Kathleen Araújo
Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems, Innovation, and Policy; Director, Energy Policy Institute
Office: (208) 426-4845
Mail address:
Boise State University
1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho, 83725-1014
Dr. Kathleen Araújo is the Director of the CAES Energy Policy Institute and Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems, Innovation, and Policy at Boise State University. She is responsible for the strategic oversight, research, and advising for the Institute — the policy body for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, a consortium of public universities plus Idaho National Laboratory. Dr. Araújo specializes in strategic planning and decision-making associated with energy systems change. This includes targeted adaptations, such as with decarbonization-critical minerals security, and regional industrial restructuring, as well as unplanned shifts, including extreme weather and other disruption.
Dr. Araújo’s research contributes to the advancing field of energy transitions, where she writes on theory-building and practical considerations. Her first book, Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Turning Points in National Policy and Innovation (Oxford University Press), examines the social and technical history of country-level transformations with Icelandic geothermal energy, French nuclear power, Danish wind power and Brazilian biofuels following the 1973 oil crisis. Her second book, the Routledge Handbook of Energy Transitions (Routledge) is an edited
volume overview of the state of knowledge for energy transitions.
Her broader base of work includes community-informed decision-making, resilience and sustainability, regional diversification and factors shaping emerging adoption (e.g., hydrogen), as well as critical mineral security, and science-technology policy. Dr. Araújo is the PI for a new DOE consortium centered on consent-based siting of spent nuclear fuel. She is also a lead for a $24 million NSF award to evaluate energy-water system resilience. In 2023, Dr. Araújo was named a Presidential Innovator at Boise State University. She has presented or led discussions in forums for the Arctic Assembly, University of Cambridge, and Fukushima Medical University. She consults for communities, industry and inter-governmental organizations.