How humans produce and use energy — from generating light to the way we cook — has a huge impact on the health of individuals and communities. Sustainable energy is created and used so that it meets peoples’ needs now but doesn’t compromise our health and society in the long run. In this panel discussion, Duke global health and energy experts discuss forms of energy that are taking a toll on human health as well as solutions for a healthier future.

About the speakers:

Marc Jeuland is an associate professor holding primary appointments in the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Duke Global Health Institute at Duke University, and secondary affiliations with the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Pratt School of Engineering. He also holds a research affiliation with the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut (RWI) – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research. 

Jeuland's research interests include nonmarket valuation, water and sanitation, environmental health, energy and development, the planning and management of trans-boundary water resources and the impacts and economics of climate change. His research in the domain of environment and development has mostly focused on South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and includes a mix of micro-level household surveys and experimental or quasi-experimental studies, and systems level modeling, especially to understand the impacts and robustness of water resources projects in transboundary river systems. Besides working with other academics, Jeuland collaborates often with researchers and practitioners working in organizations such as the World Bank, USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC), and the World Health Organization.

He teaches several courses at Duke University including Economics of the Public Sector, Economic Analysis and Evaluation for Public Health and Environment, Water Cooperation and Conflict, Global Environmental Health, and a Bass Connections course on Strategies for Energy, Water, and Agriculture Development in Ethiopia.

Charles Nunn investigates the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases in wildlife, with special interest in primates and other mammals. In addition to addressing basic questions about wildlife diseases, his research aims to understand zoonotic disease risk and the conservation of biodiversity.

Nunn conducts fieldwork in rural Madagascar on the drivers of infectious disease transmission at the human-animal interface. He models data on contact patterns and shared habitat use using social network analysis, and integrates the modeling with infectious disease screening, small mammal trapping, and human surveys.

Many of his other research projects involve large-scale informatics datasets on mammalian parasites, with the aim to understand patterns of disease risk in natural systems and at the human-wildlife interface. He also models the spread of infectious agents in wild populations, including heterogeneities in contact structure based on knowledge of primate behavior and ecology.

Nunn teaches courses in both Evolutionary Anthropology and Duke Global Health.

Rob Fetter is a senior policy associate at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions working with the Duke University Energy Access Project. He works with researchers from multiple units at Duke University focused on policy, business, economics, law, science, and engineering. He also works with global practitioners and policy makers, to advance opportunities to increase energy access and the use of low-carbon and sustainable energy sources.

Fetter joined the Nicholas Institute after completing his Ph.D. in environmental policy at Duke, where he wrote about global energy transitions as well as about regulation and firm learning in the emerging technology of hydraulic fracturing. Prior to his doctoral studies, he helped create a social enterprise company that created an independent, stakeholder-based certification standard for responsibly produced oil and gas, and he co-led the strategic engagement of NGOs, indigenous communities, and other stakeholders. He previously worked in environmental policy consulting for more than a decade, leading interdisciplinary analyses, writing more than 80 technical reports, and serving as an expert witness on renewable energy markets.

Ipsita Das is a research scientist at the Sanford School of Public Policy, working at the intersection of environment, health and development. Her prior and ongoing research includes understanding drivers of environmental health behavior adoption, impacts of improved and clean energy on household welfare, and cost-benefit analyses of and willingness to pay for clean cooking. 

Das has substantial experience implementing field research (experimental and quasi-experimental studies) in South and South-East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. She has collaborated with researchers and practitioners at Innovations for Poverty Action, International Development Research Center, the Clean Cooking Alliance, GIZ and the World Health Organization. Das holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Master of Public Policy from Duke University.

Pamli Deka is the associate director for WRI India’s Energy Program and leads the work on energy access, which strives to improve access to reliable, sustainable and affordable source of energy for social economic development.

Prior to joining WRI, Pamli worked with New Ventures India where she mentored clean energy enterprises, supporting them in scaling up their operations and seeking investments. She started her career in the oil fields with Schlumberger, a technology company that partners with customers to access energy, and since 2005, has been in the energy sector across multiple functions – from consulting to financial analysis with firms like the Boston Consulting Group and Shell India.

Pamli holds an MBA from INSEAD and has an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Roorkee). She lives in Bengaluru with her husband, Pulkit, and son, Ved, and enjoys traveling with her family.

Kuleni Abebe received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from George Mason University. She is currently a second-year master’s student in the Duke Global Health program. Her global health interests include infectious diseases, parasitology, One Health, WASH (Water access, Sanitation, and Hygiene), and implementation science. For her global health master's degree thesis, Kuleni is currently working with Dr. Nunn and Dr. Kramer on assessing the effect of cooking fuel smoke exposure on lung health in Madagascar.