Braeton James Smith

Braeton is an economist and group leader in Argonne’s Decision & Infrastructure Sciences Division. His research focusses on critical material supply chains and estimating economic impacts from disruptive events. Dr. Smith co-led the Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2023 Critical Materials Assessment and was the primary author of DOE’s 2022 supply chain deep dive reports on rare earth permanent magnets and platinum group metal catalysts. He joined Argonne in 2018 as a developer on Argonne’s Global Critical Materials (GCMat) agent-based model. 

Prior to joining Argonne, he performed economic analysis at Sandia National Laboratories for the Department of Homeland Security and for DOE’s Critical Materials Innovation Hub while studying at the Colorado School of Mines.

Education

• Ph.D., Mineral and Energy Economics, Colorado School of Mines, 2018
• M.S., Mineral and Energy Economics, Colorado School of Mines, 2014
• M.S., Applied Economics, Oregon State University, 2012
• B.A., Economics, University of New Mexico, 2009

Journal Articles

• Agent-based modeling of supply disruptions in the global rare earths market. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 164, 105193, (with Matthew E. Riddle, Eric Tatara, Charles Olsen, Allison Bennett Irion, Braden Harker, David Pineault, Elisa Alonso, and Diane J. Graziano).
• Costs, substitution, and material use: The case of rare earth magnets. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(6), 3803-3811, (with Roderick G. Eggert).
• An assessment of U.S rare earth availability for supporting U.S. wind energy growth targets.  Energy Policy, Vol. 113, 294-305, (with Devin D. Imholte, Ruby T. Nguyen, Aditya Vedantam, Maxwell L. Brown, Ananth Iyer, John Collins, Corby G. Anderson, and Brock O’Kelley).
• Multifaceted Material Substitution: The Case of NdFeB Magnets, 2010-2015. JOM: The Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, 68, 1964-1971, (with Roderick G. Eggert).

Selected Reports for Government and Non-Governmental Agencies 

• 2023 Critical Materials Assessment. U.S. Department of Energy. (with Diana Bauer, Ruby Nguyen, and others).
• Rare earth permanent magnets: Supply chain deep dive assessment. U.S. Department of Energy. (with Matthew E. Riddle, Matthew R. Earlam, Chukwunwike Iloeje, and David Diamond).
• Platinum group metal catalysts: Supply chain deep dive assessment. U.S. Department of Energy. (with Diane J. Graziano, Matthew E. Riddle, Di-Jia Liu, Pingping Sun, Chukwunwike Iloeje, Emmeline Kao, and David Diamond).
• Competitiveness and commercialization of energy technologies: Supply chain deep dive assessment. U.S. Department of Energy. (with Vanessa Chan, Stephen Hendrickson, Lucia Tian, Allison Bennett Irion, and Matthew E. Riddle)
• Understanding COVID-19 public health outcomes as a function of disparities in community resilience: A framework to inform systemic risk reduction strategies through assessments of underlying inequities in workforce exposure, resource accessibility, and social vulnerability. United Nations. (with Lawrence Lewis, Frederic Petit, Joshua Bergerson, John Hummel, Schott Schleuter, Kyle Feffer, Amanda Wagner, and Charles Macal).
• Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed Energy Conservation Standards for Manufactured Housing. U.S. Department of Energy. (with Margaret MacDonell, Young-Soo Chang, Brett Singer, Ellen White, Georgia Anast, Patrick Cuscaden, Emily Zvolanek, Laura Fox, David LePoire, Kristin Kerwin, Roak Parker, Eric Werling, William Delp, Haoran Zhao, Wanyu Chan, Spencer Dutton, and Iain Walker)

Selected Argonne reports

• County Economic Performance Index: A dynamic and ongoing measurement of regional economic activity. (with Matthew Riddle, Parfait Gasana, and Iain Hyde).
• New York cross-border commodity flow disaggregation modeling. (with Thomas Wall).
• Territorial Economic Impact Index: Measuring the ongoing effects of long-term disruptions to Pacific Island Territories. (with Matthew Riddle, Melissa Braybrooks, Lesley Edgemon, and Iain Hyde)
• Territorial Government Revenue Vulnerability Index (TGRVI): Measuring Financial Impacts to Territorial Governments during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (with Matthew Riddle, Melissa Braybrooks, Amanda Savitt, and Iain Hyde)
• County Economic Impact Index: Measuring the ongoing economic effects of COVID-19. (with Matthew Riddle, Amanda Wagner, Lesley Edgemon, Carmella Burdi, and Iain Hyde).
• State Government Revenue Vulnerability Index and Local Government Revenue Vulnerability  Index. (with Matthew Riddle, Amanda Wagner, Amanda Savitt, and Iain Hyde).
• Internet Access Index: Measuring the availability and household adoption of high-speed internet. (with M. Ross Alexander, Iain Hyde, Carmella Burdi, Joshua Bergerson, Matthew  Riddle, and Carol Freeman).
• Argonne’s global critical materials agent-based model (GCMat). (with Matthew E. Riddle, Eric Tatara, Charles M. Olson, Diane J. Graziano, and Allison Bennett Irion)