Sangita Gayatri Kannan is a PhD student in the Mineral and Energy Economics (MEE) program at Colorado School of Mines (CSM). As a Research Assistant with the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), an Energy Innovation Hub of the U.S. Department of Energy, she researches under the guidance of Dr. Roderick Eggert. Kannan holds a masters in MEE from CSM and a bachelors in chemical engineering from Anna University, India.
Prior to joining CSM, Kannan worked for a chemical consultancy firm in India for six years and held ‘Project Executive’ and ‘Senior Project Executive’ positions. During this period, she executed market research assignments for clients from multiple sectors such as petrochemicals, agrochemicals, minerals, and commodity chemicals across the Asian sub-continent. She strongly felt the need to broaden her exposure levels to global mineral and energy markets, acquire skills in economics to perform quantitative analysis, and better prepare herself to appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of the mineral and energy sector. This led her to apply for a master’s degree program in MEE at CSM. Having obtained a master’s degree, she is continuing further to obtain her PhD in the same area of specialization. In Fall 2020, Kannan took a class on Natural Resource Economics taught by her current advisor, Dr. Eggert. She developed great interest in this topic and joined CMI in January 2021.
At CMI, she has been involved in multiple collaborative projects led by Dr. Eggert. She researches into the various aspects of the critical minerals supply chain and has a keen interest in the role of critical minerals in the energy transition toward renewable energy. Projects she works on include long-term availability of critical minerals, material criticality, inter-country criticality, and potential effects of disruption to critical material supply chains. For her PhD thesis, she is studying the potential effects of a supply disruption of rare earth magnets to the electric vehicle and wind power markets in the U.S. economy. The presentation of this work-in-progress at the 2023 CMI Winter meeting won her the best oral presentation award.
Kannan’s research focuses on the intersection of mineral economics, public policy, and the technical fields related to manufacture of critical materials. She believes that economics is a powerful tool to analyze data and perform objective research. She feels fortunate to be part of CMI, which has given her numerous networking opportunities with experts from academia, government, and industry. These interactions, combined with the exciting projects at CMI, have helped her understand critical mineral and material supply chains in depth. She hopes to leverage the learnings and experience to perform impactful academic work that can inform policy decisions. After her PhD, Kannan aims to further her research in mineral and energy economics as a researcher in think-tanks, national labs, or academia.
