Alice Wu is a Senior Associate at the Federation of American Scientists, specializing in climate and clean energy policy. Alice has a background in electrical engineering and previously conducted research on singlet-fission solar cells at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied as a PhD student. She has also worked in international development, leading and collaborating on engineering projects with communities in Morocco, Colombia, Kenya, and India to tackle local challenges in water, energy, food, and the environment. Alice received her S.M. in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.
Science funding agencies are biased against risk, making transformative research difficult to fund. Forecast-based approaches to grantmaking could improve funding outcomes for high-risk, high-reward research.
Cement and concrete production is one of the hardest industries to decarbonize. Using its Other Transactions Authority, DOE could design a demand-support program involving double-sided auctions, contracts for difference, or price and volume guarantees.
Here’s how the Department of Energy can utilize Other Transaction Authority to invest in and kickstart a new era of abundant and firm geothermal energy.
Common frameworks for evaluating proposals leave this utility function implicit, often evaluating aspects of risk, uncertainty, and potential value independently and qualitatively.
Successful commercialization efforts have now grown across the country, but what do they have in common, and why do they work? Our experts weigh in.
The U.S. federal government is the largest funder of scientific research in the world — but it is risk-averse to a fault. New approaches to peer review can bring American research back to the bleeding edge.
The Biden Administration should undertake a three-pronged strategy for leveraging the power of positive tipping points to create a larger-than-anticipated return on investment in the transition to a clean energy future.
To address the gap between academic and commercial incentives, the U.S. government should fund centralized research programs, known as FROs, to address well-defined challenges.
Operation Warp Speed’s unique success is thanks to strong public-private partnerships, effective coordination, and structured leadership. Here’s how to replicate the OWS model for future success.
The NIH funds the world’s most innovative biomedical research, but rising administrative burden is slowing down the speed of breakthroughs.
Recent crises, such as the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, have led to volatile fossil fuel prices and raised national concerns about energy security. The growing frequency of blackouts across the country due to extreme weather points to an increasingly vulnerable and aging electric grid. Grid capacity right now is incapable of supporting the rapid […]
To help seed the ground for bipartisan progress, we’ve put together a menu of the best policy ideas on a range of critical topics.