Caldeira Lab

Danny Cullenward (Research Associate)

Danny Cullenward is an energy economist and lawyer working on the design and implementation of scientifically grounded climate policy. He is the Policy Director at Near Zero and a Research Associate with the Carnegie Institution for Science; he also teaches courses on energy and climate law at Stanford Law School. In 2017, Danny was appointed by the California Senate to the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, which is charged with reviewing California's cap-and-trade program. Danny serves on the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC) advisory board and previously taught climate policy as the inaugural Philomathia Research Fellow at UC Berkeley. In addition to his administrative law practice, he has represented environmental scientists as amici in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court. Danny holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a PhD in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) from Stanford University, where he earned his MS in Management Science & Engineering and a BS with Honors in Earth Systems. 

Bill Hayes (Programmer)

Bill creates programs to analyze data from climate models for Ken Caldeira and others in his lab.
After receiving his BSEE and MSEE from the University of Cincinnati in his home town he did his first professional work developing hardware and software for a Pediatric Cardiology research lab at Duke University. After working for many small companies in California he became a Systems Engineer at Siemens Oncology in Concord before joining Carnegie
He currently resides in Las Vegas tutoring Python online in his spare time.

David Koweek (Postdoctoral Associate)

Geeta Persad (Research Associate)

Geeta G. Persad is a Research Associate in the Caldeira Lab at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology, where she studies the impacts of short-lived climate pollutants on regional and global climate using numerical models. She serves as acting Principle Investigator on Carnegie's multi-year National Science Foundation-funded collaboration with the University of California San Diego and Stanford University to assess the coupled climate and institutional dynamics of short-lived local pollutants and long-lived global greenhouse gases.

Dr. Persad also serves as Senior Climate Scientist in the Union of Concerned Scientists Western States Office where she leads technical analysis on their short-lived climate pollutant and water resources portfolios.

Dr. Persad received her PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a certificate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy from Princeton University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Ford Policy Fellow. Prior to her PhD, Dr. Persad served as a Physical Scientist in the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She holds a B.S. in Geophysics from Stanford University.

Elizabeth Susskind (Executive Assistant)

Having graduated in Vocal Performance from Trinity College, London, Elizabeth traveled to St. Louis to pursue a career in music. Eventually, she found her way with her family to California, drawn by the lovely weather and magnificent Pacific Ocean. When not doing yoga, gardening, or walking her black Labrador, she can be found at Davies Symphony Hall singing with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. She is excited to be part of the Carnegie Institution for Science, department of global ecology, supporting Ken Caldeira and his awesome group of postdocs.

Mengyao Yuan (Postdoctoral Associate)

Mengyao Yuan is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist working with Dr. Ken Caldeira at the Carnegie Institution for Science. She models and analyzes near-zero-emission energy systems for transition to a reliable, equitable, and sustainable energy future. In her previous work, she investigated carbon capture and other low-emissions technologies using both experimental and computational methods. She is broadly interested in energy systems modeling, carbon capture and storage, energy and environmental policy, and energy and sustainable development.

Mengyao obtained her BEng in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Humanities from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and her MS in Environmental Engineering and Science and PhD in Engineering Resources Engineering from Stanford University.