Costa Samaras in the White House

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, security, 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. He was previously a senior national security researcher at the RAND Corporation and a megaprojects engineer in New York. He received a joint Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon, and an MPA in public policy from NYU.

 
 

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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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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

Featured Videos

Prof. Samaras was a guest on the documentary “Power Trip: The Story of Energy”, which appears on PBS, Apple TV, and Prime Video.

 

Dr. Samaras gave the Keynote Address the Inaugural Symposium for Sustainable Energy and Environment in 2023.

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

 

Prof. Samaras delivered remarks on U.S. clean industrial strategy and innovation at Carnegie Mellon’s Institute of Strategy and Technolgy

© Constantine Samaras 2014-

Carnegie Mellon University

Civil and Environmental Engineering

5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15123

csamaras@cmu.edu