Brian Bowen

Brian Bowen is a Master’s in City Planning candidate at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He is concentrating in Environmental Policy and Planning, with a focus on promoting energy efficiency in cities. Brian is particularly interested in how connected devices affect energy consumption choices and behavior. His thesis research will analyze the impact of introducing internet-connected “smart” thermostats to residential energy efficiency and demand response programs. Brian was co-captain of MIT’s Better Buildings Challenge case competition team, which won “Most Innovative” proposal at the Department of Energy’s 2014 competition, and he spent part of the 2013-2014 academic year working with a former coal mining camp in southeastern Kentucky to implement an energy efficiency program through MIT’s Public Service Center and the Community Innovators Lab (CoLab). He contributed to the planning of the 2014 MIT Energy Conference and is Director of Marketing at ecovent, a home energy efficiency hardware startup based in Boston. Prior to coming to MIT, Brian worked at EnerNOC, a commercial demand response and energy efficiency firm, then as Communications Manager at Ceres, a sustainable business and investing non-profit. He holds a B.A. from Yale University. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrianRBowen.