This year, Data-Driven EnviroLab (DDL) celebrated 10 years of transforming environmental data into action.
Dr. Angel Hsu founded DDL during her joint appointment as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College in Singapore and adjunct at the Yale School of Environment, recognizing that the world’s most pressing environmental challenges lacked data-driven, interdisciplinary perspectives.
For her PhD dissertation, Dr. Hsu examined how data and transparency shape environmental governance in China during a period of severe air pollution. While spending a year as a Fulbright Scholar at Tsinghua University in 2010, she observed how data, without the right messenger and framing, could easily be politicized or misinterpreted. At the same time, advances in digital technology were beginning to transform debates around transparency and the democratization of data.
To tackle complex, interdisciplinary challenges like climate change, Dr. Hsu set out to create a research group that would prepare the next generation of students, practitioners, and scholars to collaborate across disciplines and translate data into policy alongside businesses and governments. During her leadership at Yale’s Environmental Performance Index, where she developed the first spatially-explicit index measuring social inclusion and equity at the urban scale, Dr. Hsu helped broaden how environmental progress was measured and understood through data. From there, Dr. Hsu went on to establish DDL’s research agenda focused on the role of subnational governments and private businesses in tackling global climate change. Today, DDL has grown into an internationally recognized research lab that transforms complex, large-scale, and often messy datasets into actionable insights that shape policy and drive meaningful environmental progress.
To mark our 10th year anniversary, we were honored to gather with friends, colleagues, students, and alumni at UNC-Chapel Hill for a milestone celebration. During our evening reception at Graham Memorial, we welcomed Dr. Michael Piehler, Director of the UNC Institute for the Environment, who gave welcome remarks about the impact DDL had at UNC-Chapel Hill on students and local environmental issues.
We also had the privilege of inviting Dr. Sanya Carley, Vice Provost of Climate Science, Policy, and Action at the University of Pennsylvania, for a fireside chat with Dr. Hsu about environmental justice in the U.S. before an evening reception to celebrate our lab’s work.
As part of our anniversary, we were also delighted to host an alumni careers panel featuring former DDL members, Amy Weinfurter at WaterNow Alliance, John Brandt, World Resources Institute, Andrew Moffat, U.S. Department of State, and Kaiyang Xu, L’Oréal. At the Panel, our alumni gave advice to students hoping to pursue environmental careers and discussed how artificial intelligence is changing their work.
On her group’s anniversary, Dr. Hsu reflected, “Given the environmental challenges we face today, being able to continue doing DDL’s work is truly an honor and a privilege. I am especially grateful to the students, community, colleagues, and students at Carolina and beyond who have embraced DDL and helped make it what it is.”
