ABOUT THE AUTHORS

SETH SHULMAN

Seth Shulman is the senior staff writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He has worked for more than 25 years as a journalist and author focusing on issues in science, technology, and the environment and is the author of five books and hundreds of articles for magazines, including The Atlantic, Discover, Nature, Parade, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, and Time, among many others. He also served as a columnist for Technology Review magazine, writing monthly about innovation. Among his accolades are a Guggenheim Fellowship (2011) and the first-ever Science Writing Fellowship at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2004–2005). He has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award in the Public Interest category and received a research and writing grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. His latest book, The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret, was chosen as one of the best books of 2008 by the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and Booklist, the publication of the American Library Association. His other books are Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration; Unlocking the Sky: Glenn Hammond Curtiss and the Race to Invent the Airplane; Owning the Future; and The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military.

JEFF DEYETTE

As a senior energy analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Energy Program, Jeff Deyette conducts analysis on the economic and environmental costs and benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency policies. He has coauthored numerous reports, including “A Bright Future for the Heartland: Powering the Midwest Economy with Clean Energy”; “Burning Coal, Burning Cash: Ranking the States That Import the Most Coal”; “Plugging In Renewable Energy: Grading the States”; “Increasing the Texas Renewable Energy Standard: Economic and Employment Benefits”; “The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard Ballot Initiative: Impacts on Jobs and the Economy”; and “Renewing Where We Live: What a National Renewable Electricity Standard Means for You.” He has also written articles for various publications in the renewable energy industry.

Prior to coming to the Union of Concerned Scientists, Deyette worked as an environmental protection specialist for the New England Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He has a master's degree from Boston University in energy resource and environmental management and international relations and a bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University in environmental science and government.

BRENDA EKWURZEL

Brenda Ekwurzel is a climate scientist with the Climate and Energy Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists. She leads the organization's climate science education work aimed at strengthening support for sound U.S. climate policies. Prior to joining the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ekwurzel was on the faculty of the University of Arizona's Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, with a joint appointment in the Department of Geosciences. She has published on topics that include climate variability and fire, isotopic dating of groundwater, Arctic Ocean tracer oceanography, paleohydrology, and coastal sediment erosion. Earlier in her career, Ekwurzel was a hydrologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, working with communities to protect groundwater sources.

Ekwurzel holds a doctorate in isotope geochemistry from the Department of Earth Sciences at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and she conducted postdoctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

DAVID FRIEDMAN

David Friedman is the deputy director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Vehicles Program and is the author or coauthor of more than 30 technical papers and reports on advancements in conventional, fuel cell, and hybrid electric vehicles, with an emphasis on clean and efficient technologies. His work includes “Climate 2030: A National Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy”; “A New Road: The Technology and Potential of Hybrid Vehicles”; “Building a Better SUV: A Blueprint for Saving Lives, Money, and Gasoline”; and “Drilling in Detroit: Tapping Automaker Ingenuity to Build Safe and Efficient Automobiles.” He is a member of the Committee on the Assessment of Technologies for Improving Light-Duty Vehicle Fuel Economy with the National Academies Board on Energy and Environmental Systems. In 2008, Washingtonian magazine profiled him as one of 30 people changing the environment in Washington.

Before joining the Union of Concerned Scientists, Friedman worked for the University of California, Davis, in the Fuel Cell Vehicle Modeling Program, developing simulation tools to evaluate fuel cell technology for automotive applications. He also worked on the UC Davis FutureCar Team to build a hybrid electric family car that doubled its fuel economy. He previously worked at the Arthur D. Little management consulting firm researching fuel cell, battery-electric, and hybrid electric vehicle technologies, as well as photovoltaics.

Friedman earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is currently finishing his doctoral dissertation on transportation technology and policy at UC Davis.

MARGARET MELLON

Margaret Mellon is a senior scientist in the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She is one of the nation's most respected experts on biotechnology and food safety. Mellon holds a doctorate in molecular biology and a law degree from the University of Virginia. She was formerly a research fellow in molecular virology at Purdue University and program director for the Environmental Law Institute.

Mellon has published widely on the potential environmental impacts of biotechnology applications. She is coauthor of “The Ecological Risks of Engineered Crops” and “Hogging It! Estimates of Antimicrobial Abuse in Livestock” and is coeditor of “Now or Never: Serious New Plans to Save a Natural Pest Control.” She serves on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture and teaches a course in biotechnology and the law at the Vermont Law School. In 1993, she received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University's School of Science.

JOHN ROGERS

John Rogers, a senior analyst with the Climate and Energy Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is an expert on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and the connection between energy generation and water consumption. He serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative and of RENEW, an organization that promotes renewable energy in New England. He also serves on the advisory boards of several nonprofit organizations promoting U.S. renewable energy and global energy access.

Prior to joining the Union of Concerned Scientists, Rogers worked for 15 years on private and public clean energy initiatives, including as a cofounder of Soluz, a leading developer of clean energy solutions for rural markets, and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras. He earned a bachelor's degree at Princeton University and a master's degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan.

SUZANNE SHAW

Suzanne Shaw is director of communications at the Union of Concerned Scientists. For the past decade, she has helped scientists translate their research into easy-to-understand public presentations, print articles, and online materials. She has developed public education materials for major studies on the local impacts of climate change in the Northeast, California, and the Great Lakes region and a groundbreaking report on the pathway to a clean energy future, “Climate 2030: A National Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy.” Shaw co-led the Union of Concerned Scientists’ effort to expose the abuse of science by the George W. Bush administration, which garnered coverage in media outlets throughout the nation and was named one of the top stories of 2004 by Discover magazine.

Prior to joining the Union of Concerned Scientists, Shaw ran the communications efforts at Project Bread, a nonprofit organization fighting hunger in Massachusetts, and in the private sector, marketing a range of technology products. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut and a master's degree in public relations and advertising at Emerson College. She serves on the advisory board for Climate Access, a learning network for local, regional, and national groups working on climate change.