Dr. Sara Hastings-Simon Joins the
Payne Institute for Public Policy 
at the Colorado School of Mines 
as a Senior Research Associate

GOLDEN, COLORADO – The Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines announced today that Dr. Sara Hastings-Simon joined the institute as a Senior Research Associate.  Dr. Hastings-Simon is an expert in energy, innovation, and climate policy; her work is focused on understanding how energy and industrial transitions happen within different sectors of the economy, and how policy responses can improve outcomes. She explores the role of incumbents and governments in development and deployment of new clean technologies, particularly within high carbon economies the markets and policy structures that enable decarbonisation of electricity systems; and the response of firms to carbon pricing and other climate policy measures.

Dr. Hastings-Simon is an expert member of the panel for Clean Growth with the Canadian Climate Choices Institute, a member of the board of directors of Emissions Reduction Alberta, and a Research Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. She was previously the Director of Clean Economy at the Pembina Institute where she founded Business Renewable Centre Canada. She was also the practice manager for Clean Technologies at McKinsey & Company, where she worked as a management consultant on topics of cleantech, energy, and sustainability. Earlier in her career she worked as an experimental physicist on realisations of rare earth ion-based quantum memories.

Dr. Hastings-Simon’s research will focus on multi-dimensional aspects of the increasing demand for minerals and metals due to the global transition to more renewable energy. This includes understanding how changing demands affect markets, trade, security, geopolitics, prices, and technology development.

About the Payne Institute for Public Policy

The Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines is in a unique position to serve as a nexus for high-quality, data-driven, solutions-oriented research and dialogue needed to inform energy and environmental policy at this critical moment. The Payne Institute can harness the faculty and student body of an institution with deep roots in mining and petroleum engineering, but also with superb programs and longstanding relationships spanning renewable energy, water purification, civil and environmental engineering, materials science and other areas. Mines has an unmatched track record in solving tough scientific and engineering problems across the gamut of energy and environmental fields. The university enjoys a hard-earned reputation as an unbiased problem-solver in disciplines often at odds in the energy-environment discussion; the university tagline, a marriage of the words “Earth” “Energy” and “Environment,” is in fact an accurate reflection of our expansive and growing purview.