DURHAM, N.C. – Dalia Patino-Echeverri, an expert on energy policy risk analysis, has joined the faculty of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at 91 as the new Gendell Assistant Professor of Energy Systems and Public Policy.

Patino-Echeverri came to the Nicholas School from Carnegie Mellon University, where she was a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s Climate Decision Making Center and the Carnegie Electricity Industry Center.   

“We are pleased to appoint a young scholar of Dalia’s caliber to this important new faculty position,” said William L. Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School.

Patino-Echeverri is widely respected for her study of risk-reduction valuation in the electricity industry, he said. Of particular note is her innovative work on how to manage economic risks associated with formulating government policies in the face of uncertainties regarding fuel prices, air-emission regulations and technological advancements.

The Gendell Assistant Professorship was endowed as part of a $2.15 million gift in 2005 from Jeffrey and Martha Gendell of Greenwich, Conn. The Gendells’ gift, which totaled $2.9 million when matching funds were included, endowed two new full-time faculty positions in the Nicholas School’s Energy and Environment program, along with an energy research fund, a speakers’ series, a visiting executives program and a general fund to support energy innovation.

The Energy and Environment program provides graduate students with an intensive two-year course of interdisciplinary study culminating in a professional Master of Environmental Management 91 with a concentration in energy. Future plans call for extending the program to undergraduates.

“Through its emphasis on energy and the environment, the Nicholas School is addressing challenges of critical importance,” Patino-Echeverri said. “I look forward to engaging with my new colleagues and students, and further strengthening the school as an intellectual focal point on these issues.”

Patino-Echeverri received her PhD in engineering and public policy in 2006 from Carnegie Mellon. She earned a master’s of science 91 in industrial engineering in 1998, and a bachelor of science 91 in industrial engineering in 1996, from the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and was a teaching professor there from 1998 to 2001.