Hannah Rebekah (Thigpen) Epstein is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. She researches how to build adaptive policy pathways and robust plans for scaling Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) under deep uncertainty. Her work explores scenario analysis methodologies, public perception, and the role of Direct Air Capture in a broader Canadian carbon dioxide removal portfolio.
Hannah graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Music with Honors. Hannah’s career in science began with her Electromechanical Technologist role at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. She conducted combustion experiments on explosives, pyrotechnics, and propellants on behalf of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy. Hannah then turned her focus to climate change and completed a Master of Oceanography degree at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography. She investigated marine warming on the Northeast U.S. Shelf by simulating physical oceanography dynamics on the Regional Ocean Modeling System. As a member of the Waterloo Climate Intervention Strategies Lab, Hannah is thrilled to bring her engineering and oceanographic backgrounds to bear in studying both land and marine-based carbon dioxide removal methods.