Angel Hsu, PhD

Founder and Director

Angel Hsu, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College and Adjunct of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.  Her research explores the intersection of science and policy and the use of data-driven approaches to understand environmental sustainability, particularly in the areas of climate change and energy, water, and air quality. Previously, Angel was at the World Resources Institute (WRI), a non-profit environmental thinktank in Washington, D.C., where she developed corporate greenhouse gas accounting and reporting initiatives in developing countries, including China, where she managed and led WRI’s efforts.  She has written in and been cited by major media outlets and has provided expert testimony for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. She holds a PhD in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale University, an M Phil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, and a BS in Biology and BA in Political Science from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.

Amy Weinfurter

Research Associate

Amy explores the growing role that cities, states, businesses, and investors play in addressing climate change.  Her work focuses on quantifying the national mitigation potential impact of state and city climate action, and identifying the drivers of successful renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives in developing countries.  Amy holds a masters degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she studied the overlap between climate change, environmental planning, and water management.  Her professional experience includes a background in watershed monitoring and remediation, along with experience supporting capacity-building and communication efforts for a range of non-profit organizations.

Chendan Yan

Researcher & Graphic Designer

Chendan is a Masters of Environmental Management candidate at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Her research centers on sustainable urban development and environmental justice with application of geospatial analytics. As the graphic designer and researcher at Data Driven Yale, Chendan creates data visualization tools to communicate complex environmental issues and conducts research on urban sustainability metrics. She worked at Center of Earth Energy and Democracy in Minneapolis, MN, developing neighborhood based Environmental Justice Mapping tool and examining disparities in capacity among communities to maintain environmental quality. Chendan holds a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies and Philosophy from College of Saint Benedict and St.John’s University.

Kaiyang Xu

Research Associate

Kaiyang Xu is a graduate of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, receiving his Masters of Environmental Management Candidate at F&ES. He also holds a Bachelors of Science in Biological Sciences and Bachelors of Arts in Economics at The Ohio State University, Columbus, where his research focused on tropical forestry ecology and the interaction between insects and tree seedlings. At F&ES, he studies topics at the intersection of energy, business, and environment. Kai is particularly interested in greenhouse gas emissions from China’s building sector as well as that nation’s carbon trading system and energy production’s impact on China’s rapidly transforming economy. He specializes in data science and analysis.

Nikola Alexandre

Master of Environmental Science candidate (MESc ’17)

Nikola is a Master’s of Environmental Science candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His work exists at the intersection of environmental planning, urban land use, and inclusive economic development. He is particularly interested in how strategic urban resilience planning can create juste and equitable opportunities for low-income communities and communities of color. Nikola was a lead co-author on the 2016 Environmental Performance Index, and currently manages a team in the development of equity focused urban environmental performance indicators. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Vassar College and formerly worked at the Presidio of San Francisco developing climate action strategies.

Ross Rauber

Programmer, Yale-NUS College ’19

Ross Rauber is a second year undergraduate student at Yale-NUS College likely majoring in either Computer Science or Life Sciences. In addition to being very interested in data analysis, Ross is a web developer. So far, he has helped with gathering and displaying data used to create a clean energy performance index for Connecticut’s municipalities and is now working on creating visualizations for a global environmental data dashboard.

Allison Khoe

Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) candidate, 2017

Allison Khoe is a second-year candidate for a Masters of Environmental Management at Yale. She received her bachelor’s degree at UC San Diego in Environmental Systems and was most recently working at SunPower on their supply chain sustainability team. Allison’s career interests focus around how businesses can be innovative leaders in preserving natural resources.

Diego Manya

Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) candidate, 2018

Diego Manya is a Master’s of Environmental Management Candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is interested in the use and effect of data across the different stages of the environmental policy cycle, with particular emphasis in Performance Evaluations. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Environmental Engineering from the UNALM in Peru, and has worked in the private sector and on a UNDP-UNEP project in Peru.

Matt Moroney

Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) candidate, 2018

Matt Moroney is a first year Masters of Environmental Management student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He obtained a Bachelors of Environmental Science with a Chemistry minor at Western Washington University. Afterwards, he spent four years investigating contaminated sites and assisting permitting for new data centers. He studies the flow of materials in society and ways to replace them using green chemistry and systems thinking, as well as technologies that will alter the way we live and work.

Yani Zeng

Masters of Environment Management in Yale-Tsinghua dual degree program

Yani Zeng is a candidate for a Masters of Environment Management in Yale-Tsinghua dual degree program. Yani’s professional and academic backgrounds spans the fields of engineering, finance and business and most recently interned at the Rock Mountain Institute where she was the lead researcher a Chinese building project of energy quota policy design, compliance and enforcement. She is highly interested in solving problems in energy & environmental sector using data and metrics approach leveraging business, engineering and policy perspectives.

Ruifeng Zhong

Yale-NUS College ’20, Video Producer

Ruifeng is an undergraduate student at Yale-NUS College. He has worked as a freelance designer since the age of 19 and now specializes in animation, documentary, interview and social media promotional content. His interests span data analysis, visual representation and multimedia design in environmental studies. Currently working as a video producer in the Environmental Performance Index project team, he designed and produced multimedia content to improve the communication channels of text-heavy research findings.

Yuqian Peng

Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) candidate, 2017

Yuqian is a Masters of Environmental Management candidate at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is interested in international environmental cooperation and environmental justice, with a focus on climate and energy.  A researcher and data analyst with Data Driven Yale, Yuqian blogs about Chinese environmental policy and is building the 2016 EPI’s air quality issue profile. Prior to Yale, Yuqian worked at the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection and International Rivers – an environmental justice NGO that supports a global network of dam-affected people, environmentalists, human rights advocates, and experts to fight destructive river projects. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in International Relations and Environmental Studies.

Yaolin Zhang

Yale-NUS College ’19

Yaolin is a law and liberal arts double-degree student at Yale-NUS College and National University of Singapore. He is interested in the intersection between the environment, economics and the law. Previously involved in consulting work at IBM Smarter City Southern China, he is seeking a new sustainable model of development with market-based innovations to fundamentally address the environmental challenge of the 21st century. He is currently conducting citizen science environmental data and green finance research.

Kavya Gopal

Yale-NUS College ’18

Kavya Gopal is a second year undergraduate at Yale-NUS College, majoring in Urban Studies and minoring in Economics. She is very interested in questions of splintered infrastructures and equity in cities, especially in relation urban environmental amenities. Currently, Kavya is working on urban environmental sustainability indicators and measurement.

Zev Nicolai-Scanio

Choate-Rosemary Hall ’18

Zev is a programmer focusing on computer modeling, data science, and data visualization. He is interested in the connections between programming and the sciences, the intersection of coding and design, and the ways in which programming can be used as a tool to help inform policy decisions, particularly in the field of sustainable development. At Data-Driven Yale, his work includes database design, construction, and management; API development; and dashboard and widget development. His other independent projects include full-stack development and WebGL experiments.

Aadit Gupta

Yale-NUS College ’19

Aadit is a second-year undergraduate student at Yale-NUS College, currently considering majoring in Computer Science or History. Prior to joining Data-Driven Yale, he wrote for public policy journals — focusing on European and South East Asian affairs — and was a freelance web developer. He is interested in data science and visualization, as well as computer graphics and UI design. He is currently working on developing an API to help make sense of sub-national actor commitments to counter climate change.

Willie Khoo

Yale-NUS College ’19

Willie Khoo is a senior at Yale-NUS College pursuing environmental studies and anthropology. He is interested in the potential of civil society to drive sociopolitical and environmental change and believes data can provide an important platform for engaging and empowering citizens.

Stefanie Wnuck

Researcher A Masters of Environmental Management candidate at Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Stefanie’s research centers on climate policy, with a focus on carbon markets and the role of voluntary and information-based approaches that drive behavior change. With Data Driven Yale, Stefanie will explore how data can be used to spur ambitious climate action in all spheres. Prior to arriving at Yale, Stefanie worked on product stewardship and waste management, promoting recycling policies that minimize the end-of-life environmental and health impacts of consumer products. Stefanie holds a Bachelors of Arts in International Affairs and Environmental Science from Lafayette College.

Alisa Zomer

Research Associate and Manager, Environmental Performance Index Alisa Zomer is a research associate with the data-driven environmental policy lab at Yale focusing on urban sustainability metrics and climate change planning in cities. She investigates how urban sustainability indicators compare across cities and how qualitative and quantitative data can be combined to improve urban environmental policies. Alisa holds a masters degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where she researched urban climate adaptation governance in Manila, Philippines. She is currently a World Social Science Fellow focusing on sustainable urbanization and a member of the NSF-funded Research Coordination Group on Sustainable Cities. Prior to Yale, Alisa worked on international environmental governance and justice at the World Resources Institute.

Andrew Moffat

Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) candidate, 2016 Andrew is a Masters of Environmental Management candidate at Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Prior to attending Yale he lived in Beijing, China for five years where he studied Mandarin and was exposed to extreme air pollution that contributed to his interest in sustainable environmental management. Andrew worked most recently at China Policy where he researched environmental and energy policy in the People’s Republic of China. At F&ES he studies energy production and technological innovation, examining our energy infrastructure’s environmental and economic impacts.

Yaping Cheng

Research Fellow  Yaping is a research fellow at Yale’s data-driven environmental policy lab focusing on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Her work investigates how to quantify the reduced greenhouse gas emissions resulting from renewable energy and energy efficiency programs in developing countries. Yaping holds a Master’s Degree from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where she specialized in business and the environment. Prior to Yale, Yaping worked in the public education sector as a teaching fellow with Teach For China. She has also worked at Goldman Sachs, Alibaba, and Nokia Siemens Networks. Yaping received her Bachelor’s Degree in Geographical Information Systems from Wuhan University in China.