Adam Leising

Adam Leising comes to IPER with an MPhil in Technology Policy from Cambridge University, the equivalent of an MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and a BS in Environmental Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. 

As an undergraduate, Adam narrowed his interest in environmental protection to issues of energy provision.  This coincided with a year of research at the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) on the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.  In November 1999, Adam attended the Fifth Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany and released for circulation his and Dr. Michael Molitor’s proposal “The Clean Development Mechanism: A Proposed Decision for the COP/MOP.”  In April 2000, Adam’s and Dr. Molitor’s draft paper “Additionality and Baselines: Jump-Starting the Clean Development Mechanism” was released at the IGCC workshop “Implementing the Kyoto Protocol.”

Adam continued his study of energy provision at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, where he concentrated in environmental science and policy and wrote a paper on the effects of aircraft emissions on the global climate and the capacity of economic policy for mitigating these impacts.  At the same time, Adam interned as a policy analyst at a Great Lakes region environmental non-profit organization and served as preceptor for the University of Chicago Environmental Studies Department. 

Desiring a break from school, Adam worked as a consultant for an international environmental engineering company.  This experience proved invaluable in that it convinced Adam that environmental engineering was not for him.  With new insight into his career path, Adam applied to doctoral programs such as IPER, but not before traveling throughout Japan and Southeast Asia, spending a winter in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at Lake Tahoe, and working as a carpenter.