Introduction

Hi everyone!

If you are reading this, you are either a family member, friend, or mistyped somebody else’s Substack. Welcome to my brain lounge - this will be my space to catalog past writing, engage with new ideas, explore the future of energy, and deep dive into artists or media catching my eye. Probably gonna be 1-2 times a month, so dont worry about it clogging your inbox.

A little about me: I am currently a Master’s student at Oxford University, studying Energy Systems. That’s a vague way of saying I study the energy transition and its ramifications on society, technology, human behavior, and markets. Energy Policy, Power Systems, Sustainable Development, Thermodynamics, the whole 9 yards. The essence of what I do is rooted in climate change and energy (in my opinion) is the best way I can contribute to equitably decarbonizing the world.

I previously graduated from Duke, studying Mechanical Engineering and Climate Science (shoutout the Nic School), which laid the groundwork for what I do now. After a brief stint in Montana and the Canadian Rockies, I moved to NYC with Jake Perelmuter to work for PearlX, a Virtual Power Plant company. 2 years later, I was elbows deep in California’s distributed energy landscape and wanted to get back to wider energy trends. Hence, Oxford.

Along the way, I picked up a variety of poorly chosen tattoos (no disrespect to the artists, the fault is mine), found my music community, joined a sick amateur football club, and slowly started to find my place in the world. This substack is part of that journey.

I am writing this for 3 reasons:

1. My family and friends tend to have no idea what I do, how I do it, or whether I am any good at it. Engineers, much less climate scientists, are a rare breed in my communities, and I am horrible at explaining what exactly I do most days ( people on my soccer team in NYC thought I went door-to-door selling solar panels). I want to spread the cool things I am working on and hopefully bring my knowledge to my people.

2. I have limited outlets for my thoughts on culture, primarily music and film (and occasionally football or snowboarding). In the best-case scenario, these essays will alleviate my desire to send Francisco and Catherine snowboarding montages at 2 am or force my friends to hear me out that football (soccer) is an art form. This is a deeply selfish wish, and hopefully yall also enjoy it. I have a couple of articles in the works at the Oxford Review of Books (woo) and Nightshift Magazine (local to Oxford) that I will repost here if all goes well.

3. An old friend named Grady Gillett made one on his archaeology work, and I have really appreciated his cool posts. Reading about his niche dig sites and the expertise he is building has sparked a new interest in archaeology and reminds me that maybe I can do the same for others. Thanks Grady, and looking forward to your next article on tobacco farmers or Lithic flint shavings or wherever the work takes you. Go check his out here:

Talk soon!

Will