
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Lauren McPhillips didn't always dream of being a professor, but she knew she loved solving problems.
After earning three degrees in Earth systems science and environmental engineering at Cornell University, McPhillips completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Arizona State University, where she met our host Alysha. Now, she's working on ecological and water resources engineering problems from green stormwater infrastructure to solar implementation. In her position as a researcher and assistant professor at Penn State's Institute for Energy & the Environment, she studies how best to implement solar power across ecosystems while preserving ecosystem services in proposed solar fields.
Solar farms get a lot of pushback due to their potential to interrupt ecosystems, whether they're just taking up important habitat space or actually causing harm through increased erosion or stormwater runoff. But McPhillips argues that, when done carefully, solar power could be just the nature-positive energy solution we need.
Lauren's Haiku:
Solar energy
Can keep nature's benefits
Could be a win-win
Guest Bio: https://iee.psu.edu/people/lauren-mcphillips
McPhillips' Lab Website: https://sites.psu.edu/lmcphillips/
By Future Cities4.8
2424 ratings
Lauren McPhillips didn't always dream of being a professor, but she knew she loved solving problems.
After earning three degrees in Earth systems science and environmental engineering at Cornell University, McPhillips completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Arizona State University, where she met our host Alysha. Now, she's working on ecological and water resources engineering problems from green stormwater infrastructure to solar implementation. In her position as a researcher and assistant professor at Penn State's Institute for Energy & the Environment, she studies how best to implement solar power across ecosystems while preserving ecosystem services in proposed solar fields.
Solar farms get a lot of pushback due to their potential to interrupt ecosystems, whether they're just taking up important habitat space or actually causing harm through increased erosion or stormwater runoff. But McPhillips argues that, when done carefully, solar power could be just the nature-positive energy solution we need.
Lauren's Haiku:
Solar energy
Can keep nature's benefits
Could be a win-win
Guest Bio: https://iee.psu.edu/people/lauren-mcphillips
McPhillips' Lab Website: https://sites.psu.edu/lmcphillips/

43,860 Listeners

32,012 Listeners

26,214 Listeners

759 Listeners

6,409 Listeners

396 Listeners

112,484 Listeners

741 Listeners

1,250 Listeners

875 Listeners

502 Listeners

95 Listeners

15,955 Listeners

629 Listeners

233 Listeners