Professional Affiliation

Associate Professor of Environmental History/Sustainability, Ohio State University

Expert Bio

Dr. Jennifer Eaglin is an associate professor of environmental history/sustainability at Ohio State University. Her research examines the history of alternative energy development in Brazil. Eaglin’s first book, Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol (Oxford University Press, 2022), explores the history of Brazilian sugar-based ethanol development from the 1930s to the 2000s and the associated environmental and social costs that accompanied the industry’s growth. Eaglin’s work has appeared in Environmental History and Latin American Research Review. Her work has been supported by various organizations, including the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Conference on Latin American History, and the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. During her time at the Wilson Center, she will be working on her next book project on the Brazilian nuclear energy industry.

Expertise

• Energy
• Environment
• History

Wilson Center Project

Going Nuclear: The Rise of Brazilian Nuclear Energy

Project Summary

Currently, Brazil relies on nuclear energy for less than 5 percent of its energy production, but the industry remains a controversial contributor to the country’s energy matrix because of its perceived and real public health risks. Brazil first sought entry into the small club of countries that controlled the technology of their own nuclear plants in the 1950s but did not gain entry until military officials broke an agreement with the US in favor of German assistance in 1975. My project traces the industry’s development from a military interest to the establishment of the first plant, Angra I, in 1982 to the country’s own nuclear incident in 1987 to revived investment during the energy boom of the 2000s. In a country singularly focused on using technology to modernize its international image, “Going Nuclear” reveals how various actors, from government officials to scientists and environmental activists, shaped this domestic energy industry.

Major Publications

• Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol (Oxford University Press, 2022)..
• “The Demise of the Brazilian Ethanol Program: Environmental and Economic Shocks, 1985-1990,” Environmental History 24 (2019): 104-129.
• '‘More Brazilian than Cachaça’: The Development of the Brazilian Sugar-Based Ethanol Industry,” Latin American Research Review 54, no. 4 (2019): 927-943.