Careers in Climate Panel
Tuesday, September 24, 2024, 12 - 2pm
It is increasingly clear that climate change is a challenge we can't ignore. Attend this panel discussion to hear four Cooper alumni discuss their careers and how they are addressing the climate crisis. This program will eyshow you some of the many ways your knowledge and skills can help alleviate one of today's biggest global problems.
Organized by Marshall Rafal ChE'63 and Lynn Lander ChE'60 of The Cooper Union Climate Initiative (CUCI) in collaboration with The Center for Career Development.
Panelists:
David Berger CE'09
Anna Kramer CE'14
Lisa Liu ChE'13
Caitlin Martusewicz AR'11
Keynote Remarks:
Amanda Simson, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering
Moderated by:
Kit Nicholls, Director, The Center for Writing and Learning
Panelist Bios
David Berger CE'09 is a Senior Consultant in the Energy Efficiency group at Eversource Energy. David advises large-scale commercial and industrial customers in the development and execution of retrofit projects by identifying technologies that support efficiency and decarbonization solutions for energy-intensive facilities. David is also responsible for developing new incentive offerings to encourage deep energy retrofit and decarbonization projects. Prior to joining Eversource, David lived in Singapore for seven years where he held several roles in the building science and sustainability fields, including working on Singapore’s first net zero retrofit project. David holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Cooper Union, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Boston College.
Anna Kramer CE'14 is a climate practitioner who bridges engineering, urban data analytics, and climate science to advance adaptation to climate change. She founded URBANSEA in 2021, a boutique consulting firm, where she supports clients in sustainability planning and the development and implementation of climate-resilient infrastructure. She is a product manager at the Urban Systems Lab, where she manages the development of ClimateIQ, an AI-driven climate-hazard assessment tool funded by Google.Org. In addition, Anna is the Director of Sustainability for the Climate Film Festival, where she is developing strategies and driving decisions to minimize the environmental footprint of the inaugural festival, taking place September 20th–22nd. Anna holds a Master of Science from NYU Tandon’s Center for Urban Science and Progress and a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from Cooper Union.
Lisa Liu ChE'13 is an energy and infrastructure professional with over 10 years of experience globally. She currently serves as a Senior Project Manager of Development at NextEra Energy, modernizing the grid through large-scale transmission projects, and has held various roles at ExxonMobil, Boeing, Shell, and Series A climate tech startups. Outside of her professional life, she is passionate about food, outdoor activities, and yoga and meditation. She is committed to leveraging the energy transition to foster a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive world and volunteers with organizations supporting the Chinese-American community in New York City. Lisa earned a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union in 2013 and returned to school to earn an MBA and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2023.
During her time as an undergrad at Cooper Union and while working abroad in Ghana during her summers with one of the School’s Electrical Engineering Professors (Toby Cumberbatch) Caitlin Martusewicz AR’11 learned to expect Architecture to solve real problems of material waste, embodied energy and social impact. In 2014 Caitlin joined Cycle Architecture, a small Brooklyn based firm focused on matters of energy efficiency, urban research and public interest. Caitlin is now a partner at Cycle Architecture and has helped co-found Cycle A’s sister company, Cycle Retrotech, a company that has turned its focus to delivering deep-energy building decarbonization retrofits at scale. Caitlin is a Certified Passive House Designer and her work has helped lead Cycle to the forefront of building retrofit work. She is currently working on a number of Retrofit research and demonstration projects funded by NYSERDA, The Enterprise Technology Prize, the Department of Energy, NREL, and the Enterprise Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge. Caitlin lives in the Catskills where, in her spare time, she is working on building her historical barn property into a reimagination of Cooper Union’s Green Camp using regenerative design principles.
Located in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, at 41 Cooper Square (on Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets)