Internships

Chris Chu ’19

This summer, I interned with the Mauzerall Group measuring methane leakage at abandoned oil and gas wells in West Virginia. This project is a continuation of a previous paper detailing methane emissions at abandoned wells in Pennsylvania to see if the results of one state are scalable to a national measurement, or if it is necessary to approach it from a state-by-state basis. I also worked on a subproject comparing policy in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to see if the differences would manifest in variations in methane emissions. During my time there, I participated in all aspects of fieldwork including searching for the wells, conducting measurements, analyzing samples using gas chromatography, and interacting with the locals. I am majoring in environmental engineering, and this internship was a great taste of academia. Overall, it was a very positive experience for me; I developed meaningful relationships with my mentors and cemented my desire to pursue a career in research.