By Bill Hewitt, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Our Energy Policy International Club (EPIC), working with CGA’s Sustainable Development Group and the Stern Energy & Infrastructure Club, organized an event showcasing the work of four of our recent graduates now working in the sustainability arena. The event was co-hosted by the Urban Future Lab and took place there on Friday, March 29th.
Professor Bill Hewitt moderated the panel of graduates in a discussion of key transportation issues in our cities. The panelists were Ilona Rayan, who is the Team Coordinator for North America at C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group; Siong-Hu Wong, Transportation Policy & Data Analyst for the law firm of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP; Simon Sylvester-Chaudhuri, Executive Director of CIV:LAB and a CGA adjunct professor; and Marcela Miceli, a Senior Associate at Climate Nexus. The wide-ranging discussion touched on the timely subject of congestion pricing in New York City, the impact of ride sharing on cities, the importance of electric vehicles for surface transportation, and the transformational potential of autonomous vehicles for our cities.
Lewis Percy, the EPIC President, led a second discussion on the career paths taken by each of the MSGA grads. Needless to say, coming from Papua New Guinea (Rayan), Malaysian Borneo (Wong), Kansas (Sylvester-Chaudhuri), and Miami (Miceli), and going to schools and working all over the world, these four had some fascinating insights for the fifty plus graduate students from CGA and Stern in attendance about life and work in the sustainability field. There was consensus among the four panelists that their colleagues shared a passion for their work and that this is very much a growing field.
The afternoon was rounded off by a Happy Hour in one of the Urban Future Lab’s meeting rooms – with spectacular views of the Big Apple from the 19th floor of 15 Metrotech Center.