Researchers

Oksan Bayulgen

Department of Political Science

Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin

Oksan Bayulgen received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. She teaches a range of comparative politics courses, including introduction to comparative politics, politics of Russia and the former Soviet Union, comparative democratization, foreign policy of Russia, politics of oil, introduction to non-western politics and sustainable energy. Her research focuses on the political economy of energy and democratization in the post-Soviet and the Middle East regions. She has conducted extensive field-work in Azerbaijan, Russia, Norway, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. She is currently working on a project analyzing the politics of renewable energy development in Turkey.

Author of Twisting in the Wind: The Politics of Tepid Transitions to Renewable Energy (University of Michigan Press 2022) 

Lyle Scruggs

Department of Political Science

Ph.D. Duke University

Professor Scruggs specialties are political economy, social welfare policy, environmental politics and quantitative research methods. Professor Scruggs is a co-Director of the Comparative Entitlements Dataset Project (CWEP), and the Energy and Elections Lab, an affiliate of the Center for Environmental Science and Engineering (CESE), a member of the Human Rights Institute’s Economic and Social Rights Group. Professor Scruggs has been a Visiting Scholar at the Quality of Government Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden (2017), the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City (2011-12), and the University of Edinburgh (2004).

Talbot Andrews

Department of Political Science

Ph.D Stony Brook University

Talbot Andrews’ research focuses on how institutions, public policy, and the physical environment shape preferences and behavior related to climate change. She uses a combination of experiments, public opinion data, and formal theory to answer questions such as: When do people believe in climate change? When are they willing to support climate change mitigation policies? She is also more broadly interested in political psychology, and how public opinion is shaped by disasters.

Talbot Andrews completed her Ph.D. in political science at Stony Brook University and her BA in political science and psychology at the University of Portland. Prior to joining UConn, she was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University in the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics. Her work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Politics, Nature Climate Change, Global Environmental Change, and Political Behavior.

Carol Atkinson-Palombo

Department of Geography

Ph.D. in Geographical Sciences, Arizona State University

Having spent five years as a National Science Foundation IGERT scholar in Urban Ecology at Arizona State University, Dr. Atkinson-Palombo has been trained to collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to pursue use-inspired policy-relevant research. She uses geographical techniques such as GIS-based spatial analysis, statistical modeling, and qualitative methods to assess the impact of policies intended to promote sustainable cities. Much of her work to date has focused on transportation sustainability, which shapes a wide array of societal concerns such as air pollution, land use, global climate change, and social and environmental equity.

An emerging area of interest is the ongoing transition to a low carbon economy in the United States, and the debates about what role technology will play in this transition. She is also interested in understanding what factors shape the social acceptance of technology, particularly renewable energy technologies.

Adam Gallaher

Ph.D. Candidate, Geography

Broadly speaking, I am an energy geographer whose research focuses on socio-technical transitions within low- to zero-carbon energy and transportation systems. I use a combination of spatial analyses, geographic information sciences (GIS), and techno-economic models to answer questions such as:

• What are the trade-offs between ecosystem services and ground-mounted utility-scale solar energy development?
• What factors influence the adoption or non-adoption of electric vehicles?
• What can the United States learn from European North Atlantic leaders in offshore wind energy in the development of their own offshore wind energy sector?
• Are tree-trimming operations an effective means to increase overall grid resilience and reliability and what is the spatial persistence of these hardening techniques?

I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography and a NSF-NRT Fellow with Team-TERRA at the University of Connecticut. Previously, I was at Central Michigan University where I earned my B.S. in Environmental Studies with a minor in GIS and Environmental Policy and Sustainability. I continued my time at Central Michigan University where I received my M.S. in GIS. I anticipate graduating with my PhD in Geography in the Spring of 2023. In my free time I enjoy reading, building LEGO, and spending time outside.

Research Assistant

Makenzie Cossette is a freshman at the University of Connecticut, double majoring in Political Science and Law and Society with a minor in Philosophy. She is in the Special Program in Law, the Honors Program, UConn’s Law Society, and UConn’s Empowering Women in Law Club. She also works as a government intern in the CT Office of the Lieutenant Governor. She is from Wolcott, Connecticut, and she graduated from Wolcott High School in 2022.

Research Assistant

Avi Uihlein is a junior at the University of Connecticut with a double major in Honors Political Science and Chinese. He is also a Resident Assistant for the Humanities Learning Community (LC), a member of the International Student Advisory Board (ISAB), UNICEF Campus Initiative, and Slavic Cultural Society.

Research Assistant

Xavier Febles is a freshman at the University of Connecticut, majoring Political Science. He is in the Special Program in Law, and a member of the Honors Program. He is from Meriden, Connecticut, and graduated from O.H. Platt High School in 2022.

Research Assistant

Chris Suquilanda is a junior at the University of Connecticut, majoring in Management Information Systems. He is a member of the Management Information Association, the Ecuadorian Student Association, and BAILE (a latin american dance group). He is very interested in data analytics, and is striving to work for a technology company once he graduates in May 2024.

Research Assistant

Brett Hurley is a junior at the University of Connecticut, with a double major in Environmental Science and Political Science. He is in the Special Program in Law, a member of the Honors Program and the Treasurer of the Clean Energy Society. He is also a legislative intern for the Connecticut General Assembly’s 2023 session.

Research Assistant 

Kayla Oriola is a junior at the University of Connecticut, majoring in Political Science. She serves as the Director of Lifetime Engagement for the University of Connecticut's chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi and is a writer for HerCampus (a nationally recognized magazine for women in college). She is from West Hartford, CT, and graduated from Conard High School in 2020. 

Research Assistant

Kanika Chaturvedi is a freshman at the University of Connecticut majoring in Environmental Studies with a minor in Psychology. She is an EcoCaptain intern under UConn’s Office of Sustainability, an Undergraduate Representative for the Hindu Students Organization, a staff-writer for the Undergraduate Political Review, and a Student Panelist for the Office of Community Standards. She is from Danbury, Connecticut, and graduated from Danbury High School in May 2022.

Research Assistant

Aidan is a junior from Ellington, CT majoring in Geographic Information Science & Political Science at the University of Connecticut. An aspiring community planner and GIS specialist, he is a 2023 UConn University Scholar studying socioeconomic disparities in urban park access and quality. He is also Co-Vice President of the UConn Geography Club and is currently completing a fellowship with the US Department of Transportation’s Office of Spatial Analysis and Visualization. Aside from academics, Aidan enjoys discovering cool maps, playing saxophone, and competitive disc golf!

Research Assistant 

Adrish Das is a Freshman at the University of Connecticut majoring in Political Science. He is in the Special Program in Law, the Honors Program, UConn Law Society, and UConn Model U.N. as an Assistant Director, and UConn's Indian Student Association. He also works as a Market Research Analyst at a startup called EntryReady.