<aside> 💡 Great opportunity to do a PhD in mechanical engineering under the supervision of the director of an EA aligned organization.
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Are you interested in getting a PhD, but you are concerned that it is not the highest impact thing to do? This is an opportunity to do a PhD at University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) in mechanical engineering under the supervision of Dr. David Denkenberger Director & Co-founder of ALLFED.
For more details about the opportunity, why it’s impactful and how to tell if you’re a good fit please read below.
The mission of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters is to help create resilience to global food shocks. We seek to identify various resilient food solutions and to help governments implement these solutions, to increase the chances that people have enough to eat in the event of a global catastrophe. We focus on events that could deplete food supplies or access to 5% of the global population or more.
Our ultimate goal is to feed everyone, no matter what. An important aspect of this goal is that we need to establish equitable solutions so that all people can access the nutrition they need, regardless of wealth or location.
ALLFED is inspired by effective altruism, using reason and evidence to identify how to do the most good. Our solutions are backed by science and research, and we also identify the most cost-effective solutions, to save lives (here and here) and improve the long-term future of humanity (here and here).
Dr. David Denkenberger received his B.S. from Penn State in Engineering Science, his M.S.E. from Princeton in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Building Systems Program. His dissertation was on his patented expanded microchannel heat exchanger. He is an associate professor at University of Canterbury (UC) in mechanical engineering.
He co-founded and directs the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED) and donates half his income to it.
He received the National Merit Scholarship, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, is a Penn State distinguished alumnus, and is a registered professional engineer.
He has authored or co-authored over 126 publications (>3,500 citations, >50,000 downloads, h-index = 30, third most prolific author in the existential/global catastrophic risk field), including the book Feeding Everyone no Matter What: Managing Food Security after Global Catastrophe. His food work has been featured in over 25 countries, over 200 articles, including Science, Vox, and Business Insider.
He has given interviews on 80,000 Hours podcast and Estonian Public Radio, WGBH Radio, Boston, and WCAI Radio on Cape Cod, USA. He has given over 90 technical presentations, including ones on food at Harvard University, MIT, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College, and University College London.
This is a great opportunity to do a PhD at University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) in mechanical engineering under the supervision of Dr. David Denkenberger Director & Co-founder of ALLFED. There is no coursework, so you can focus on effective research that is related to engineering. Possible topics related to global catastrophic risks include analyzing a satellite communicating with regular cell phones, the cost and scale up capability of high-tech greenhouses, repurposing paper factories to turn leaves into protein and carbohydrate, impact on the energy system of sun obscuring catastrophes, recovering infrastructure as quickly as possible, cost and scaling of seaweed with reduced infrastructure and sunlight, providing home heating despite widespread loss of electricity, and logistics of food and feedstock transportation.
In case you are accepted at UC, ALLFED will support your PhD with 15 k NZD/year. If you are awarded UC’s doctoral scholarship, you will have the tuition fees covered (7.6 k to 9.2 k NZD/year), and an additional 30 k NZD/year, i.e. a total tax-free salary of 45 k NZD/year (maximum the university will allow).
All applicants must satisfy one of the following: