Rhodes Scholar & Ph.D.

Research Overview

My thesis studied how consumers learn about and chose to adopt new technologies, especially clean energy technologies such as solar panels. Using advanced statistics and novel experiments, I compared five models of innovation diffusion from economics, sociology, and marketing. This research is powerful for understanding how to structure incentives and marketing campaigns for spreading clean energy innovations into widespread use.

I also produced unexpected findings on the reaction of solar panel adoption to the withdrawal of tax subsidies — a particularly relevant field given the potential withdrawal of federal solar tax credits that was looming in December 2016.

I completed the Master’s and Ph.D. in three years total, accounting for a hiatus to work for the Obama campaign, and I was advised and constantly humbled by the incredible and brilliant H. Peyton Young.

Awards

My Ph.D. was funded by the Rhodes Scholarship, which selects students based on academic excellence, social impact leadership, and physical vigor. (I’m not sure how I passed the bar on the last one at the time.)

My thesis won both of the Department’s highest awards and cash prizes, the George Webb Medley Prize for best Master’s thesis and the Edgeworth Prize for best doctoral thesis.

I received the grade of Distinction for my exams, which is the highest available rank in the Oxford graduate system.

Given the workload of the software startup I joined immediately after completing my thesis, I declined to pursue the long process of publishing the work.