DeCarolis aims to amplify EPP's impact as department head

Now that Joseph F. DeCarolis has officially assumed his role as the new head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, he aims to amplify the visibility and real-world impact of EPP’s cutting-edge research. 

“EPP does an excellent job conducting research that has a positive impact on policy discussions,” DeCarolis said. But the unique nature of a department focused on policy analysis where the technical details matter carries unique challenges as well. 

“Professors have traditional deliverables, such as published research,” he said. “In EPP, we aim to go farther by connecting our cutting-edge research with high-level policy discussions.” A focus on that real-world impact is at the heart of EPP’s work, and conveying that impact more broadly is central to DeCarolis’s vision for the department.

DeCarolis credits his own deep roots in EPP, where he earned his Ph.D., with the problem-solving skills and creative thinking that have fueled his career and prepared him to lead with both flexibility and long-term strategy.

“I drew a lot on my EPP experience in my job at the Energy Information Administration,” DeCarolis said of his 2022-2025 role as administrator of the official statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. “The ability to think systematically about how to solve problems and how to break down a large, complex problem into pieces are skills I learned in EPP.”

In EPP, we go beyond traditional deliverables by connecting our cutting-edge research with high-level policy discussions.

Joseph DeCarolis, Professor and Department Head, Engineering and Public Policy

His EPP training extended beyond ways to analyze difficult societal challenges. In EPP, he also learned about human judgment under uncertainty and how that can affect the way people interpret data. DeCarolis drew on those lessons when considering how EIA should present its long-term energy projections. 

“If I show you a single line on a graph showing results into the future, your brain interprets that as a forecast no matter how I describe it in words,” he explained. “We changed the format to emphasize the range of possible outcomes stemming from large uncertainties about the future. That approach directly draws on my EPP training.”

In turn, his time in EIA taught DeCarolis the value of remaining neutral and unbiased, which will help shape his leadership strategies in EPP. “It buys a lot of credibility on all sides of a debate if you do the best possible analysis you can in a transparent way, communicate it effectively in a neutral context, and let the analysis speak for itself,” he said.