Dr. Costa Samaras is the Director of Carnegie Mellon’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, and the Trustee Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. He analyzes how technologies and policies affect energy and emissions pathways, security, climate resilience, and economic and equity outcomes.

From 2021-2024, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as Principal Assistant Director for Energy, OSTP Chief Advisor for Energy Policy, and then OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition. He helped launch an effort to accelerate clean energy innovation to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050, as well as President Biden’s Bold Decadal Vision for Fusion Energy. Dr. Samaras was part of the White House Delegation at COP28, and co-led the climate and clean energy efforts of the President’s Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence. In addition, he led the development of a new clean energy transition assessment capability, the White House ARPA-I Summit, the White House report on the climate and energy implications of digital assets, and the assessment of new clean power investments enabled by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

Dr. Samaras is the Lead Author of the Emissions Mitigation Chapter of the 6th U.S. National Climate Assessment, and he is also a Founder of both the Center for Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation and the Power Sector Carbon Index. He was previously a Senior Researcher at the RAND Corporation as well as a megaprojects engineer in New York City. He received a joint Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon, and a MPA from New York University.