Joule Bergerson, energy technology assessment expert, named new director of ND Energy
Photo by Angelic Rose Hubert.
Joule Bergerson, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Calgary (Canada), has been selected to serve as the faculty director of ND Energy at the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana, USA), effective August 1. Bergerson has also been appointed the inaugural Richard and Ellen Stanley Professor of Energy Systems Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. As a leading expert in energy technology assessment, her research informs infrastructure and investment decisions as well as energy innovations in the global effort to more aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“ND Energy was formed to meet the global need for answers to complex energy and sustainability challenges,” said Jeffrey F. Rhoads, John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research and professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “With her profound knowledge of the economic and environmental impact of emerging energy technologies, Joule is the ideal leader for the next phase of energy research at Notre Dame.”
At the intersection of policy and technical innovation, Bergerson’s work involves scientists, engineers and members of the business community who are developing new energy technologies. Her goal is to equip stakeholders with tools to assess the financial and environmental costs of energy — from generation to use to waste management — facilitating a clearer understanding of the complex benefits and trade-offs of energy production and expenditure.
An international collaborator, Bergerson has published numerous open-source tools for modeling energy systems. Her Petroleum Refinery Life Cycle Inventory Model, a tool for estimating the impact of crude oil quality and oil refinery layout on greenhouse gas emissions, informs the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Oil Climate Index (OCI), RMI’s OCI+ and The Archie Initiative’s database. In recognition of her leadership, Bergerson presented the life cycle model at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.
Patricia J. Culligan, the Matthew H. McCloskey Dean of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering and professor of civil engineering, said, “We are thrilled that Joule will be joining our College of Engineering faculty and very grateful to Richard and Ellen Stanley for endowing the named chair that attracted her to Notre Dame. Joule’s talents and expertise ideally complement those of our current faculty engaged in energy and sustainability focused research, and will enable us to advance new solutions for clean energy transitions that are equitable and just.”
Bergerson’s interdisciplinary and diplomatic approach to energy development resonates with the mission of ND Energy. By bringing together experts in engineering, sustainability and international relations, the center was created to address the most pressing global energy issues of our time. The University’s recent strategic plan reaffirmed its commitment to building a more equitable and sustainable energy future, and, under Bergerson’s leadership, ND Energy will play a key role in supporting this effort.
“My work to date has gone beyond the engineering of energy to include the economic and operational aspects of energy production, which are so important in today’s world,” Bergerson said. “In order to plan for a more sustainable and equitable future, we must have the data to be well-informed, and I am thrilled to join my experience with the mission of the University and work alongside world-class colleagues toward this end.”
Bergerson earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and environmental science from the University of Western Ontario and a master’s degree in chemical and environmental engineering from the University of Toronto. She completed her doctoral studies in the joint programs of civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University before joining the University of Calgary as a postdoctoral fellow in 2005.
Bergerson has received numerous institutional awards for excellence throughout two decades of teaching and research. In 2017, she was named a Government of Canada Research Chair for her leadership in technology assessments in the energy sector. In 2024, she was recognized by the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment with their Leadership in Academia Award.
Learn more about Bergerson and ND Energy.
Latest Faculty & Staff
- Faculty receive prestigious early career awards from National Science FoundationDuring the 2024-25 academic year, four researchers in the University of Notre Dame’s Colleges of Engineering and Science received early-career awards from the National Science Foundation.
- In new research, Roy Scranton explores climate change and the limits of human progressIn his most recent book, “Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress,” Scranton, an associate professor of English, defines the impasse he sees as “not only political and institutional, but cognitive, existential and narrative” and asserts that the only path forward is through embracing what he terms ethical pessimism. “A lot of people confuse pessimism with nihilism, apathy and despair,” Scranton said. “But pessimism is actually about recognizing our limits, letting go of unrealistic goals, finding solidarity in the fact of human suffering and doing what you can now, not in some utopian future.
- In memoriam: Alasdair MacIntyre, the Rev. John A. O’Brien senior research professor of philosophy emeritusAlasdair MacIntyre, the Rev. John A. O’Brien senior research professor of philosophy emeritus and a permanent senior distinguished research fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, died on May 21, 2025. He was 96.
- Santiago Schnell, dean of Notre Dame’s College of Science, appointed as provost of DartmouthSantiago Schnell, the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, has accepted an appointment as provost at Dartmouth College. He will depart Notre Dame at the end of June and begin his new role in July.
- Notre Dame’s Fightin’ Irish Battalion receives Department of Defense award as nation’s top Army ROTC programThe United States Department of Defense honored the University of Notre Dame’s Army ROTC Fightin’ Irish Battalion as the nation’s top Army collegiate program for the 2023-24 academic year. This will be the first time the unit has received the department’s Educational Institution Partnership Excellence Award, which recognizes the program’s achievements in recruiting, educating, training and commissioning leaders of character to be the next generation of military officers.
- In memoriam: Karl Ameriks, the McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy EmeritusKarl Ameriks, the McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, died on April 28 from pancreatic cancer. He was 77. Born in post-World War II Germany, Ameriks’ family emigrated to the United States when he was a child, and he grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He came to the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame in 1973 during a formative time for the department, which had transitioned from a predominantly Thomist focus to the more analytical American philosophy in the 1960s.
