Shah Saki, a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Connecticut School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has received Second Prize for Oral Presentation in the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Energy and Renewable Energy Committee Student Award Competition.
Saki earned the award for his presentation titled “Projecting Power Outage Risk from Compound Heatwave–Storm Events in the ERCOT Region Under Future Climate Conditions.” The award recognizes outstanding student research presented at the AMS meeting and highlights work that advances understanding of weather and climate impacts on energy systems.
The student competition evaluates presentations across several criteria, including presentation clarity, scientific quality, and aesthetic quality. According to the AMS Energy and Renewable Energy Committees, Saki’s work stood out among student competitors for its strong scientific contribution and effective communication of complex climate risk analysis.
Saki conducts his doctoral research in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UConn, where he is also a Graduate Research Assistant at the Eversource Energy Center. His work focuses on understanding how extreme and compound weather events affect energy infrastructure and power system reliability, an increasingly important topic as climate change intensifies weather-related hazards.
His award-winning presentation examined how combined heatwaves and storm events may influence power outage risk in the ERCOT region, the electricity market that serves most of Texas. By projecting future climate conditions and analyzing compound event scenarios, the research helps identify potential vulnerabilities in energy systems and supports improved resilience planning.
Saki credited the mentorship and support of his research collaborators and advisors as instrumental in his work and presentation.
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the leading professional organization for atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its student awards recognize emerging researchers whose work demonstrates excellence in advancing scientific understanding and communicating research to the broader community.
The UConn CEE community congratulates Shah Saki on this recognition and looks forward to his continued contributions to research on climate, weather extremes, and energy system resilience.
