Costa Samaras

Energy, Climate, Emerging Tech, and Resilience

Climate change is a systems problem – and it affects everything. Decarbonizing electricity, transportation, buildings, industry, and agriculture all require connected technology, policy, and infrastructure strategies. All of these strategies need to anticipate the impacts of disruptive technologies like AI, increase equity and affordability, enhance opportunity and security, and be climate-resilient for the 21st century under deep uncertainty. Costa Samaras is a systems engineer and former White House senior policy leader working with an exceptional group of students and collaborators to assess and create pathways for rapid and equitable decarbonization and climate resilience. From 2021-2024, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as the Principal Assistant Director for Energy, OSTP Chief Advisor for Energy Policy, and then OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition. At Carnegie Mellon, he is the Director of the university-wide Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, the Trustee Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and a courtesy faculty member in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. He is the Lead Author of the Mitigation Chapter of the 6th U.S. National Climate Assessment, and he is also a Founder and Director of both the Center for Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation and the Power Sector Carbon Index.

Our Research Thrusts

Find out about our current research areas in the transition to a zero-carbon energy system, climate-resilient systems, automated and electric transportation, and climate security.

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Come Work With Us

Our group trains students with interdisciplinary methods to be leading energy, resilience, and automated systems researchers, practitioners, and decisionmakers.

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Latest News

• Dr. Samaras is quoted in The New York Times on transportation electrification and decarbonization.

• Dr. Samaras completes public service at the White House and is appointed as the Director of CMU’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation.

• Ph.D. graduate Thiago Rodrigues won the Francis Clay McMichael Outstanding Dissertation in Environmental Engineering, Science, and Policy award at Carnegie Mellon.

• Ph.D. student Thiago Rodrigues and CMU colleagues published a paper in Patterns finding drone delivery and electric cargo bicycles could dramatically reduce the energy and carbon intensity of small package delivery. This paper was featured and Thiago was quoted in a News article in Nature.

• Ph.D. graduate Ana Cáceres published a paper on hydropower in Africa under climate change in Nature Climate Change along with faculty from CMU and the University of Washington.

• Ph.D. student Allanté Whitmore won the Bhakta and Sushama Rath Research Award from the College of Engineering.

• Ph.D. student Ana Cáceres won the Francis Clay McMichael Outstanding Dissertation in Environmental Engineering, Science, and Policy award at Carnegie Mellon.

• Prof. Samaras joins the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Principal Assistant Director for Energy and OSTP Chief Advisor for Energy Policy.

• Profs. Shaffer, Auffhammer, and Samaras published a paper in Nature on maximizing the benefits of electric vehicles for climate change.

• Dissertation research from Ph.D. alum Jacob Ward was the focus of an Editorial article in The New York Times.

• Ph.D. graduate Dr. Tania Lopez-Cantu won the Francis Clay McMichael Outstanding Dissertation in Environmental Engineering, Science, and Policy award at Carnegie Mellon.

• Ph.D. student Marissa Webber won the 2021 Outstanding Teaching Assistant award in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon.

• Prof. Samaras was quoted and our research was featured in The Washington Post.

• Prof. Samaras was interviewed for a story on NPR’s Morning Edition about electric vehicles

• Prof. Wright, Dr. Lopez-Cantu, and Prof. Samaras published a paper in The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society on informing climate resilience.

• The latest results from the Power Sector Carbon Index find that solar generation was up 30% at the end of 2020.

• Prof. Samaras was interviewed on ABC News about electric vehicles and climate change.

• Five Ph.D. students in the Center for Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation presented their research at the AGU Fall Meeting.

• Ph.D. student Abdullah Alarfaj, and Profs. Griffin and Samaras publish a paper in Environmental Research Letters on decarbonizing the U.S. passenger vehicle sector. Prof. Samaras was quoted about this research in The New York Times, and Abdullah was also quoted in a second article that developed a visualization of our results, and the paper was featured in a third article in The New York Times.

• Prof. Samaras appeared in the PBS documentary “Power Trip: The Story of Energy” in the Transportation Episode.

• Ph.D. student Tania Lopez-Cantu, Dr. Prein, and Prof. Samaras publish a paper in Geophysical Research Letters on future extreme rainfall in the U.S. under climate change and the implications for infrastructure.

• Profs. Chester, Underwood, and Samaras publish a piece in Nature Climate Change on infrastructure resilience under climate change.

• Drs. Cook and McGinnis and Prof. Samaras publish a paper in Climatic Change on stormwater infrastructure under climate change.

• Profs. Wagner and Samaras published an Op-Ed in The New York Times about deadlines for climate policy.

• Prof. Samaras published a piece in Nature Climate Change introducing a paper about climate mitigation through more efficient power system infrastructure.

• Prof. Samaras was quoted in The New York Times in an article about infrastructure stressed by climate change.

• Dr. Whiston and Prof. Samaras spoke at a policy briefing on the future of fuel cells for vehicles and buildings in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

• Prof. Samaras was part of a research team that published a paper on the future of fuel cell vehicles in the Proceedings of The National Academies of the United States of America.

• Prof. Samaras was named Professor of the Year by the ASCE Pittsburgh Section.

• Prof. Samaras wrote an Op-Ed in The Washington Post on electric vehicles, as part of a series of policy ideas to address climate change.

• Prof. Samaras was a contributor to the 4th National Climate Assessment and gave commentary about climate resilience to The New York Times.

• Ph.D. student DeVynne Farquharson, Prof. Jaramillo, and Prof. Samaras published a paper in Nature Sustainability on electricity reliability in Sub-Saharan Africa, and wrote a blog post to summarize the results.

• Ph.D. graduate Corey Harper, Prof. Hendrickson, and Prof. Samaras published a paper in the Journal of Urban Planning and Development on driverless cars and parking.

• Ph.D. student Tania Lopez-Cantu and Prof. Samaras published paper in Environmental Research Letters on stormwater under climate change, and wrote an Op-Ed to summarize the results.

• Prof. Samaras was a guest on The Energy Transition Show.

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