End of an Era
Season 2 of Laminar Collective comes to a close. What's next?
Hey everyone,
It’s 9/1 week and Allston Christmas is in full swing. Therefore, as we so often do in Cambridge, it’s time to enter a new year. But before we do, I want to highlight some of the great people we’ve had on the team for Season 2, and who’s joining us for Season 3.
(I’m writing this from the Green T cafe in Roslindale, and Confessions by The Marcus King Band is playing in the background. I welcome you to listen along for the outro!)
Angelina Flores
Let’s start with Angelina, who joins us from LC Season 1, as a returning intern!
After coordinating & gathering data for our summer benchmark in Wakefield last year, she’s spent this summer reviewing state-level policy, modeling cash flow, and assisting with system design. By the way, that state level policy? It’s the seasonal heat pump discounts going live for everyone with heat pumps in MA this winter.
She’s heading back to Amherst College for her 3rd year, focusing on economics & environment. You can find her LinkedIn here.
Tess Shotland
We peaked this year when Tess joined our intern team, because we had an all-time-high of 3 Californians!
We’re glad she landed here after a semester abroad in Australia. In her 3 months, she displayed an incredible capacity to learn on the fly, quickly becoming proficient with heat pump equipment, HPWH, & design alike.
Tess is heading back for her final year at Boston University, where she will complete her undergraduate & master’s degree in energy & environment in only 4 years. Her LinkedIn is here.
Jing Pan
Jing joins us from MassBay Community College in Wellesley, and proceeded to spearhead our 2025 solar benchmark, in a critical period of time as many LC members try to get solar before the expiration of the 30% federal solar tax credit. She’s additionally helped verify system design for a dozen of our initial fall installations, and memorably translated technical heat pump content to Chinese, in real time, during a Wellesley installation of ours this summer.
Having completed her 2 years at MassBay Wellesley, Jing is now heading to Wentworth University in Boston to complete a 4-year degree.
Christin Hong
Finally, Christin Hong, our incredible Head of Operations, will be heading back to the biotech world after building out an operations stack capable of supporting ~100 installations/year, from scratch. This is a huge undertaking, especially more so considering that Christin had no prior experience in HVAC & trades.
But maybe it’s not so surprising, considering that this was Christin’s side quest after completing a PhD at Harvard, focusing on immunology and gene therapy. She will now be spending her time on biotech investing, a field that has considerably more overlap with her academic background.
Rohan Ganesan
Joining us in Season 3 from Tufts University is Rohan Ganesan, our newest operator! Rohan has just completed his undergrad studies in international relations focusing on climate & energy policy, and will be going from macro to micro this next year. You can expect to see him assisting with system design, kicking off installations, and coordinating operations in 2025 & 2026.
Parting Thoughts
It’s a blue sky out there.
The last day with the full team (including interns!) was at Crane Beach. It was beautiful: 85°F, just the way you want the final day to be. The first time I ever went to Crane Beach was for a Kirkland sophomore outing, probably about 10 years ago.
What a decade. This was my 20s.
Something you get used to in Cambridge is the constant cycle of ends & beginnings. Students come in & study for 4 years; then they graduate. Grad students come in for their PhDs; they complete, their studies, and many of them go. Some people settle, but most people are not here forever. They become the best at what they do, and then they go.
I don’t think you need to be at Laminar Collective forever to help us move the needle on decarbonization. Whether it’s 3 months or 3 years, I will always appreciate you for being a part of the team. I just hope that I’m making this a worthwhile time for you, too.
Signing off,
Kit