Dr. Kathleen Araújo is Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems, Innovation, and Policy at Boise State University, and the Director of the Energy Policy Institute. She specializes in low carbon innovation as well as the resilience of critical infrastructure amidst disruption from extreme weather, geopolitical flux, and cyber complexities.

Dr. Araújo’s research contributes to the advancing field of energy transitions. She analyzes, for example, regional energy revitalization strategies, repurposing of skills and infrastructure, and international regulation of emergent technology, such as small modular reactor/microreactor technology. Her book, Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Turning Points in National Policy and Innovation, examines the energy histories and technology hub development in four, prime mover countries, following the 1973 oil crisis. Her edited volume, the Routledge Handbook of Energy Transitions (awarded Best Edited Volume in Energy in 2023 by the American Energy Society), reviews the state of current knowledge about energy system change.

In 2023, Dr. Araújo was named a Presidential Innovator. She leads externally-funded research programs that consist of cross-disciplinary teams from multiple sectors, including a national consortia, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, to provide recommendations on better practices for consent-based siting of critical infrastructure. In addition, she serves as a lead for Boise State and the State of Idaho on a $24 million NSF/State award to evaluate energy-water system resilience. Dr. Araújo presents in forums, such as the Arctic Congress and Fukushima Medical University. She also consults for communities, industry and inter-governmental organizations. For information about Dr. Araújo’s work in energy education, see Innovative partnership powers student education in ’21st Century Opportunities and Challenges in Energy’. To hear a discussion by Dr. Araújo and Mr. David Shropshire on energy resilience, click Resilience.