He’d never really considered getting his PhD.
Not too long ago, proud Lehigh alumnus Dawson Berger ’22 was loving the variety of his day job with H.T. Lyons, a mechanical contractor based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. At night, he was all-in on his second gig as a master’s student, finishing up his first year in Lehigh’s MBA and Engineering program. An MBA, he figured, would help him eventually get a higher, managerial position within the company, where he’d first started as an undergraduate intern.
But a combination of good timing, great advice, and a novel opportunity changed his career trajectory. Berger is now a full-time PhD student in mechanical engineering and one of the first participants in the NSF-funded Stakeholder Engaged, Equitable, Decarbonized Energy Futures Training Program (SEED EF) at Lehigh.
“Dawson may not have followed the typical path to our program,” says Valerie Holt, operations director for SEED EF and a teaching associate professor delivering three of the program’s core courses. “Yet his story is certainly a testament to the program’s ability to ignite passion in talented minds and attract exceptional students interested in creating real impact.”
A training ground for tomorrow’s renewable energy innovators
The SEED EF program is focused on developing future energy leaders equipped to develop effective, low-carbon, clean-energy solutions that are accessible and affordable for all. SEED EF offers a unique opportunity for Lehigh PhD students to work with peers across the University on cutting-edge research in this rapidly-emerging space.
Focused on solving real-world challenges, the program challenges students to develop technologies that improve energy efficiency and sustainability. A key strategy for developing these equitable solutions involves engaging diverse stakeholders to help define, develop and implement energy solutions.
“I first heard about SEED EF from my master’s academic advisor, Hannah Dailey [an associate professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics and the department’s director of graduate studies],” says Berger. “I was taking one of her classes at the time, and doing pretty well, and she encouraged me to consider coming back to graduate school full time.”
Dailey connected him to Arindam Banerjee, Paul B. Reinhold Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics. Banerjee led the team of interdisciplinary researchers who, in 2023, were awarded nearly $3 million from the National Science Foundation’s National Research Traineeship (NRT) program to establish SEED EF. The program enables high-performing PhD students to develop the skills necessary to pioneer solutions that will reduce society’s reliance on fossil fuels while mitigating its entrenched energy inequities. Banerjee has long been working in the field of renewable energy, specifically on technologies that can harness the energy from tides and waves in rivers and oceans.
“Professor Banerjee introduced me to the SEED EF program and how it aligns with the work he and his students do in the lab,” says Berger. “He also connected me with one of his former PhD students, Chris Ruhl, who’s now doing really interesting work in industry. Getting his perspective was valuable. I’ve always been interested in renewables, which is why I minored in energy engineering as an undergrad. The more I talked to everyone, the more intrigued I became about the potential for different research avenues I could explore, and the unique opportunities I would have as part of the SEED EF program. So I decided to go for it.”
Those unique opportunities include interdisciplinary graduate coursework on energy research methodologies.
Through the program, graduate students from across the University will work with industry leaders and community partners. The SEED EF team is also launching a distinguished guest lecture series to introduce students to careers and research in the energy sector, and working to develop a certificate program in equitable energy decarbonization
Defining a research path in sustainable power
Berger officially joined Banerjee’s lab as a PhD candidate in August. Although he’s still defining his research focus, it will involve experimental work in the lab’s water tunnel to optimize tidal energy technologies for real-world applications as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atlantic Marine Energy Center funding. He’s already expanding his professional network—connecting with like-minded students and academics at a recent conference—and reaching out to community stakeholders as he begins to narrow his research goals.
“I’m interviewing industry professionals to learn more about what they do,” he says. “I’ll be able to use this stakeholder input when deciding a direction for my own research and determining the impact I could have on those stakeholders.”
The coming months and years will be intense, but after a year of working every weekday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. as an engineer, and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. as a master’s student—coupled with the four years he spent balancing Division I soccer with an engineering major—Berger has a deft sense of time management. He’s also got a vision for the kind of energy leader he wants to be.
“I’d like to work in research and development, possibly for the Department of Energy, one of the national labs, or a private company producing wave energy converters, for example,” he says. “There’s just so much work that needs to be done to advance tidal energy.”
In the meantime, he’s excited about this unexpected path he’s on. Life was good before, but now it promises an even broader range of challenges and opportunities to make an impact.
“I really liked working in industry, but I was working with technologies that were known,” he says. “When you’re doing a PhD, you get to work on novel creations, and potentially make breakthroughs. You’re really looking at the new frontier, and you’re looking at it within the context of climate change. That’s why I wanted to join this program. I want to contribute to the community that’s pushing to decarbonize our future.”
