3 questions with NSE alum Jake Jurewicz ’14
When Jacob “Jake” Jurewicz came to MIT, he planned to study nuclear fusion. But he soon broadened his focus to include not only developing and improving nuclear technology—fission as well as fusion—but also examining the social and political issues that can present barriers to the expanded use of nuclear energy. Since graduating from MIT, Jurewicz has been working as a senior analyst at Exelon in Chicago, where he enjoys keeping one foot in industry and finance, and the other in research and academia, thereby staying abreast of cutting-edge technologies with the potential to have a dramatic effect on the energy industry.
How do you use what you learned at MIT in your job?
I work in corporate strategy, looking at US utilities, major trends in the US energy space, and particularly emerging and nontraditional participants. Our team is responsible for synthesizing Exelon’s vision for the energy system of the future. Most of what I do is related to looking at how various technologies are affecting and disrupting industry. I frequently leverage a great deal of my engineering knowledge of various energy technologies that I researched during my time at MIT. One day I am assessing a novel nuclear fusion concept and the next I am evaluating how a lower-cost battery may impact electricity markets.
What did the Energy Studies Minor teach you?
The breadth of topics that the energy minor addressed—in classes — like Sustainable Energy, Energy Economics, and Energy Decisions, Markets, and Policies — complemented the technical learning in my engineering courses. The minor taught me a lot of the basics—about economics, market design, policy, and regulation, and it gave me perspective on how to create the greatest change in the system. The minor taught me to take a step back and look at the industry as it is now, applying those basics in order to be more effective, rather than just taking the most radical approach.
What would you tell students about pursuing a career in your field?
Don’t be afraid to take a nontraditional path, and don’t listen to anyone who immediately tries to write off a particular idea. Take in everything you learn and use everything you know from the classes you’ve taken and the experts you’ve talked to and then go do what you feel is right.
NOTE: In early 2016, Jurewicz helped set up a research agreement that made Exelon one of the first members of the MIT Energy Initiative’s new Low-Carbon Energy Centers.
Photo by Siobhan Duncan
Written by Elizabeth Boxer and Sofia Cardamone, MITEI
original article appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of Energy Futures
Related
Department of Nuclear Science & Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, 24-107 (map)
Cambridge, MA 02139
nse-info@mit.edu