Kenzo Lacuarta ’22

Major

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Project Title

Trade-offs in Individual/Collective Behavior in Response to COVID-19 and in Anticipation of Climate Change

Presentation Link

View Kenzo's Presentation

Certificate(s): Global Health and Health Policy

I studied multilevel governance within New York City and looked at existing models of governance that could inform policymaking. More specifically, my goal was to understand how access to health care could be increased by modeling the dynamic relationship between public and private health insurers and uninsured individuals. This was done using the software Python to simulate a three-player game that incorporated evolutionary game theory and a payoff matrix. I later conducted a literature review of other studies and their impacts on policy decision-making. I improved my coding skills, but also learned how ecological models could be used for a wide range of interactions between individuals and groups. With the help of my mentors and adviser, I hope to use my preliminary model as a foundation for my senior thesis.



Internship Year

2021

Project Category

Climate and Environmental Science

Organization(s)

Levin Lab, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University

Mentor(s)

Simon Levin, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Elke Weber, Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment, Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs; Sara Constantino, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy, and Lecturer in the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Elisabeth Krueger, Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer, High Meadows Environmental Institute