ESP Biography



SHAWN HESSE, Architect and Sustainability Consultant




Major: Not available.

College/Employer: emersion DESIGN

Year of Graduation: Not available.

Picture of Shawn Hesse

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Shawn Hesse leads the Cambridge office of emersion DESIGN, a full service architecture and sustainability consulting firm. He is a licensed architect in Ohio and Massachusetts, and works to create buildings and communities that produce more energy than they use, create clean water, clean the air, and create healthy habitats for all life – even humans. As a public speaker and adjunct faculty member at two universities, he has presented to thousands of individuals on topics related to sustainability and the built environment, and served as a volunteer on countless committees at the local, regional, and national levels focused on sustainable policy and planning.

Shawn is also a member of the Zombie Research Society, and has spent countless hours studying the zombie apocalypse through film, book, simulations, college courses, and comics.



Past Classes

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X8542: Zombies: Lessons for Today from the Apocalypse of Tomorrow in Splash 2014 (Nov. 22 - 23, 2014)
If the zombie apocalypse started tonight, would you know how to survive? What about a massive snow storm, or if you had to evacuate your flooding home? This course explores the parallels between popular zombie lore (through movies, comic books, tv shows, video games, etc.) and real life challenges facing the world due to climate change including power outages, food shortages, flooding, and civil unrest. Through this comparison, we will uncover the survival strategies taught by fictional zombie stories, and apply them to the very real challenges of climate change.