Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making

Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation

Climate change impacts on future residential electricity consumption and energy burden: A case study in Phoenix, Arizona

Environmental Science & Technology

Estimating the potential for optimized curb management to reduce delivery vehicle double parking, traffic congestion and energy consumption

Rebates and grid decarbonization from the Inflation Reduction Act promote equitable adoption of energy efficiency retrofits

Climate change hazard index reveals combined risks to United States drinking water utilities

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Carnegie Mellon University

Constantine (Costa) Samaras is the Director of the Carnegie Mellon University Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, the Trustee Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and an Affiliated Faculty Member in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy. His research focuses on the pathways to clean, climate-safe, equitable, and secure energy and infrastructure systems. Costa analyzes how technologies and policies affect energy use and national security, resilience to climate change impacts, economic and equity outcomes, and life cycle environmental emissions and other externalities. He is a Founder and Director of both the Center for Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation and the Power Sector Carbon Index. He is by courtesy, a faculty member in CMU's H. John Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy. From 2021-2024, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as the Principal Assistant Director for Energy, OSTP Chief Advisor for Energy Policy, and then OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition, where he worked with the OSTP Director, Deputy Director for Industrial Innovation, and senior governmental leaders in coordinating Federal activities on U.S. energy policy, assessing energy technologies for meeting U.S. climate, resilience, equity, and security objectives, and aligning energy innovation systems to achieve U.S. climate commitments.

With more than two decades of experience in energy, transportation, and climate change, he has served on three National Academies Committees evaluating emerging energy technologies and earth systems research, served as the Chair of the ASCE Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate, and served on the Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies Committee the Energy Committee of the Transportation Research Board. He has published numerous studies examining electric and automated vehicles, renewable electricity, life cycle assessment, clean energy transitions and decarbonization policy, AI ethics, and climate resilience, in journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, Nature Climate Change, Environmental Research Letters, Climatic Change, and others. He was also a contributor to the 4th National Climate Assessment, and was one of the Lead Author contributors to the Global Energy Assessment.

Transportation Systems

Autonomous Driving

Climate and Energy Decision Making

Engineering and Public Policy

Environmental Engineering

Carnegie Mellon University Profile 

Personal Website

Google Scholar Citations

AI could keep us dependent on natural gas for decades to come

‘It’s a huge loss’: Trump administration dismisses scientists preparing climate report

CMU Energy Week Expands on Pittsburgh’s Expertise in AI and Energy

Wind and solar surpassed coal, but CO2 is still climbing. Here’s why.

Washington state could be a blueprint for climate action

The 2024 Presidential Election Will Make or Break U.S. Climate Action

Drone deliveries, slow to take flight, come to Silicon Valley

Two Scientific Groups Say They’ll Keep Working on U.S. Climate Assessment

Power Trip: The Story of Energy

artificial-intelligence-makes-energy-demand-more-complex-and-more-achievable

Artificial intelligence, a field known for its expanding uses across society, is also increasingly notorious for the massive amount of energy it needs to function.

Trustee Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  In a 2024 paper, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and machine learning development corporation Hugging Face found that generative AI systems could use as much as 33 times more energy to complete a task than task-specific software would.

“The climate and sustainability challenge can be overwhelming in the amount of new clean technology that we have to deploy and develop, and the ways that the energy system has to evolve,” said Costa Samaras, head of the university-wide Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. “The scale of the challenge alone can be overwhelming to folks.”

However, Carnegie Mellon University’s standing commitment to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and its position as a nationally recognized leader in technologies like artificial intelligence mean that it is uniquely positioned to address growing concerns around energy demand, climate resilience and social good.

 

Artificial Intelligence Makes Energy Demand More Complex — And More Achievable

Dr. Costa Samaras is joining the White House Office Of Science and Technology Policy.

White House Hires CMU Professor

Scott Institute Director Costa Samaras provides an overview of his time in the White House and insights on how the Scott Institute is leading groundbreaking work to enable net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Faculty Insights with Costa Samaras

At an Axios event, Carnegie Mellon University’s Costa Samaras talks with Axios’ Joann Muller about optimism around decarbonization efforts in Pittsburgh.

Costa Samaras and Axios’ Joann Muller

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Costa Samaras talks about the climate adaptation for infrastructure initiative and using high-resolution climate data to inform how engineering designs will perform over their lifetime.

Costa Samaras: Climate Adaptation for Infrastructure

On March 29, Dr. Constantine Samaras, CMU professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, delivered an Andy Talk titled, "The Carnegie Mellon Power Sector Carbon Index: Informing the Energy Transition."

Samaras' presentation was part of Carnegie Mellon's 2017 Energy Week. During the Andy Talks, eight CMU faculty members explained their energy-related research in brief 20-minute presentations.

For information on future events, visit http://www.cmu.edu/energy and sign up for monthly updates on these events and Scott Institute news at www.tinyurl.com/scottnews. Listen to our 90-second radio show, Energy Bite, at http://www.energybite.org or get it on iTunes!

Like us on Facebook @scottinstitute and follow us on Twitter @cmuenergy! Alumni and students, join our LinkedIn Group, Carnegie Mellon Energy Alumni.

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Dr. Costa Samaras: The CMU Power Sector Carbon Index: Informing the Energy Transition

Media Inquiry