Anushree Chaudhuri

What’ve you enjoyed most about your area of study? Was there a particular discovery, new skill or way of thinking, or insight that you found especially valuable? Please share an example from your favorite class or experience.

Economics provides a rigorous set of skills, critical reasoning, and iterative assumptions through which to understand and analyze the world. One of my favorite applications of this framework of thinking was during discussions in 14.43 and 14.44, when we analyzed energy policy-related claims from newspaper articles and white papers that sounded perfectly logical at first but fell apart after more critical analysis.

How does the knowledge from this field, or your interest in it, combine with your other major or minor studies at MIT?

I often think of planning as a reflective form of practice and economics as a set of tools that can be applied to any theory of practice. Together, they’ve given me a firm foundation in both qualitative and quantitative methods applied to the social sciences and allow me to engage meaningfully in policy, academic, and community-based projects and debates.

An MIT education includes study in the scientific, technical, social science, arts, and humanities fields. How do you think that wide range of knowledge and perspectives will be valuable to you – for your career success and for your enjoyment of life?

The diverse number of disciplines and methodologies I’ve engaged with through my MIT education will allow me to approach any problem from multiple perspectives and worldviews, grounded in rigorously tested, place-based, and human-centered values and practices.

What are your plans for the future?

With funding through the Marshall Scholarship, I’ll be spending the next few years in the UK, pursuing a PhD related to energy, environment, and development at Cambridge. After that, I hope to continue working in the climate, energy, and environment space both internationally and domestically, understanding how new infrastructure and policy systems can be built through frameworks of socioeconomic empowerment and participatory engagement.