Afreen Siddiqi

Dr. Afreen Siddiqi's research interests are at the intersection of systems analytics, design, and policy for complex systems including earth observation systems and space exploration and critical infrastructure for water, energy, and agriculture. She is motivated by urgent problems of sustainability and works towards enabling efficient design and equitable use of technology and sustainable use of natural resources for improving human well-being.

Her work involves modeling, optimization, and systems analysis, with recent projects on quantifying value of remote sensing for decisions, new methods for technology and infrastructure investments using portfolio theory, and optimization models for determining system designs to provide sustained value under uncertainty with applications including desalination systems, hydropower, and waste-to-energy. She has also developed new quantitative measures for equity to assess performance of critical infrastructure and services.

Dr. Siddiqi has contributed to several efforts to inform policy, including serving as a contributing author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s sixth assessment report (working group II, chapter 4) 2022, and has also contributed research for the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (UN-CEPA) on Climate Change Action and Sustainability of Natural Resources. Some of her work, on predicting long-term future water availability in arid regions, has been highlighted and included by US National Academies of Sciences in its 2019 decadal survey on new methods in social and behavior sciences.