Carnegie Mellon Welcomes Costa Samaras as New Director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation
Dr. Costa Samaras has returned to 一本道无码 as the Director of the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. Since 2021, Samaras has been on public service leave at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), serving as Principal Assistant Director for Energy and OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition.
“I am so happy to be back home at 一本道无码 to lead the Scott Institute to new heights,” says Samaras, a professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “This is an absolutely critical time to accelerate the clean energy transition, and I am eager to help 一本道无码 and the Scott Institute play a lead role in creating the net-zero energy systems of the future.”
Samaras has more than two decades of experience working on climate and clean energy, and began his faculty career at 一本道无码 in 2014 as an Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and was promoted to Professor while on public service leave in 2022. He is the Founding Director of Carnegie Mellon’s the and the Center for Engineering Resilience for Climate Adaptation. He was also previously a Senior Engineer at the RAND Corporation working on energy and climate security, as well as worked as an infrastructure megaprojects engineer in New York City. His research spans energy systems decarbonization, climate resilience, and the energy implications of emerging technologies such as AI and automation.
During his time at the White House OSTP, Samaras worked with the OSTP Director, the Deputy Director for Industrial Innovation, and Senior Leaders throughout the government in coordinating Federal technology policy to meet U.S. climate commitments. Dr. Samaras helped launch to accelerate clean energy innovation to achieve a net-zero emissions economy no later than 2050, as well as President Biden’s . Samaras of the White House Delegation at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference, and contributed to the President’s . In addition, he led the conceptualization of a new forward-looking clean energy transition assessment capability, the , the White House response to an Executive Order on the , and the assessment of enabled by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.
Samaras holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon, a Master’s of Public Policy from New York University, and a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University.
Headshot of Costa Samaras