Hilary Boudet oral history interview

Having grown up in the shadow of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Hilary Boudet has observed interactions between communities and the energy sector from a young age. She sought an interdisciplinary path in environmental engineering and political science as an undergraduate student at Rice University, and applied this skillset to the socioeconomic component of an energy siting project with ExxonMobil upon graduation. After working there for three years, Boudet returned to academia to delve further into the sociological impacts of energy siting.

Boudet describes her path from Oak Ridge, Tennessee to Oregon State University. She discusses her academic path and her work with ExxonMobil on Sakhalin Island. She describes her research in community response to energy siting as a PhD student and post-doc student at Stanford University, as well as expanding her research into community response and perception of extreme weather events and climate change. Other highlights include Boudet’s work with George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication, factors that can influence a community’s response to an energy siting, and a broader discussion of climate change.