Sarah Hall ’24 wins the 2024 Claire Gaudiani ’66 Prize

Sarah Hall ’24, an environmental science major, geoscience minor and scholar in the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment from Tualatin, Oregon, was awarded the Claire Gaudiani ’66 Prize for her senior integrative project, “GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Marine Energy Site Selection: A Case Study Comparison between Puerto Rico and Hawaii.” Named for Connecticut College’s eighth president, the Claire Gaudiani ’66 Prize for Excellence in the Senior Integrative Project is awarded annually at Commencement to the student with the best SIP in one of the College’s interdisciplinary centers.

Hall’s work applies a new method of site selection for marine renewable energy technologies that incorporates not only energy resource data, but also technical, socioeconomic and environmental data to facilitate more sustainable, equitable and just transitions to renewable energy around the world. 

In her complex and comprehensive study, advised by Rosemary Park Professor of Geoscience and Environmental Studies Doug Thompson, Hall seamlessly weaves together expertise in physics, engineering, conservation biology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and social and environmental justice to create an original body of research. She combines GIS, a computer software that allows for the visualization and manipulation of geospatial data, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, a method that allows for the integration of multiple factors, to conduct site selection analysis for two marine renewable energy projects: a Coastal Structure Integrated Wave Energy Converter in Puerto Rico and a hybrid wind-wave-solar project in Hawaii.

Hall’s analysis found the inclusion of social justice data yielded different site selection outcomes compared to analyses considering only technical and resources data, suggesting the importance of incorporating social data into future site selection decisions. Her work also indicates the suitability of using GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis methodologies across diverse locations to better harness the immense energy extraction potential of the world’s oceans.

“Sarah has put the ‘integrative’ in ‘senior integrative project,’” Derek D. Turner, Class of 1943 Professor of Philosophy and Karla Heurich Harrison ’28 Director of the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment wrote in a letter nominating Hall for the Gaudiani Prize. “Her idea to include social justice criteria in geospatial maps of potential sites for renewable energy projects is novel and her work has real-world applicability that could contribute to a more just transition to renewable energy.”