Spring is a time for congratulating all of the students who have worked with the MIT Energy Initiative over the course of their MIT careers, knowing they have the tools they need to help improve global energy systems for the future.
Priyanka Chatterjee, a graduating senior in the Energy Studies Minor, is going on to study energy issues and India as a part of MIT’s Technology and Policy master’s program. She has been a part of MITEI’s student community since she participated in the Discover Energy freshman pre-orientation program, which acquaints incoming undergraduates with the wide range of energy-related activities at the Institute.
About the journey she and her peers have pursued together, Chatterjee says, “It’s fantastic to see just how many of us stuck with energy at MIT. There’s a really strong sentiment in the Energy Minor of wanting to understand this complex issue. I feel as if we can really take this experience and go on to do fantastic things. We have a duty to use our knowledge to make this world a better place in the energy realm.”
Today, 19 members of MIT’s Class of 2015 join a burgeoning alumni network that includes 89 Energy Studies Minor graduates from just the first five years of the minor’s existence. Energy Studies Minors represent all five MIT schools and a broad range of majors, from mechanical and ocean engineering to architecture.
Maria Tou, a recent graduate of the Energy Studies Minor who is finishing a masters in chemical engineering and is soon heading to ETH Zurich to finish her PhD, offered the following reflections on what the Energy Minor has meant for her personal and professional development:
“The Energy Minor comes in handy in expected and unexpected ways after undergrad. I got in contact with my graduate advisor through having taken Fundamentals of Advanced Energy Conversion last spring as a part of the Energy Minor. I first learned about my PhD research topic through an energy class, and then got in contact with the professor through that, and now I’m set for the next few years.”
Members of the Energy Studies Minor Class of 2015: (front row l-r) Sterling Watson, Sarah Mayner, Priyanka Chatterjee, Delphine Kaiser (back row l-r) Cecilio Aponte, James Slonaker, Dimitrios Paganakis, Diego Giraldez. Photo: Justin Knight
Tou added, “One of the things I’ve really taken away from the minor is the ability to start intelligent conversations with other people, whether it be the hundred other people in the Energy Minor network, or anyone else I may come in contact with in the future.”
Congratulations to all of the graduates from MITEI – we wish the Class of 2015 the very best in all of their future endeavors.
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