Deepthi Swamy

Biography

Deepthi Swamy is a research scholar in the Sustainable Service Systems Research Group of the Energy, Climate, and Environment Program. She holds a master's degree in engineering management (civil and environmental systems) from Cornell University, United States, and a bachelor's degree in computer science engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India.

At IIASA, her research focuses on improving the endogenous representation of behavioral drivers of demand-side energy consumption within integrated assessment models. Her work aims to develop mitigation and sustainability scenarios that account for the dynamic feedbacks between human behavior, energy use, the economy, and the environment, advancing a systems approach to inform decision-making for sustainable development.

Before IIASA, she served as the Climate Lead at the World Resources Institute (WRI) India, where she led collaborative modeling efforts to assess national decarbonization scenarios. Over the course of her fifteen years of professional experience, she has worked at the intersection of energy and climate, including roles as a research scientist at the Center for Study of Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTEP) and as a fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP), Johns Hopkins University.

Swamy’s research focuses on understanding the complexity of clean energy transitions, particularly in developing countries. She examines how countries can pursue low-carbon development while balancing economic growth, equity, and sustainability goals across sectors and timeframes. Through scenario-based analyses, her work has supported national and state government agencies in designing roadmaps to implement and monitor Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), while highlighting co-benefits and trade-offs between climate action and socioeconomic development. She has also contributed to India’s long-term energy planning by providing sectoral insights for the India Energy Security Scenarios 2047 tool, developed by NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s apex policy think tank, in collaboration with ministerial and academic partners.

Last update: 25 NOV 2025