Jennifer Helgeson

Jennifer Helgeson is a research economist in the Applied Economics Office of the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She currently leads the office's work on the "Economics of Community Resilience Planning” and is Acting Program Manager for the Community Resilience Program at NIST.

Her research interests focus on decision science, including survey assessments and economic analyses that consider behavioral aspects and approaches to dealing with environmental issues. Helgeson’s research revolves around resilience to hazards (shocks and stressors) in the built environment, with consideration for cost-effectiveness of community- scale climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

In the past, Helgeson was a researcher at the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research, Norway, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, France. Following the completion of her bachelor’s degree in economics at Brandeis University, she received a Fulbright Grant to Norway. She earned her master’s degree in environmental change and management with a focus on environmental economics at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Helgeson holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, where she was awarded a Grantham Institute for Climate Change Research Scholarship and supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.