Dr. Kathleen Araújo is the Director of the Energy Policy Institute and Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems, Innovation, and Policy at Boise State University. She is responsible for the strategic oversight, research, and advising for the Institute. Dr. Araújo specializes in policy, planning and decision-making associated with international energy transitions. This includes planned adaptations, such as decarbonization, critical minerals security, and industrial restructuring, as well as unplanned shifts, including extreme weather and aspects of geopolitics.

Policy, planning and decision-making in international energy transitions; Comparative policy; Decarbonization and sustainable energy; Energy-environmental systems; Innovation systems and better practices; Resilience and disruption; International nuclear safety and cyber security; Science and technology policy.

Dr. Araújo’s research contributes to the advancing international field of energy transitions, where she writes on theory-building and practical considerations. Her first book, Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Turning Points in National Policy and Innovation (Oxford University Press), examines the social and technical history of country-level transformations with Icelandic geothermal energy, French nuclear power, Danish wind power and Brazilian biofuels following the 1973 oil crisis. Her second book, the Routledge Handbook of Energy Transitions (Routledge) is an edited volume overview of the state of knowledge for energy transitions.

Examples of Dr. Araújo’s broader base of work include national and community-informed decision-making, disruption, and factors shaping emerging adoption (e.g., hydrogen). Dr. Araújo is the PI for a national consortium centered on consent-based siting of critical infrastructure (U.S. Dept of Energy, $2 million). She is also a lead for a $24 million NSF award to evaluate energy-water system resilience. In 2023, Dr. Araújo was named a Presidential Innovator at Boise State University. She has presented or led discussions in forums for the Arctic Assembly, University of Cambridge, and Fukushima Medical University. She consults for inter-governmental/governmental organizations, communities, and industry.