Faculty
Dalia Patino-Echeverri
Dr. Patino-Echeverri’s research focuses on public policy design for energy systems, particularly on managing the risks arising from the uncertainties influencing the outcomes of government actions. Much of her current work focuses on the policies that affect capital investment decisions within the electricity industry and the corresponding costs to society of electricity and air-emissions levels. Her models explore the effects of different government policies by representing the industry’s decisions under uncertainty on future technological advancements, fuel prices, and emissions regulations.
Contact: dalia.patino@duke.edu
Researchers
Dimitris Floros
Dr. Dimitris Floros is a postdoctoral researcher at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. He obtained his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His research interests and experience include the theory and computation of network/graph analysis and parallel, scalable algorithms for large-volume, high-dimensional data analysis. His research has focused on theoretical and computational analysis of network data, a research area at the intersection of three major research areas: data analytics, network science, and high-performance computing.
Jing Huang
Jing Huang received her PhD from the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, in May 2024. Jing Huang was born in Hunan, China. As a Ph.D. visiting scholar at Duke University, her research focused on China’s household electricity use, energy poverty, electricity forecasting for future scenarios, and the benefits of planting trees to reduce residential electricity consumption. As a postdoctoral researcher at Duke & DKU, Jing is researching the technical, economic, and public acceptance feasibility of using waste heat from nuclear plants to reduce energy demand from residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
Contact: jing.huang@dukekunshan.edu.cn
Students
Mauricio Hernandez
Mauricio Hernandez is currently pursuing his PhD in Environment. Mauricio was born in Mexico City. He uses human and machine learning methods to improve the performance of unit commitment models for the GRACE EMS project. He has also researched the dynamics of energy demand in Latin America, demonstrating that energy subsidies do not favor low-income Mexican households as intended and that 18% of households need and lack air conditioning. He is also developing bottom-up energy models to estimate the electricity demand.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/h2mauricio/
Bryan Higgins
Bryan Higgins is pursuing his PhD in Earth & Climate Sciences at the Nicholas School of the Environment. His research focuses on geothermal energy, with particular emphasis on repurposing oil & gas wells for geothermal development, thermodynamic analysis of well systems, and quantifying the role of geothermal resources in a decarbonized power system. Prior to his PhD studies, he worked as a performance engineer in the utility solar industry.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-higgins-269520ab/
Tyler Norris
Tyler’s Ph.D. research focuses on grid interconnection and its relationship to electric power markets, with an emphasis on market and regulatory analysis, techno-economic modeling, and cost-benefit analysis, building on 12 years of experience in utility-scale power project development, energy market analysis, and USDOE tech-to-market programs.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerhnorris/
Xiaodong Zhang
Xiaodong Zhang is currently pursuing her PhD in Environment. She was born in Guangdong, China. She is working on evaluating the effects of electricity policy in China. Specifically, she uses the Unit Commitment – Economic Dispatch Model to analyze the economic and environmental impacts of subsidy policy and renewable portfolio standards for renewable energy.
Contact: xz284@duke.edu
Visitor Scholars
Ernesto Perez
Ernesto Perez is full professor in Electrical engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He has been involved in research activities for more than 25 years focusing on different aspects of power systems, such as lightning, power system transient, supervision, operation and protection of power systems. He has international experience as an invited researcher at Bologna University (2003- 2004) and as visiting professor at Virginia Tech (2014–2015). He has also great experience as advisor of industrial sector for developing applied projects for power system operation and supervision, such as implementation of EMT models for wide-area operation, PMU’s integration, among others.
Contact: eperezg@unal.edu.co, Linkedin, Research Gate
Erick Del Bianco Pelegia
Erick Del Bianco Pelegia is a Brazilian mechanical engineer whose interests lie in the energy field regarding thermodynamics, thermo-economics, energy planning, intermittent generation integration, energy transition, regulatory frameworks, economics, and socio-environmental impacts of the energy sector, among other topics. He has been working in the energy field since 2015. More recently, Erick came to realize that energy transition is less constrained by energy supply but is greatly limited by the lack of knowledge and experience about how to integrate technically and economically intermittent generation in the energy matrix. With this view as a guide, his current research aims to contribute to that topic.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erick-del-bianco-pelegia-9497031a4
Manuel Correa-Giraldo
Manuel Correa-Giraldo is a PhD candidate in Economics at Universidad EAFIT in Medellín-Colombia. He holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Universidad de Antioquia and a M.Sc. in Economics from Universidad EAFIT. Correa’s research covers fiscal policy, poverty, inequality, economic growth, applied economics, market policy, and regulation. Much of her current work focuses on industrial organization, energy economics, energy transition, and the evaluation of the impact of the incorporation of non-conventional renewable energies on wholesale costs and retail prices in the Colombian electricity market.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuel-correa-giraldo-92b13247/
Alumni
Bandar Alqahtani
Bandar Alqahtani is currently working as an engineering team lead at Saudi Aramco. Bandar was born and raised in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. During his time at Duke as a PhD student, Bandar carried out four studies that individually aim to increase understanding of various engineering and economic aspects of solar and wind energy and the challenge of integrating them in the electricity power system.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bandar-alqahtani-3a173a21/
Rubenka Bandyopadhyay
Rubenka Bandyopadhyay is an energy analyst at Advanced Energy Corporation. She was born and raised in Howrah, India. As a PhD student at Duke, Rubenka analyzed grid reliability and system cost to explore the possibility of using flexible Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) operation to mute wind power variability in the electric power grid in the mid-western US (MISO).
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubenka-bandyopadhyay/
Ali Daraeepour
Ali Daraeepour’s Ph.D research focused on understanding grid integration of variable renewable resources and alternative designs of electricity markets. After graduation, Ali worked for three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Ardlinger Center for Energy Associate at Princeton University. He then returned to Duke to work as a Research Scientist on the GRACE EMS project. Ali was born in Khoramabad, Iran and prior to his PhD studies, he worked for several years as an engineer and consultant.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alidaraeepour/
Mingquan Li
Mingquan Li is an assistant professor at the School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, China. During his time at Duke, Li worked as a postdoctoral researcher focused on investigating environmental economics and management as it relates to 1) the environment and sustainable development, 2) environmental efficiency, 3) environmental regulation, and 4) electricity policy, environmental pollution, and economic development in China.
Contact: mingquan.li@duke.edu, mingquanli@buaa.edu.cn
Rui Shan
Rui Shan received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill in May 2024. Rui was born in China. During his time at Duke as a master of environmental management student, he helped to build the bottom-up electricity demand projection model for Mexico and China. Specifically, he built the appliance adoption model, facilitated the population projection, and conducted field interviews in China and Mexico.
Contact: shanr@ornl.gov, shanrui427@gmail.com
Édgar Virguez
Edgar Virguez received his Ph.D. degree in Environmental Sciences and Policy. He was born in Bogota, Colombia. Edgar developed analytical open-source tools that support the transition to a decarbonized electric power sector. He is interested in understanding the policies that facilitate the integration of variable energy resources.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edgarvirguez/
Xianxun Wang
Xianxun Wang is associate professor at the College of Resources and Environment at Yangtze University. He was born in Puyang, China. During his time at Duke as a visiting post-doc, his research was focused on the integration of renewable energy resources considering the time-changing constraints and the spatial diversity of hydropower. Prior to his Ph.D. studies, he worked as an engineer of hydropower and water resources.
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xianxunwang/, xianxunwang@gmail.com
Mian Yang
Mian Yang is a full professor at the School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, China. While at Duke as a visiting Ph.D. student, Mian focused on investigating the coordination of various renewable energy and energy efficiency policies in China.
Contact: yangmian909@163.com