Mel George

Mel George is an electrical engineer by training whose diverse research interests are at the intersection of technology and energy-climate policies, and their implications for sustainable development and broader human well-being. Applying integrated assessment models in combination with other tools, his work investigates the horizontal, vertical, spatial and temporal distributional effects of energy-climate policies. He is especially interested in questions of energy equity and justice in rapid transitions and incorporating political and social science dimensions into modeling. He also works on international compliance and voluntary carbon markets and energy policy in India.

George has worked and collaborated with many multinational teams, including at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria under the prestigious Young Scientist’s Program, CIRED (Paris), CMCC-EIEE (Italy) under the EU Horizon Project
NAVIGATE and is the recipient of multiple awards and fellowships, including from the US National Science Foundation. He has served on panels for the NSF Small Business Innovation proposals, APPAM Equity and Diversity Fellowships, and the University’s Senate Executive Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He has won multiple Outstanding Reviewer recognitions for journals in the energy and social sciences.

Before completing his Ph.D. in Policy Studies at the University of Maryland, George spent almost a decade with different public sector organizations under the government of India and gained wide-ranging experience in multiple domains from research and development, engineering and construction, administration to strategy and energy policy in the oil and gas sector. He graduated the equivalent of summa cum laude with a Master of Technology in Energy Science
and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India.

George has a keen interest in mentoring and serves on the judging panels for the Montgomery County Science Fair and the Regeneron International Science Fair.