Role in the CoolLIFE project: leading the capacity building, training, wiki and the mapping of financial instruments. What links do you make between CoolLIFE and RE-WITCH? I don’t know, I’d say: both CoolLIFE and RE-WITCH advance sustainable cooling solutions
What do you like in this project? What do you find most important?
With global warming accelerating, sustainable space cooling is more important than ever, but still often overlooked. CoolLIFE helps change that by making green cooling solutions easier to consider and implement.
Tell us a bit about your background.
I have a background in energy economics and international relations, with a strong focus on financing the decarbonization of buildings, heating, and cooling. As a Senior Researcher at e-think energy research, I develop international projects, conduct policy and economic assessments, and support capacity building. My experience spans working with financial institutions, utilities, consultancies, and initiatives like the IFC-World Bank Group and Sustainable Energy for All. Lately, my research has increasingly focused on geothermal energy and innovative financing for sustainable energy transitions. EU projects: ESCALATE, FlexGeo, Support DHC, CoolLIFE, SAPHEA, ESPON Locate, Act!onHeat, PATH2LC, EnerMaps, Emb3rs, Hotmaps.
What brought you into this field? How did you get interest in STEM?
Research drives the solutions we need to fight climate change. Ignoring science got us here: trusting it can get us out. Better data, new technologies, and smarter policies will help us act faster and avoid past mistakes.
What were some of the challenges you faced as a woman in STEM?
Overcoming unconscious bias and a glass ceiling were challenges mostly in a national context (in Italy), but since I moved abroad and into an international context, they became negligible.
If you’ve ever faced uncertainty about whether you belonged in a STEM field, how did you tackle that?
Identifying how I could contribute, what gaps were left uncovered, building strong networks, staying confident, and focusing on impact.
Any advice / message for young women in highschool? Why is our sector a great one?
Be curious, be bold, and don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t do. STEM is all about solving real-world challenges, shaping the future, and making a difference. The world needs diverse minds, yours included! And if you don’t know where to start from or you keep bumping on a rubber wall, find yourself a mentor, that can seriously accelerate your career!
What are your hopes for the future of women in STEM (in regards to opportunities, stereotypes, etc.)?
Diverse perspectives drive innovation, and the more we break barriers, the better solutions we’ll create for the world. Already in my work environment, women don’t have to prove themselves more than their male colleagues, and opportunities are based on talent. I hope this spreads also to other sectors.
Did you have a mentor or inspiration person?
I had supportive tutors and professors, but never a true mentor. That’s why I now mentor young graduates: to help them navigate their career paths and accelerate their entry into the job market.
Ann Makosinski won in 2013, when she was just 15, the Google Science Fair by inventing Hollow Flashlight: a flashlight that runs on four Peltier tiles, converting heat into energy using the temperature differential between a person’s hand and the ambient air. Picture below taken from Google.
See our infographics on women in science/heating and cooling and the energy sectors here.
