Jessika Trancik

Professor Jessika Trancik's research examines the dynamic costs, performance, and environmental impacts of energy systems to inform climate policy and accelerate beneficial and equitable technology innovation. Her projects focus on all energy services including electricity, transportation, heating, and industrial processes. This work spans solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, low-carbon fuels, electric vehicles, and nuclear fission among other technologies. Her research group focuses on evaluating the costs and environmental impacts of energy technologies to accelerate their improvement. Through data analysis and modeling, the Trancik Lab studies expected changes to technology performance over time, due to innovation and evolving operational contexts. By relating performance to design and manufacturing decisions, this research informs technology development in the laboratory and technology policy. Trancik and her group work on a variety of energy conversion and storage technologies for electricity and transportation.

Prof. Trancik received her B.S. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She is currently an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, and was formerly at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, and at WSP International/UNOPS (now Interpeace) in Geneva.