Sinnott Murphy
Sinnott Murphy is a first-year master’s student in Transportation Technology and Policy working with Dr. Joan Ogden on a multi-pathway transportation fuel energy pathway characterization for Argonne National Laboratory. He earned a B.S. with honors in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Davis in 2006, and spent the subsequent year working with a non-profit organization ascertaining biofuels production potential in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, as well as working with Dr. Bryan Jenkins organizing the formation of the Bioenergy Research Group (BERG) on the Davis campus.
Current Research
Currently Sinnott is working on a multi-pathway energy characterization project for Dr. Steve Plotkin of Argonne National Laboratory. The project seeks to describe a variety of transportation fuel production pathways, including hydrogen, biofuels, electricity, and conventional and unconventional petroleum resources, considering costs, environmental impacts, and current and expected future technical capabilities. The project was began by David McCollum and the remaining pathways will be split between Sinnott and Jie (Jessi) Zheng. Sinnott is characterizing oil sands, oil shale, conventional petroleum, and heavy oil pathways.
Publications
Contributing author to a city-level carbon budget proposal, currently being reviewed by the California Air Resources Board. This project is being lead by Dr. Deborah Salon and Dr. Dan Sperling.
Presentations
Sinnott has participated in the Energy Journal seminar both of his first two quarters and has presented on the environmental implications of biofuels (October, 2007 with Nils Johnson) and the process of developing sustainability metrics for biofuels (February, 2008).
Hobbies/Leisure
Sinnott enjoys keeping active and frequently plays ultimate frisbee and soccer. He believes in the bicycle as an efficient, environmentally tolerable, and highly equitable mode of transportation, and uses it to complete as many trips as possible, although he has been sighted taking his motorcycle out for joy rides on weekends.
STEPS Researchers Participate in Forum on Bioenergy, Sustainability and Lifecycle Analysis