2026 Internship Opportunities

Princeton’s Net-Zero America (NZA) study (https://netzeroamerica.princeton.edu/the-report) was a path-breaking, impactful energy-transition modeling effort that vividly communicated alternative technological pathways by which the U.S. economy could reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The NZA leaders are now collaborating with research teams worldwide developing Net-Zero “X” studies for other countries. One internship with the Net-Zero China (NZC) project is available with the Andlinger Center’s Energy Systems Analysis Group (ESAG).

ESAG includes a multidisciplinary group of researchers using engineering-based tools to assess and model technologies and technology strategies for solving major energy-related societal problems—including climate change, air pollution, lack of energy access in poorer countries, and others. In addition to NZC, ESAG researchers are collaborating on Net-Zero projects with colleagues in Australia, Brazil, India, Poland, and Korea at present. Dr. Eric Larson leads ESAG’s contributions to the NZB and will mentor this internship.

The intern will support the NZC project in various ways, including assisting with:

• Collecting/organizing input data for modeling work
• Learning and running decarbonization transition models, including energy/industrial demand and supply optimization and visualization tools.
• Documenting project work in various ways, including creating and populating templates for graphical and mapping representations of modeling results
• Other activities as mutually agreed with supervisor

The intern will gain an understanding of:

• Systems level, interdisciplinary thinking and analysis
• Current energy production and utilization patterns across China
• A wide range of energy producing and using technologies
• Optimization based modeling of national energy/industry transitions and how such models are applied to guide real-world decarbonization decisions.
• Various other software tools
• Effective organization and presentation of large energy and land-use related datasets.

STEM major with interest in energy-systems and national decarbonization transitions, especially for China

• Basic data analysis skills, including proficiency with MS Excel and one or more coding languages (e.g., Julia, Python)
• Experience with geographic information system software (ArcGIS or QGIS) desirable.
• Familiarity with Tableau software.

Intern should have their own laptop

• Students will meet with internship mentors in the spring, prior to the internship start date. Reading materials may also be provided.
• Students are responsible for securing accommodations for the duration of their internship. On-campus summer housing is typically available the first week of June until the first week of August (details to become available in Spring 2026). If the internship falls outside of on-campus housing availability, students will need to secure alternate housing.