Erin Mayfield Joins Dartmouth Engineering Faculty

Sep 01, 2021 | by Julie Bonette

Today Dartmouth Engineering welcomes Erin Mayfield as the Hodgson Family Assistant Professor. As a sustainable systems researcher, Mayfield studies human-environmental-engineered system transitions in the context of climate change. Her multidisciplinary research—which draws on the fields of environmental engineering, data science, operations research, and policy—aims to develop computational tools to facilitate decision-making.

"I feel very fortunate to be joining the faculty at Dartmouth, especially during this exciting period of growth for Thayer. Thayer has a demonstrated commitment to problem-oriented research and preparing students to navigate grand societal challenges including climate change. I am excited to build a research and teaching program around sustainable systems modeling and planning."

Erin Mayfield

Erin Mayfield, The Hodgson Family Assistant Professor of Engineering

Mayfield was previously a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton University where she focused on two interacting research themes—multi-objective sustainable systems modeling and distributional impacts of complex engineered systems. Prior to that, she worked as an environmental engineer and negotiated natural resource damages related to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, modeled ecosystem services associated with large-scale infrastructure projects and petrochemical contamination, and managed groundwater remediation projects and fieldwork in environmental justice communities. She has also held positions at the US Environmental Protection Agency, US Congress, and the Environmental Law Institute.

Mayfield completed her PhD at Carnegie Mellon in engineering and public policy, earned her MS in environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and her BS in environmental science at Rutgers University.

Mayfield is currently an executive committee member of the US Association for Energy Economics, and a member of both the American Geophysical Union and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

She has been the recipient of multiple honors and awards including: the Robert H. Socolow Paper Award in 2021, the American Chemical Society's Editors' Choice Award in 2017, and the Herbert L. Toor Award in 2016.

Mayfield's endowed professorship is one of three supported by Laurie B. Hodgson P'13 P'16 and David C. Hodgson '78 P'13 P'16. The Hodgson Family Professorships, which are held by members of the faculty at Thayer in affiliation with the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, supports the Irving Institute's goal: to be a leader in transforming humankind's understanding of issues at the intersection of energy and society, and to be a driver in the creation of ideas, technologies, and polices that will improve the availability and efficient use of energy for every person on the planet.

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