Sperring Receives Fulbright Student Award

Emily Sperring, a senior in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to conduct research in energy systems in Germany for the 2024-2025 academic year. The award is provided by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which since 1946 has provided more than 400,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. 

Sperring will work with Gunnar Luderer, a professor and deputy head of the research department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Potsdam, Germany, to model energy systems and explore the social and economic impacts of different decarbonization pathways. 

“Decarbonization of the global energy system is essential to mitigate the effects of climate change, but the effects of the energy transition are region-specific and pathway-dependent,” Sperring said. “My work will help guide the energy transition in Germany and will have implications for other countries as they decarbonize.” 

In her freshman year, Sperring began working with Sarah Jordaan, who was an assistant professor of Energy, Resources and Environment, with Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies before she moved to McGill University last year. Sperring continued to work with Jordaan, and wrote a paper for publication quantifying the land use impacts of hydropower in the Western U.S. under her guidance. Sperring has also served as a student ambassador for the Ralph O’Connor Energy Institute.

“My research and academic experiences at Hopkins have helped me develop critical skills to take on this project, in addition to future endeavors working toward sustainable development,” said Sperring. 

More than 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program awardees—recent college graduates, graduate students, and early career professionals from all backgrounds—pursue graduate study, conduct research, or teach English in schools abroad each year.  

They are recognized alongside more than 800 faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals who teach or conduct research in affiliation with institutes abroad annually through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbrighters form ongoing research collaborations and lay the groundwork for future partnerships between institutions.  

Notable recipients include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. 

Environmental Health and Engineering is a cross-divisional department spanning the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Whiting School of Engineering. This hybrid department is uniquely designed to lead pioneering research and prepare the next generation of scholars to solve critical and complex issues at the interface of public health and engineering. Learn more about our programs.