Ryan L. Shelby, PhD
Senior Energy Engineering Advisor, Office of Energy & Infrastructure,
Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and the Environment at USAID
Check out the Operational Engineering report from the National Academies!
Check out the Oct 2014 "Brilliant is the New Black" article featuring me at #27.
Welcome!
I am a senior energy engineering advisor within USAID that works on the design, implementation, evaluation and grid integration of decentralized energy projects (<1 MW to 10 MW) in Sub Saharan Africa and other emerging regions.
Within the Office of Energy & Infrastructure, I serve as the Program Manager for the Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development (PAEGC) initiative. PAEGC is a $47.1M initiative that seeks to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy solutions for increasing agriculture productivity and/or value in developing countries.
I am a former 2013-2014 Millennium Challenge Corporation Science, Technology & Innovation Fellow that focused on the expansion of modern energy services in six Sub Saharan African countries: Benin, Ghana, Tanzania, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Malawi using micro- and mini-grids.
I am a former Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellow and a J. Herbert Hollomon Fellow at The National Academies that focused on engineering education and the application of system engineering to peace building initiatives as a fellow in the Program Office of the National Academy of Engineering.
I am also the co-founder of the Community Assessment of Renewable Energy & Sustainability (CARES) organization & an alumnus the Berkeley Energy and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) Design Laboratory headed by Dr. Alice Agogino.
My research interests include power sector reform, decentralized electricity systems, sustainability, engineering education, climate change mitigation, renewable energy, energy science policy, energy poverty reduction, life cycle assessment, public engagement with science, design theory, indigenous knowledge, co-production of knowledge, social studies of science and technology, community based design and user needs assessment.
My doctoral research involved a co-design theory for the identification and incorporation of social performance metrics for the design and implementation of energy and water efficient housing and renewable energy power systems for power generation within Native American communities.
Check out my latest research videos for TEDx, the Luce Foundation, Berkeley's Mechanical Engineering Department!
