News

Explore our expert insights and analysis in leading energy and climate news stories.

Energy Explained

Get the latest as our experts share their insights on global energy policy.

Podcasts

Hear in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders from government, business, academia, and civil society.

Events

Find out more about our upcoming and past events.

News

Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy Expands Global Cohort of Energy and Climate Experts

The Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University is excited to welcome six new experts to its global roster of climate and energy scholars. The new experts include Edward Fishman, an expert on economic sanctions; Dr. Gautam Jain, an expert on financial markets and instruments such as green bonds; Dr. Karen Young, an expert on political economy and the Middle East; Dr. Farid Farrokhi, an expert on the intersections of trade, spatial economics, and the environment; Dr. Nicolò Daina, an expert on sustainable mobility and transportation; and Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir, an expert in energy systems modeling. Together, they will contribute to and help build a diverse research portfolio at the Center and the newly formed Climate School.

“Our latest group of scholars coming on board directly address key and oftentimes under-researched areas of energy security, markets, and transition ,” said Jason Bordoff, Founding Director of CGEP and Co-Founding Dean of Columbia’s Climate School. “With energy markets in turmoil and geopolitical tensions at all time highs, we need  experts who understand the synergies between issues like sanctions and deterrence policy as well as energy systems modeling and grid modernization. At CGEP, we want the best minds collaborating on these issues together to provide timely and actionable policy recommendations. ” 

“Now more than ever, we need research institutions to prioritize multidisciplinary hires,” said Dr. Melissa Lott, Research Director and Senior Research Scholar at CGEP. “If there’s anything this energy crisis has shown us, it’s that you need people with different backgrounds working together. This is truly an exciting time for the Center as we continue to expand our research portfolio and collaborations.” 

Edward Fishman is transitioning from a Non-Resident Fellow to a Senior Research Scholar at CGEP. He will continue his work as an Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where he teaches a graduate-level course on economic statecraft and strategy. From 2015 to 2017, Mr. Fishman served at the U.S. Department of State as a member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff. In that role, Mr. Fishman advised Secretary of State John Kerry on Europe and Eurasia and led the staff’s work on economic sanctions, long-range strategic planning, and international order and norms. He also managed the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and represented the State Department at the National Security Council-led Strategic Planning Small Group, an interagency body that conducted wide-ranging strategic assessments of trends in geopolitics, economics, and technology.

Dr. Gautam Jain is a Senior Research Scholar at CGEP and focuses on the role of financial markets and instruments such as green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds as well as carbon markets in the transition to net-zero emissions, particularly in emerging countries. Gautam joined the center after a long and fulfilling career in the financial industry where he covered emerging markets as a portfolio manager and strategist. He has worked at asset management firms and investment banks, including The Rohatyn Group, Barclays Capital, and Millennium Partners. 

Dr. Karen E. Young is a political economist focusing on the Gulf, the broader MENA region and the intersection of energy, finance and security. She is a Senior Research Scholar at CGEP and was previously a Senior Fellow and Founding Director of the Program on Economics and Energy at the Middle East Institute. Her research focuses on questions of power, access to finance and development, and the politics of resource wealth and economic reform.  

Dr. Nicolò Daina is a Research Scientist with CGEP and Columbia Engineering. His research focuses on sustainable mobility, transportation electrification and integrated transportation and energy systems, analyzing, in particular, the role of end-users’ behavior. In his research, Dr. Daina pioneered the development of realistic quantitative behavioral models of charging choice for the analysis of electric vehicle impact deployment. These models enable the study of integrated electric mobility and grid systems capable of exploiting demand flexibility. 

Dr. Farid Farrokhi is a Visiting Adjunct Research Scholar at CGEP and an Adjunct Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and specializes in research ​at the intersections of trade, spatial economics, and the environment. His research combines theory and data with applications related to international trade, natural resources and agriculture, and ​climate policy.He is an assistant professor of economics at Purdue University from where he is currently on leave to visit SIPA at Columbia.

Brian Ó Gallachóir is a Visiting Professor at CGEP and is an acknowledged international expert in energy systems modeling with over 30 years experience, and a highly cited academic. In joining as a Visiting Professor for the summer, Professor Ó Gallachóir looks forward to engaging with research leaders in CGEP on improving how we use research and analysis to better inform energy and climate policy, and comparing how to deliver the energy transition and improved energy security through the different lenses of European and US perspectives.
 

Related

More News

Recapping a (Respectful) Dialogue About IEA Analysis

Bob McNally, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy and former Special Assistant to the President on the National Economic Council from 2001-2003, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal critical of how the IEA’s mission has changed to where it is today. In response, Jason Bordoff, the Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy, shared reflections and critiques of points made in the piece on LinkedIn.

Announcement • March 22, 2024
Recapping a (Respectful) Dialogue About IEA Analysis
Our Work

Relevant
Publications

See All Work