Lara Pierpoint and Amy Fazen, the recently appointed co-presidents of the MIT Energy Club, are on a mission to reach out and touch students, young women scientists, alumni, and others who want to do something about the energy crisis and climate change. And they want MIT to be the “must attend” university for any students who plan to study energy.
“I wanted to do something to tangibly improve the world,” said Fazen, who left a lucrative telecommunications consulting job two years ago prior to starting an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management last year. “Telecommunications has a lot in common with energy, because it used to be a regulated market. I learned a lot, but my heart wasn’t in telecom,” added Fazen. “I wanted to get into energy.”
While men still outnumber women in the energy field at MIT, the numbers of women are growing. The co-presidents hope to set an example for young women scientists to get into the energy field. Women now make up about half of the club’s executive committee.
Fazen had been exposed to environmental issues as a child. Both of her parents were high school science teachers who ran a summer camp in western Massachusetts. “My mother is an environmentalist, so I grew up outside and had a woman’s perspective on the environment,” she said.
While at MIT getting her master’s in oceanography seven years ago, she became even more enthused about the field when taking a class with Professors Ronald Prinn and Henry Jacoby on Global Climate Change: Economics, Science, and Policy. “They showed both the science and business sides of finding a solution that made a difference,” she said. “We’re never going to change people’s habits if [the solution] is more expensive.”
Fazen still has one more year studying at MIT, and she’s already looking to the next wave students in energy. “Prospective students must feel that if they’re interested in energy, MIT is the only place to come,” said Fazen, who spends about 15 hours a week on Energy Club work. Plans call for reaching out during orientation and through a new admissions pamphlet for Sloan.
Co-president Pierpoint got involved with the Energy Club in her first semester at MIT in the fall of 2005, after being introduced to the club by Professor Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative and the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. “The Energy Club was a place where I could ask all kinds of questions about energy topics, even ones I’d hesitate to ask in class,” said Pierpoint, who just completed her first year of PhD studies in the Engineering Systems Division and who holds dual master’s degrees in the Technology and Policy Program and Nuclear Science and Engineering.
The club caused her to think about energy more broadly and to look at all forms of electricity, not just nuclear. “Energy is an area where so many different disciplines are required to understand the nature of the problem and what the solutions might be,” she said, citing fields such as economics, politics, business, and science.
Pierpoint was vice president of the Energy Club last semester, and before that social chair. “I realized as vice president that this is a unique opportunity to explore leadership with an inspiring group of people and an important topic,” she said.
She and Fazen say the Energy Club has changed over the past year and will continue to grow this year, expanding activities and membership. The membership ranks doubled over the past year to 750, and the number of activities doubled as well.
The co-presidents are planning more “outside the box” outreach activities for the Energy Club this year, including setting up an event focused on how the presidential candidates differ on energy, possibly holding an event focused on women, reaching out to energy clubs at other local universities, and undertaking activities aimed at getting the right people talking to each other, such as alumni to students. “A lot of alumni are proud of MIT,” Fazen said, because of MIT President Susan Hockfield’s declaration of energy as a priority for the institution.
Added Fazen, who has a Forté Foundation Fellowship for women pursuing a full-time MBA, “Women want careers that make a difference in the community and for their children. I want to be able to tell my kids I’ve done all I can to help solve the climate change problem.”