Medinat Akindele
Postdoctoral Researcher, Engineering and Public Policy
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Medinat Akindele is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. She recently completed her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, where she was advised by Professor Peter Adams. Her doctoral research focused on developing accessible air quality models to assess the health impacts of air pollution. Medinat earned her bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota.
Mike Blackhurst
Executive Director, Open Energy Outlook Initiative
Bio
Dr. Mike Blackhurst is the Executive Director of the Open Energy Outlook (OEO) initiative, a collaborative initiative that aims to examine U.S. energy futures to inform energy and climate policy efforts by applying the gold standards of policy-focused academic modeling, maximizing transparency, and building a networked community.
Mike was previously the Co-Director of the Urban and Regional Analysis Program at the Center for Social and Urban Research and the Leonard Peters Faculty Fellow in Sustainability at the University of Pittsburgh. He received a doctorate in Engineering and Public Policy/Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an MS in Environmental and Water Resources at the University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Nikhil Kalathil
Deputy Director of Strategic Initiatives; Research Scientist, Critical Technology Initiative
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Nikhil Kalathil is the Deputy Director of Strategic Initiatives and a Research Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University's Critical Technology Initiative. He leads research on regional manufacturing ecosystems and capabilities. His research studies how regional capabilities and firm decisions about manufacturing location, product design, supply chains, and R&D investments aggregate to impact science and technology progress, as well as national and economic security objectives. His current research seeks to understand variation in regional support for short-term economic dynamism and how to construct more dynamic, resilient, and responsive supply chains in key technologies (semiconductors, drones, machining) that are capable of rapidly responding to novel shocks, scenarios, and needs. Dr. Kalathil’s work specifically focuses on the role of regional institutions, clusters, and ecosystems in facilitating national strategic objectives and meeting sudden demand spikes. He serves as a Senior Advisor for Ecosystem Assessment for the American Manufacturing Communities Collaborative (AMCC), and previously worked at SRI International’s Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy.
He completed his Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy (2024) from Carnegie Mellon University, his M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering (2019) from the University of California, Berkeley; and his B.A in Economics, Mathematics, and Politics (2014) from Oberlin College.
Jason O'Connor
Senior Research Scientist
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Jason O'Connor is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy. Since joining Carnegie Mellon full-time, he has worked on the Energy Storage demonstration project of the National Network for Critical Technology Assessment program with Professor Kate Whitefoot. His research interests lie at the intersection of the economics of innovation and industrial organization. Prior to his current position, he was a staff Economist at the Federal Trade Commission and a Research Scientist at the Medicaid Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
Michael Starz
Executive Director, Critical Technology Initiative
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Michael Starz is the Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Critical Technology Initiative. He completed a career in the US military and served as an infantry officer with combined arms, joint, interagency, inter-governmental and international teams.
During seven overseas deployments, Mike helped shape national goals and outcomes at the tactical and strategic levels in South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ukraine. As a lieutenant colonel, he served as the End Use Monitoring Chief and Army Programs Chief in Pakistan, and the Joint Staff J5 Desk officer for both Pakistan and Afghanistan with policy responsibilities to the National Security Council. As a battalion commander in the 101st Airborne Division, Mike commanded the 8-nation advisor mission which trained the first four Ukrainian brigades prior to the war.
When state-side, Mike’s military service has also regularly been interspersed with legislative roles: he served as the Defense Fellow for Senator Jack Reed, an advocate for Army Soldier systems R&D and hardware programs to Congress and the personal advisor to three Army Vice Chiefs. Most recently, Starz served as Chief Operations Officer of the Army's AI Integration Center, which grew from a task force within the Army Futures Command, into a $50M Center leveraging CMU expertise to bring AI into Army operations.
Education
- B.S. International Politics 2000, United States Military Academy
- M.P.S. Legislative Affairs 2011, The George Washington University
Publication
- George, J and Starz, M, "Janabi Village: Victory in an Al-Qaida Stronghold," Infantry Magazine, 37-43, Mar-Jun 2009.
Daniel Stock
Research Scientist, Critical Technology Initiative
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Daniel Stock is a research scientist at the Critical Technology Initiative at CMU. His research focuses on how incumbent workers and firms are impacted by industrial transitions, and how place-based policy can potentially reduce disruption and create opportunities. Other research interests include labor unions, export diversification, innovation policy, and policy implementation / administration.
In previous years, Daniel was a research fellow at the Harvard Growth Lab, collaborating with civil servants in export development and investment attraction agencies; before that, he held positions at the World Bank, MIT Media Lab, ILO, and US political campaigns. Daniel holds a PhD in Public Policy from CMU's Heinz College.