., & Muller, N.Z. (2020). Regional and county flows of particulate matter damage in the US. Environmental Research Letters, 15(10), 104073. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abb429