ZOOM LINK
Meeting ID: 960 5187 0066
Passcode: 338864

Water, food, and energy security remain the top development challenges of the decade, and perhaps the century. In recent decades, billions of people have obtained access to more food, better nutrition, electricity, improved water, and basic sanitation facilities worldwide. The negative consequences of lack of resources are enormous and include environmental degradation, political and economic insecurity, and social strife. On the other side of the spectrum, resource over-extraction has the potential to cause widespread interlinked climatological, human health, and global environmental consequences.

This presentation will showcase boundary spanning research on quantifying and understanding management strategies in the Water-Food-Energy Nexus. First, this presentation will explore bridging disciplines using tools derived from network theory and embedded resource accounting to explore resource consumption in 65 major cities as well as state-to-state trade across the US. Beyond embedded resource accounting, the seminar will also showcase recent work utilizing ethical-epistemic analyses to build understanding around critical infrastructure security necessary for water, food, and energy provisioning. The seminar will conclude by describing Dr. Grady’s future research vision as well as the funding opportunities to support her work understanding the sustainability and security of environmental resources.

About the Speaker(s)

Caitlin Grady
Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University

Caitlin Grady is currently an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and research associate in the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State. In 2019, Dr. Grady was named the inaugural Faculty Fellow for the Center for Security Research and Education. Grady also holds a courtesy appointment in the School of International Affairs.

Prior to joining Penn State, she served as an analyst and negotiator for the US Department of State, where she spent two years on the negotiating team for the Multilateral Fund, the Montreal Protocol Treaty, and its recently adopted Kigali Amendment. She also served as an energy policy analyst for the US Department of Energy and a legislative assistant for The US House of Representatives covering a myriad of issues including water and energy, agriculture, air quality, budget and appropriations, international development, and stakeholder engagement.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech in science and technology studies, and her master’s and doctoral degree from Purdue University in agricultural and biological engineering and civil and environmental engineering, respectively. Grady’s research interests revolve around the transdisciplinary nature of environmental resources. Her current projects include multiscale inquiries into underlying threats and strategies for resilience of food, energy, and water resources in the US and beyond.

Contact

For more information, contact Ashley Parker at ashley.l.parker@dartmouth.edu.