Dr. Kristin Lewis is the principal technical advisor for energy analysis and sustainability at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center. Her work focuses on resilience in transportation; alternative jet fuel transportation, availability, and sustainability analyses; and environmental risk assessments.
Dr. Lewis supports the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the head research and technical advisor to the FAA-sponsored Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) and provides technical expertise to the FAA as a member of the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization Committee for Aviation Environmental Protection (ICAO CAEP) Alternative Fuels Task Force. She leads the development of the Freight and fuel Transportation Optimization Tool (FTOT), a national model for assessing optimal transport of commodities in a supply chain, which has been sponsored by the FAA, the Office of Naval Research, and the Department of Energy (DOE).
Dr. Lewis participated in the winning 2013 Volpe Innovation Challenge team focusing on supporting the use of federal tools to address transportation-related climate change adaptation and resilience needs.
Dr. Lewis has performed a variety of analyses on alternative fuels availability, feasibility, environmental sustainability, and potential greenhouse gas benefits. She has worked with researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, FAA, and others to develop and implement the use of a Feedstock Readiness Level tool for communicating maturity of feedstock development. With USDA and Forest Service colleagues, she co-led a sub-team of the Farm to Fly 2.0 Initiative focusing on benchmarking feedstock readiness and developing guidance to facilitate readiness evaluations. She has also worked with researchers from FAA and the Air Force on exit criteria for the Fuel Readiness Level, an alternative jet fuel-focused adaptation of NASA/DOD Technology Readiness Level. Dr. Lewis has supported the FAA and National Park Service’s research efforts on aviation noise impacts on national park visitors as part of the Air Tour Management Plan program. Dr. Lewis also co-leads Volpe’s internal Transportation and Climate Change Community of Practice.
Dr. Lewis received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama in 2011 and has received numerous U.S. DOT and Volpe Director’s Awards.
Dr. Lewis received a BS in chemistry and studies in the environment (double major) from Yale and a PhD in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard.