Deepthi Swamy

Biography

Deepthi Swamy joined IIASA in 2023 as 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 in the US, and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University in India.

Before joining IIASA, Swamy worked as the climate lead at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in India, where she led modeling efforts to evaluate national level decarbonization scenarios. With 12 years of professional experience, she has been involved in a diverse range of projects at the intersection of energy and climate. Her previous affiliations include serving as a research scientist at the Center for Study of Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTEP) in Bengaluru, India, and as a fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Swamy’s research has focused on understanding the complexity underpinning clean energy transitions, particularly in developing country contexts. She employs energy-economy modeling to analyze alternative low-carbon pathways across various economic sectors and timeframes. She has conducted modeling-based scenario analysis providing governments with tools and resources to monitor and implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and investigate co-benefits and potential trade-offs between climate and developmental priorities. Her work attempts to move beyond the technical analysis of energy systems and low-carbon pathways, to delve into the policy and socioeconomic factors that drive energy use and emissions. She has also contributed to India's long-term national energy planning by providing sectoral inputs to the India Energy Security Scenarios 2047 – a tool developed by NITI Aayog, the Government of India's apex public policy think tank, in consultation with ministerial experts and other stakeholders.

At IIASA, her research is centered on enhancing the representation of behavioral drivers of demand-side energy consumption and developing mitigation and sustainability scenarios using simple integrated assessment models. Her interest lies in adopting a systems approach to help users and decision makers make sense of the interconnected relationships and feedbacks among human, energy, economy, and environmental systems.



Last update: 19 JUL 2023