May-16-2012
Amy Myers Jaffe
Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies, Baker Institute
Associate Director, Rice University Energy Program
Amy Myers Jaffe, a Princeton University graduate in Arabic studies, is the Wallace S. Wilson fellow in energy studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and associate director of the Rice University Energy Program, a multidisciplinary program that includes activities addressing energy science and technology policy and research on the following topics: emerging energy technologies, environmental implications of energy production and use, and sustainable strategies for fulfilling the world’s energy needs. Jaffe leads the Baker Institute Energy Forum, a multifaceted program that promotes original, forward-looking discussion and research on the energy-related challenges that face society in the 21st century. The mission of the Energy Forum is to promote the development of informed and realistic public policy choices in the energy arena by educating policymakers and the public about important trends—both regional and global—that shape the nature of global energy markets and include the quantity and security of vital supplies needed to fuel world economic growth and prosperity. Jaffe’s energy programs support projects in 13 departments and five centers at Rice University.
Jaffe’s research focuses on the subjects of oil geopolitics, strategic energy policy—including energy science policy—and energy economics. She is widely published in academic journals and numerous book volumes including: a co-authored article in the National Interest, “The New Geopolitics of Oil, ” (2003); Survival,“Beijing’s Oil Diplomacy,” (2002); Foreign Affairs, “The Shocks of a World of Cheap Oil,” (2000); and the chapter, “Geopolitics of Energy,” in the Encyclopedia of Energy (Elsevier Academic Press, 2004). She served as co-editor of two books: The Geopolitics of Natural Gas (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and Energy in the Caspian Region: Present and Future (Palgrave, 2002). Her other works include numerous articles and book chapters on oil in the Middle East, Russia, China, and the Caspian Basin, in addition to her work on the subject of U.S. energy policy.
Jaffe was among the 2004 Key Women in Energy-Americas honorees in the Pathfinders/Trailblazers category, which recognizes "women who broke traditional barriers or changed the face of the energy industry at some point in their career.” In 2005 she was named an honoree for Esquire’s annual 100 Best and Brightest in the contribution to society category. She also received the 1994 Award for Excellence by the International Association for Energy Economics and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Jaffe has served as an advisor to the U.S. National Intelligence Council Study on Energy to 2015, as project director for the Baker Institute/Council on Foreign Relations task force on Strategic Energy Policy, and as a principal advisor to US AID’s project on Options for Developing a Long Term Sustainable Iraqi Oil Industry. She is a principal author of the Baker Institute’s numerous energy studies that cover energy policy and trends in the Middle East, Caspian Basin, China, Russia and Japan, as well as emerging technologies in the nuclear, nanotechnology, and natural gas sectors. Jaffe is currently organizing a major study on the role of national oil companies for the Baker Institute and was a major contributor to the recent joint Baker Institute/CFR task force on Guiding Principles for U.S. Post-Conflict Policy in Iraq. Prior to joining the Baker Institute, Jaffe was the senior editor and Middle East analyst for Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, a respected oil journal. She has written for a variety of news organizations including the New York Times, Dow Jones International, and the Mideast Report. Jaffe is a frequent keynote speaker at major energy industry conferences and is a widely quoted commentator on oil and energy policy in the international media. She appears regularly on a variety of television news stations and programs including CNN, MacNeil Lehrer News Hour, FOX, MSNBC, as well as on local broadcasts in New York and Houston.