2024 SPARK Magazine Submissions

The Student Published Anthology of Research at Kleinman (SPARK) is an annual magazine offering all Penn students the opportunity to publish articles on an energy research topic of their choice.

Spark submissions will be reviewed by the Kleinman Center’s Student Advisory Council. This council will ultimately decide which articles to include in the final publication. If your submission is selected for review, we expect you to work with the student editorial board and submit timely revisions responding to the council’s feedback.

Submission Guidelines

In a comprehensive, 1,500 word essay, characterize a specific challenge facing the energy transition, identify a traditional or emerging technical solution to this change, and propose an innovative policy framework to help scale this technical solution. Your essay should also define the geographic scope of this challenge. We encourage authors to address regional challenges with region-specific solutions. Submissions can explore a new topic of interest to you, or draw on work you have done for a class or research project.

A successful submission will:

  • Clearly define a specific challenge related to the energy transition. (Challenges might fall within themes such as load-balancing of renewables, energy storage, industrial decarbonization, carbon management, critical mineral allocation and mining, land use, legacy infrastructure, jobs, or reliability, among others.)
  • Identify and clearly explain a specific technical solution to this change. This might relate to an emerging technology or a traditional technology implemented in a new way.
  • Propose a detailed and innovative policy for encouraging the use of this technical solution in response to the stated challenge. In what jurisdiction/s could this policy be implemented? How does this policy use carrots and/or sticks in an innovative way? How does this policy address public concerns? How does this policy interact with the broader regulatory and market landscape?

Your Spark submission must be…

  • Brief: 1,500 words (+/- 200 words)
  • Clear: Use plain language with explanations of technical terms.
  • Engaging: Include active verbs, stories, case studies, and/or visuals

Example submission from last year: The Promise of Green Hydrogen, by Jean Andre Petit

How to Submit

Please submit your SPARK submission using this form.

Please submit your essays as early as possible. Updated: the application deadline is rolling.

Questions can be directed to Oscar Serpell (serpello@upenn.edu)

Apply Now

Who Can Submit?

All members of the Penn undergraduate or graduate student community are encouraged to submit to the Spark. We strive to include student authors from diverse disciplines and institutions.

Additional Submission Details:

Key Elements

For consistent style, your magazine submission must include the following elements:

  • A short Title (< 70 characters)
    • Example: The Opportunities and Limitations of Seasonal Energy Storage
  • Short Section Headers (< 30 characters)
    • Example: India’s Big Challenge
  • Colorful Graphs / Tables / Charts / photos  (maximum of 2 —with titles and sources)
  • In-Line, Parenthetical Citations (required)*
    • Example: Indonesia’s past 20 years of economic and population growth have challenged the national energy sector and contributed to power outages and low electrification rates (The World Bank 2010).
  • References (required)*
    • Example (single citation): Thaler, J. 2012. “Fiddling as the World Floods and Burns” Environmental Law 41, 1101-1156.

Style

We follow the Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date format: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org