Potter

Potter is located on the beautiful western edge of campus. It neighbors the other houses in Sterling Quad—Robinson, Schiff, and Adams—and is steps away from the educational farm, tennis courts, driving range, golf course, and Red Barn. Beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year, the Explore Energy House will be located in Potter.

Find Potter on the Stanford Searchable Map here

More About Potter

A large field and picnic area is directly adjacent to the house, with barbecues, basketball courts, and a sand volleyball court. Lake Lagunita is just across the lawn, and one block down the road you will find Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation Center (AOERC), which offers a recreational swimming pool, climbing gym, indoor basketball courts, and fitness center. Residents share a computer cluster and study room, laundry room, kitchenette, and lounge with a piano, pool table, and television. The front door opens into a courtyard that leads to Ricker Dining Hall. More than just a building, we hope Potter can become your home away from home, a supportive community that celebrates the incredible intellectual and personal dynamism that each person brings to a house.

Meet the Potter Resident Fellow

Resident Fellows, or RFs, are Stanford faculty and senior administrative staff who live in apartments or cottages adjacent to student residences and serve as leaders for their communities. Dr. Holmes Hummel is the first Managing Director for Energy Equity and Just Transition at Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy.

Dr. Holmes Hummel is also the co-founder of multiple courses at Stanford, including Quest for an Inclusive Clean Energy Economy and Racial Equity in Energy. In addition, Holmes is a regular guest in the special orientation for incoming graduate students in the Energy@Stanford & SLAC program and students at all levels in Stanford's foundational course, Understand Energy.

Over the past two decades, Holmes has worked at the intersection of energy policy, technology, and finance through positions in academia, private sector, public policy, and civil society organizations. These adventures in energy first began in the mid-90s when Holmes co-led a college team to develop a solar powered battery-electric car, designed as a super-efficient experimental vehicle to race across the country with cars built by other college teams. Many of the related innovations demonstrated in that race are now commercial in mass production, real-life energy revolutions!

Later, as a Congressional Science Fellow, Holmes worked on developing federal energy policy in the office of a national leader on clean energy, Jay Islee, and was subsequently appointed to serve as the Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Policy & International Affairs for the first term of the Obama Administration. Most recently, Holmes founded Clean Energy Works, an award-winning public interest organization with expertise in inclusive financial solutions that can accelerate investment in the clean energy economy for all.

Holmes is a three-time graduate from Stanford, starting with an individually designed major in energy engineering as an undergraduate - back when the University offered no such degree. Holmes was also the first graduate in the initial cohort of PhD candidates admitted to the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, focusing on global energy transition scenarios for 100% clean energy. Now there are multiple paths for majors, minors, certificates and more!

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About the Explore Energy Theme

Are you eager to make friends among housemates who are charged up for energy revolutions shaping the future? Explore Energy House, a four-class academic theme house in Potter at Sterling Quad, is open to any undergraduate in any major, and graduate students are welcome to the seminar series.

Explore Energy House is the academic theme house supported by Explore Energy, the flagship for student engagement at Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy affiliated with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

More than 20 countries on 5 continents are represented by residents in Explore Energy House – and our multicultural community supports interests in climate justice, taking solutions to scale, and an international view of the imperatives and opportunities surrounding the clean energy transition.

To catch a glimpse of the community at Explore Energy House, enjoy this highlight reel.
If you are interested in participating in activities or applying for a space in a future year, please complete this Interest Form.

Together, our team creates a cohesive “energy circuit” that bridges Stanford’s 7 Schools. Explore Energy House in Potter hosts seminar classes, student-initiated/led workshops, alumni events, and more.

Explore Energy House is associated with the Explore Energy program under the Precourt Institute for Energy in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

Residents at Explore Energy House are the first to know about sustainability and energy opportunities in technology, policy, business and more; and they also have priority access among students for invitation-only events that range from 400-person conferences, to exclusive field trips, to small VIP dinners.

Assured housing in a community of active residents who are avidly pursuing interests that intersect with clean energy revolutions in many contexts around the world.
In-house activities featuring springboard opportunities through on-campus engagements, summer jobs, and post-graduation pursuits.
Exceptional access to fun field trips. Priority access to highly sought experiences such as the Tesla Fremont factory, the Tesla Gigafactory, Redwood Materials, SLAC, and more.
Priority for limited volunteer positions that enable student access to invitation-only events hosted by Precourt Institute for Energy.
Excellent location near the Science & Engineering Quad, abundant open space, an excellent dining hall, an expansive gym with a pool, courts, rock climbing wall, and rental station for weekend camping and more.

Exploring energy! We aspire to be a house where residents are actively exploring aspects of any energy field, including but not limited to technology, entrepreneurship, finance, history, political science, equity and justice, communications, and cultural power. It is not expected that residents come in with domain knowledge, but rather that they have a desire to engage each other as we explore a wide range of energy ecosystems together. Examples include: attending programs led by students, alumni, and faculty and summer fellowship managers through the Explore Energy Seminar .
Joining field trips; enrolling in relevant courses; connecting with Explore Energy and other initiatives at the Precourt Institute for Energy; and tapping into any energy-related student clubs.
Creating a vibrant, supportive, engaged and inclusive community at Explore Energy House by participating in the community, attending house meetings regularly, supporting house activities, and giving feedback to house leaders and the Resident Fellow.
Assisting fellow residents in learning about and accessing campus resources and building cross-campus relationships.
Taking advantage of a four-year house, the arriving first-year residents can also look forward to older residents being mentors and friends who can help with navigational aid.

Pledged Commitments

Participate in a half-day Community Kickoff at the beginning of Fall Quarter (Tentatively Sunday, 9/29) and one energy-related field trip during the year.
Residents in upper classes work with one or more other residents, the Resident Fellow, and the Explore Energy House Leaders to co-host at least one theme-related program/workshop/event/trip during the academic year.
All residents are strongly encouraged to participate in one or more quarters of the weekly Explore Energy Seminar.

If you are admitted to join the next incoming class, look for an email from Approaching Stanford in May that includes a link for listing housing preferences by a deadline in early June. Most of the applicants who are selected for a spot in Explore Energy House have listed it as one of their top 2options.

If you are a returning undergrad or coterm, look for an email announcement from Residential Education in March regarding a 10 day period at the start of Spring Quarter when you can complete a short application for one theme house. This is named the “pre-assignment” period because it occurs prior to the general draw, and if you are not selected, you proceed to the general draw.

If you have questions about Explore Energy House, please use the Interest Form above or write to ExploreEnergyHouse@stanford.edu.

If you have questions about your eligibility for living at Explore Energy House or other aspects of assignments, please refer to their webpages or write to HousingAssignments@stanford.edu.

Explore Energy House is supported by our House Leadership Team, a group of faculty and staff representing our key partners across campus who expand engagement with the House, as well as provide strategic direction and feedback. Residents will have the opportunity to engage with our House Leadership Team through Explore Energy Seminar, faculty dinners, field trips, and/or our opening and closing celebrations.

Sally Benson: Precourt Family Professor; Professor of Energy Science Engineering; Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Jane Woodward: Adjunct Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering; Founder and Managing Partner of WovenEarth Ventures
Roland Horne: Thomas Davies Barrow Professor of Earth Sciences at Stanford University; Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
Yi Cui: Fortinet Founders Professor; Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, of Energy Science and Engineering, and of Photo Science; Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Bruce Cain: Director of Bill Lane Center for the American West; Professor of Political Science; Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Mark Jacobson: Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Hunt Allcott: Co-Director of the Stanford Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center; Professor of Global Environmental Policy
Lincoln Bleveans: Executive Director of Sustainability & Energy Management
Kristin Parineh: Director of the Office of Sustainability
Keegan Cooke: Director of Stanford Ecopreneurship Programs, a partnership between the Graduate School of Business and the Doerr School of Sustainability
Rimvydas Baltaduonis: Project Scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Anthony Kinslow II: Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering; Founder and CEO of Gemini Energy Solutions
Dena Montague: Environmental Justice Lecturer in the Earth Systems Program
Kirsten Stasio: Adjunct Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering; CEO of the Nevada Clean Energy Fund
Diana Gragg: Managing Director of Explore Energy at the Precourt Institute for Energy; Core Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Bianca Patel: Assistant Director of Explore Energy at the Precourt Institute for Energy