Summer Solstice Thomas

EDUCATION
B.A. Environmental Studies, Williams College
 

After graduating from Williams College in 2020, Summer spent two years working in environmental justice research and advocacy, including a year in Cambodia as a Henry Luce Fellow. She then pivoted to engineering industry, seeking a research role that applied environmental justice principles to the development of green technology. Consequently, she spent two years at a Bay Area start-up advancing sustainable direct lithium extraction technology, aligning market demands with innovations that significantly reduced environmental and community impacts. Her graduate research focuses on encapsulated phase change materials for solar-thermal energy storage, where she uses her environmental justice skills to incorporate responsible sourcing and community impact into her technical engineering designs. In her free time, Summer enjoys training for triathlons, exploring long hiking trails, and experimenting with new recipes.