Umama Rahman’s journey to becoming a quantitative energy policy analyst
Umama Rahman at Crater Lake in Oregon
By Katie Livermore, CLA Student Writer - October 28, 2025
Umama Rahman has always been committed to her education, even when Bangladesh’s societal standards tried to block her path.
Unlike the standards for women in Bangladesh–getting married around age 20 and having children soon after–Rahman was focused on her dreams of being a Ph.D. student.
Now, Rahman is in her final year of Ph.D. studies in Oregon State University’s School of Public Policy. As a quantitative energy policy analyst, Rahman is committed to researching energy justice and clean energy access.
Rahman was born in Bangladesh, which she describes as a small, Southeast Asian, developing country neighboring India and Myanmar.
“When I'm talking to some people from the United States, they're like, ‘where is Bangladesh? Is that India? Or is it Pakistan?’ It is not all, but some of them,” Rahman said.
Raised in an educated, middle-class Bangladeshi family in Dhaka, Rahman discovered her experience was not unlike those who grew up in the U.S. Her dad was a banker and completed his master’s degree at the top university in Bangladesh.
He inspired his children to follow their educational dreams, so much so that Rahman’s older brother and sister pursued higher education in the U.S., too.
Rahman found that U.S. school systems were very different in Bangladesh. Students choose their paths in life at an earlier age. High school is more similar to U.S. universities, as students focus on certain paths like science or engineering, rather than experiencing an array of subjects.
In eighth grade, Rahman chose science because she planned to be an engineer, as she realized biology wasn’t her favorite subject. Instead, she shifted gears to engineering, thinking she would pursue electrical engineering.
Following her older sister, putting education before marriage was her first rebellion.
Rahman’s father sent her to a private college in Bangladesh to ensure she received a strong education. “I'm so so grateful to him for that,” Rahman said. “He was always trying his best to give us the best education.”
Though the societal pressures of STEM made her choose electrical engineering in the beginning, Rahman fell in love with economics and switched paths soon after.
Graduating magna cum laude with a degree in economics from North South University, Rahman received scholarship offers from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Idaho. She chose to pursue her master’s degree in agriculture and resource economics at UT Knoxville, where they awarded Rahman full funding.
At the same time, Rahman started focusing on energy economics and policy.
Both of her master’s research projects focused on energy. Growing up in Dhaka in the early 90s, Rahman experienced the phenomenon of “load shedding,” where electrical energy in residential areas was turned off to power commercial and industrial equipment. This took place during hot, humid summers when most residential homes had no air conditioning.
“Moms are cooking at that time. They are suffering. They are sweating,” Rahman said. “There was no electricity, no light, so you can't study. We’re trying to just survive. I was wondering: is there any solution that we can do to better our electricity system?”
Focusing on biofuel for her master’s thesis, Rahman studied wood pellets as a way to power residential areas as a renewable energy source.
The second chapter of her thesis studied the potential supply chain analysis for renewable jet fuel, as the aviation industry is one of the highest polluting industries in terms of carbon dioxide emissions.
“Energy economics became my passion, and I found where I want to work for the rest of my life,” Rahman said.
After completing her master’s degree, Rahman planned to start working toward her Ph.D.. However, her father’s health was worsening, so she returned home to Bangladesh to care for him.
Her learning didn’t stop when she returned. Rahman wanted to be sure she enjoyed teaching before enrolling in a Ph.D. program. So, she became a lecturer and faculty member at North South University where she previously graduated. Rahman taught three classes: applied business math, introduction to statistics and applied statistics. While at North South University, Rahman fell in love with teaching and decided: she’d continue her journey in academia.
After reading–and thoroughly enjoying–a few of his articles, Rahman emailed Dr. David Bernell, associate professor of political science in the School of Public Policy at OSU. She described her research on the cost estimation of a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh and her desire to continue her quantitative studies in economics.
She ultimately chose OSU because of Dr. Bernell and the interdisciplinary public policy program. Rahman loved the idea of studying the intersection of economics, political science, and sociology. Upon attending OSU, Dr. Bernell became Rahman’s advisor.
“My research was energy economics, but I also want to see what is happening in the policy world,” Rahman said. “What is the real-life explanation of energy economics?
Just one term into her Ph.D. at OSU, Rahman’s father, who was constantly supportive of her education, passed away.
“It was personally very hard to continue the Ph.D. journey, because my mom was by herself in Bangladesh, my brother was in the U.S., and my sister traveled frequently for UNICEF,” Rahman said. “I had a very hard time, but Dr. Bernell was there for me. I would say that a Ph.D. advisor cannot be nicer than him.”
Nonetheless, Rahman continued her Ph.D. as her dad would have wanted.
Her research at OSU is focused on renewable energy. For Rahman’s first project, she chose to examine the impact of different renewable energy policies on community solar project adoption. Using a fixed-effect statistical model, she evaluates the effectiveness of state policies in expanding community solar adoption.
Last year, she presented her paper at the Western Political Science Association Conference in Vancouver, Canada.
Rahman is also a member of sociology professor Dr. Hilary Boudet’s team researching community benefit agreements for offshore wind development.
Through online surveys, Rahman and Boudet, as well as collaborators from universities across the country, are attempting to better understand what coastal communities in Oregon, California, and Maine think of potential offshore wind energy development.
Results from the survey may inform possible community benefits agreements between the communities, developers, local government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
She will present this research paper at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) 2025 Conference in Seattle, Washington, one of the most competitive conferences in her field.
Rahman’s third project examines lithium mining in southeastern Oregon. Lithium is a critical mineral, with its popular uses for phone and laptop batteries, electric cars, and more.
“The U.S. government wants to increase its domestic lithium production, because U.S. companies rely heavily on China for lithium,” Rahman said. “One of the biggest lithium reserves has been found near McDermitt, in southeastern Oregon. My plan is to conduct a public perception survey in southeastern Oregon and part of Nevada around the McDermitt Caldera to assess local support and opposition to lithium mining in that area.”
She is currently designing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine how individuals evaluate trade-offs between environmental risks, economic benefits, and climate objectives in the context of domestic lithium production. By employing experimental survey methods, spatial modeling, and policy analysis, her research seeks to inform more equitable and socially responsive energy siting practices that promote just benefit distribution among all stakeholders.
This project is being conducted under the mentorship of Professors Hilary Boudet, Shawn Hazboun, and Erika Wolters, as part of a transdisciplinary initiative at Oregon State University focused on the social and human dimensions of critical mineral extraction in Oregon.
In addition, she has been selected to join the highly competitive Critical Mineral Research Lab at Resources for the Future, where she will collaborate with students from institutions such as Carnegie Mellon, Duke University, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern University to conduct research on critical minerals, with a particular focus on lithium mining. She is also a 2025–26 recipient of the Renewable Energy Scholarship Foundation award.
Amid research projects and pursuing her Ph.D., Rahman spends her time teaching both in-person and Ecampus classes at OSU. Her classes include introduction to public policy, U.S. energy policy, environmental politics and policy, international environmental politics and policy, and climate politics and policy.
As a woman from a developing country, Rahman constantly stresses the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in her work–not just in the energy fields, but in all fields.
And as for being an independent Bangladeshi woman, Rahman is still unmarried and faces lots of challenges in her community in terms of societal judgment. Her focus is still her education, no matter the pushback.
“I will try my best to make the world a better place from my own angle for change,” Rahman said. “What I really like is that, as a teacher, you can impact your students' whole lives in a greater way. It can have a big impact.”
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Rahman would like to extend her heartfelt thanks to Dr. Hilary Boudet, graduate director at the School of Public Policy, for her exceptional support. In addition to Dr. Bernell, other faculty members were incredibly kind and supportive of Rahman during a particularly difficult time. Their compassion and guidance made a significant difference, and without their help, it would not have been easy to navigate that period.