Narasimha Rao

Dr. Narasimha D. Rao is associate professsor at the Yale School of the Environment.  Dr. Rao's research examines the relationship between energy systems, human development and climate change. 

Prior to Yale, Narasimha was a research scholar and project leader at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), an international scientific institute that conducts research into global, environmental, economic, technological and social change, where he led the institute’s innovative Decent Living Energy project. He quantified and mapped the energy needs and climate change impacts of eradicating poverty and providing "decent" living standards for all humans.

During his career, he has studied income inequality, infrastructure, and climate policy. His methods have included household energy modeling, survey work, econometrics, input-output analysis, and policy analysis.

He also spent several years working in the private sector and as a consultant in the U.S. electricity sector, and was a visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India.
Narasimha holds a joint master’s degree — in technology and policy, and in electrical engineering and computer science — from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, where he studied the impacts of energy policy in developing countries.
  
In a recent study, published in the journal WIREs Climate Change, Rao and a colleague illustrated how reduced global inequality will improve climate outcomes. In 2011, he won the Amulya K. Reddy Prize for the Best Paper in the journal Energy for Sustainable Development for his paper, "Kerosene Subsidies in India: When Energy Policy Fails as Social Policy."