Russia had just invaded Ukraine, and Wolfram was thinking about Russia, oil, and sanctions. She and her colleagues had been tasked with figuring out how to restrict the revenues that Russia was using to fuel its brutal war while keeping Russian oil available and affordable to the countries that depended on it. Working for Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, Wolfram and her colleagues developed dozens of models and forecasts and projections. It struck her, she said later, that 'huge decisions [affecting the global economy] would be made on the basis of spreadsheets that I was helping create.' Wolfram composed a memo to the Biden administration and hoped her projections would pan out the way she believed they would. Wolfram specializes in the economics of energy markets. She looks at ways to decarbonize global energy systems while recognizing that energy drives economic development, especially in the developing world. 'The way we're currently making energy is contributing to climate...
learn more
