Matthew Schmidt Email & Phone Number

Seattle, Wa, Us

Greater Seattle Area

Developed economic modeling tool of common plantation silviculture regimes in the WA coast region in order to identify optimal actions to be taken under different levels of Swiss Needle Cast infections.Conducting research on the impact of growth model uncertainty on stand-level silviculture decision making in Douglas-fir plantations in the PNW. Specifically exploring how uncertainty in mortality, growth rates, and site-index can change the optimal schedule of planting density, thinning intensity/timing, and harvest timing.

Develop advanced geospatial models to identify land that meet diverse and evolving criteria for solar energy development, accounting for electrical infrastructure, zoning restrictions, and land characteristics.Develop extensive tools to automate business processes and extensive cloud-based databases and APIs to scale lead generation system nationally and triple business operations.

Greater Seattle Area

Operated my own small business GIS consultancy focused on land use analyses and transportation.Notable projects including a custom spatial database and geospatial search engine to improve taxi routing efficiency in Uzbekistan and the development of a public bus routing application in Accra, Ghana.

Greater Boston Area

Provided technical consultation and original research to the U.S. EPA regarding the value of air-pollution impaired residential visibility. Assisted in the design of a hedonic pricing model to estimate the public's willingness to pay for marginal air quality improvements that resulted in better residential visibility.Constructed digital surface models for 20 large cities across the United States, requiring the creation of a cloud-based data analysis pipeline that automatically downloaded, processed, and combined several terabytes of raw LiDAR data in order to analyze the view potential of over one million residential homes.

I took a leave from my career to explore the world. I traveled for 18 months and visited over 20 countries across three continents. Highlights from my trip included scuba diving daily, attending a vipassana meditation retreat at a Buddhist monastery, helping with Nepal earthquake relief efforts, and crossing the Atlantic ocean in a 44ft sailboat.

Worked closely with state and federal government agencies on cost-benefit policy analyses, rule-makings, such as the Endangered Species Act, and environmental litigation, including notable natural resource damage assessments for the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Analyzed the value of non-market natural resources, such as recreational activities and ecosystem services, in order to complete cost-benefit analyses of proposed environmental policies.

Developed extensive literature review, analyzing and summarizing past research to construct an original model of firm level foreign investment and regulatory process costs.Located and compiled data from multiple sources, ultimately using Excel and STATA to build a panel dataset to empirically test hypotheses - incorporating heteroskedasticity and selection bias corrections.

Researched environmental and energy policy, analyzing and distilling research into concise policy memos.Co-authored extensive research project examining the historical federal management of offshore oil and gas resources in the United States – drawing almost entirely from primary source material.Drafted introductory section of the e-KNOW Act, H.R. 5696, to allow for consumer access to detailed electricity consumption information, summarizing current policy and outlining the bill’s goals and strengths.

Worked with committee of University stakeholders to pass a compromise measure enacting a university policy for the responsible reduction in bottled water campus wide.Led a team in the creation and implementation of an innovative fee-financed fund used for sustainable student-designed projects across campus.Investigated and implemented creative third party funding mechanisms to procure solar PV panels for the University, achieving the deployment of the Universities first 300KW of solar power.

Led team project to reduce operational costs by improving client participation in demand response events.Used historical company data to isolate and analyze future company costs relating to changing regional electric grid monitoring policy.

Analyzed commuter surveys and fuel usage data to estimate University’s transportation emissions. Examined the costs and benefits of various carbon-reducing strategies, personally drafting the transportation section of the presidentially sanctioned Brandeis University Climate Action Plan.

Master'S Degree, Forestry

B.A, Economics And Politics

Graduated Cum Laude with High Honors from the Economics Department