The IPC will partner with Advanced Energy Economy to hold four regional roundtable meetings across the country with senior energy leaders to discuss the role of regions in accelerating the transition to a lower-carbon energy economy. The first roundtable will be held at MIT in March 2013. The roundtables will highlight current practices, opportunities and challenges that exist at the regional level in energy innovation to both support and promote regional approaches. They will also help lay the foundation for a new phase of regionally-informed federal energy policies that will support regional variations in energy policies and approaches to energy innovation. This Regional Energy Innovation Roundtable series will build upon a roundtable hosted by the IPC and AEE in March 2012 in which a select group of leaders from across the energy innovation spectrum, including industrial practitioners from the entrepreneurial sector, government policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels, regulators, investors, and others, to discuss progress to date in regional energy innovation efforts and the challenges that exist in trying to accelerate energy innovation in regions across the country. The regional energy innovation model proposed by Lester and Hart (Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build A Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System. MIT Press, 2012.) provided a point of departure for the discussion, while the experiences of AEE chapters provided grounding in current practice. A summary of that discussion is available here (pdf).
Jesse Jenkins joins the IPC as a Research Associate with the MIT Production in the Innovation Economy (PIE) project. Jesse is a S.M. candidate in the Technology and Policy Program. His research focuses on understanding the role of policy in supporting and accelerating technological innovation in the energy and manufacturing sectors. He is particularly interested in developing the optimal policy environment to drive rapid cost and performance improvements in low-carbon energy technologies, facilitating their global adoption.
Prior to MIT, Jesse worked as Director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Breakthrough Institute (insert link: http://thebreakthrough.org/programs/energy-and-climate), an independent public policy think tank, and as a Research and Policy Associate at a renewable energy policy organization in Portland, Oregon. He holds a B.S. in Computer and Information Science and Philosophy from the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. You can find Jesse's LinkedIn profile here.
Former IPC Researcher Smita Srinivas publishes a new book, Market Menagerie, Health and Development in Late Industrial States (Stanford University Press, 2012). Market Menagerie examines technological advance and market regulation in the health industries of nations such as India, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, and China.
Pharmaceutical and life science industries can reinforce economic development and industry growth, but not necessarily positive health outcomes. Yet well-crafted industrial and health policies can strengthen each other and reconcile economic and social goals. This book advocates moving beyond traditional market failure to bring together three uncommonly paired themes: the growth of industrial capabilities, the politics of health access, and the geography of production and redistribution. Order the book.