Elise Penn, Ph.D.

eliserpenn@gmail.com
Research Scientist
Zeus AI
Cambridge, MA

I am currently a research scientist at Zeus AI developing our air quality model.

I earned my Ph.D. from Harvard University, working with Daniel Jacob and Carbon Mapper, Inc. to quantify methane emissions using Bayesian inverse methods and satellite-based infrared retrievals. During my graduate studies, I also spent 6 months as a data science intern for Tesla's Supercharger team. Before Harvard, I conducted research with Tracey Holloway at UW-Madison, at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory with Larry Horowitz and Vaishali Naik, and at the NREL with Dr. Jennifer Newman.

Publications

  • Remote sensing enables basin-scale inventories of coal mine methane
    Penn, E., D.J. Jacob, D.M. Bon, K. Howell, K. O'Neill, T. Scarpelli, Z. Chen, R.A. Field, C.O. Karacan, E. Roy, D.H. Cusworth
    Environmental Science & Technology, 2026 [link]
  • Applying Satellite Observations to Improve Bottom-Up National Emission Inventories for Methane: Application to Colombia
    Hancock, S.E., D. J. Jacob, R. Jimenez, A. Ardila, L. Morales-Rincon, N. Rojas, L. A. Estrada, N. Balasus, J. D. East, M. P. Sulprizio, X. Wang, J. L. France, L. Potyk, E. Penn, Z. Chen, D. J. Varon, C. Frankenberg, M. Baranski, A. Calcan, R. J. Parker
    Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2026 [link]
  • Attributing 2019-2024 methane growth using TROPOMI satellite observations
    He, M., D. J. Jacob, L. Estrada, D. J. Varon, M. Sulprizio, N. Balasus, J. D. East, E. Penn, D. C. Pendergrass, Z. Chen, T. A. Mooring, J. D. Maasakkers, P. G. Brodrick, C. Frankenberg, K. W. Bowman, L. Bruhwiler
    Science Advances, 2026 [link]
  • What can we learn about tropospheric OH from satellite observations of methane?
    Penn, E., D.J. Jacob, Z. Chen, J.D. East, M.P. Sulprizio, L. Bruhwiler, J.D. Maasakkers, H. Nesser, Z. Qu, Y. Zhang, and J. Worden.
    Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2025 [link]
  • Trends and seasonality of 2019–2023 global methane emissions inferred from a localized ensemble transform Kalman filter
    Pendergrass, D.C., D. J. Jacob, N. Balasus, L. Estrada, D. J. Varon, T. A. Mooring, J. D. East, M. He, E. Penn, H. Nesser and J. R. Worden.
    Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2025 [link]
  • Satellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations
    Hancock, S.E., D.J. Jacob, Z. Chen, H. Nesser, A. Davitt, D.J. Varon, M.P. Sulprizio, N. Balasus, L.A. Estrada, J.D. East, E. Penn, C.A. Randles, J. Worden, I. Aben, R. J. Parker, and J. D. Maasakkers.
    Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2025 [link]
  • Interpreting the seasonality of atmospheric methane
    East, J.D., D.J. Jacob, N. Balasus, A.A. Bloom, L. Bruhwiler, Z. Chen, J.O. Kaplan, L.J. Mickley, T.A. Mooring, E. Penn, B. Poulter, M.P. Sulprizio, R.M. Yantosca, J.R. Worden, and Z. Zhang
    Geophysical Research Letters, 2025 [link]
  • Methane emissions from China: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations
    Chen, Z., D.J. Jacob, H. Nesser, M.P. Sulprizio, A . Lorente, D.J. Varon, X. Lu, L. Shen, Z. Qu, E. Penn, and X. Yu
    Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2022 [link]
  • Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI 1.0): a user-friendly, cloud-based facility for inferring high-resolution methane emissions from TROPOMI satellite observations
    Varon, D.J., D.J. Jacob, M. Sulprizio, L.A. Estrada, W.B. Downs, L. Shen, S.E. Hancock, H. Nesser, Z. Qu, E. Penn, Z. Chen, X. Lu, A. Lorente, A. Tewari, and C.A. Randles
    Geoscientific Model Development, 2022 [link]
  • Projected changes in seasonal and extreme summertime temperature and precipitation in India in response to COVID-19 recovery emissions scenarios
    D’Souza, J., Prasanna, F., Valayannopoulos-Akrivou, L.-N., Sherman, P., Penn, E., Song, S., Archibald, A. T., and McElroy, M. B.
    Environmental Research Letters, 2021 [link]
  • Evaluating current satellite capability to observe diurnal change in nitrogen oxides in preparation for geostationary satellite missions
    Penn, E. and Holloway, T.
    Environmental Research Letters, 2020 [link]

Key: Underlined names indicate student mentees.

Dissertation

Quantifying tropospheric OH concentrations and coal methane emissions using remote sensing
E. Penn
2025 [link]

Website template credit: github.com/yenchiah