Rema Hanna is the Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies and Chair of the International Development Area at the Harvard Kennedy School.  She serves as the Faculty Director of Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at Harvard University’s Center for International Development and is the co-Scientific Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South East Asia Office in Indonesia.  In addition, Professor Hanna is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD).

Her research revolves around improving the provision of public services in developing and emerging nations, particularly for the very poor.  She combines economic theory, qualitative field work, extensive data collection, and cutting-edge empirical analysis to offer insights into how governments function and how they can do better.  Part of her work focuses on how to improve overall service delivery, as well as understanding the impacts of corruption, bureaucratic absenteeism, and discrimination against disadvantaged minority groups on delivery outcomes.  She is particularly interested in how governments can improve and strengthen social protection, tax collection, and environmental safety. 

Her work has been published in leading economics journals, such as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Political Economy, among others. 

In addition to her own research, Professor Hanna currently serves as co-Chair of the editorial board for the Review of Economics and Statistics and previously served as a co-Editor at the Journal of Human Resources.  She is also on the editorial board of VoxDev, a web platform that aims to provide analysis and evidence on a wide range of policy challenges, in a format that is accessible to a wide audience interested in development.

Prior to joining the Harvard Kennedy School, Hanna was an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a B.S. from Cornell University with Honors and Distinction.

Dr. Robert C. Stowe is Co-Director of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (Harvard Project) and Executive Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program (HEEP), both Harvard-University-wide initiatives based in Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). He has taught courses on climate-change policy at HKS and, with the Harvard Project team, designs the curriculum for an HKS executive-education program on climate-change and energy policy. Dr. Stowe has participated, through the Harvard Project, in the annual Conferences of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change since 2007. He was a Contributing Author to – and managing editor of – a chapter on international cooperation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report. He has participated regularly in biannual meetings of the Climate Change Expert Group, hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in Paris. With the HEEP and Harvard Project team, Dr. Stowe has designed agendas for and co-organized seventeen research workshops and policy roundtables since 2011. Topics include China’s national carbon-pricing system, the elaboration and implementation of the Paris Agreement, sub-national climate-change policy in North America, and the governance of solar geoengineering. Workshops and roundtables have been held at HKS and in Beijing, Shanghai, Toronto, Mexico City, Berlin, and New York. Dr. Stowe has co-edited, with Robert Stavins (HKS), five volumes of expert briefs (short papers) based on these research workshops. Dr. Stowe holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an A.B. in physics from Harvard College.

Ignacio J. Pérez-Arriaga received his MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, and the electrical engineering degree from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (UPC) in Madrid, Spain.

He is a professor of electrical engineering at UPC, and founded its Institute for Research in Technology. He has also been vice rector for research at UPC, and currently holds the BP Chair on sustainable development.

Prof. Pérez-Arriaga served for five years as commissioner at the Spanish Electricity Regulatory Commission, and was the independent member of the Single Electricity Market Committee of Ireland. He was also a member of the Board of Appeal of the Agency for the Coordination of Energy Regulators (ACER) in the EU. He serves as Director of Energy Training at the Florence School of Regulation, European University Institute, Florence, Italy.

He has worked in power system dynamic analysis; regulation and restructuring of the power industry; and sustainability of national and global energy models and electricity access in developing countries.

He has been a consultant for governmental agencies or electric utilities in more than 30 countries. Prof. Pérez-Arriaga is a member of the Spanish National Academy of Engineering and a Life Fellow of the IEEE.

He is a permanent visiting professor at MIT (2008-present) in the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR).

Dr. Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics as well as the Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He previously served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he co-led the development of the United States Government’s social cost of carbon. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a Carnegie Fellow (i.e., “Brainy Award”), and a former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Formerly, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT and directed The Hamilton Project.

Greenstone’s research, which has influenced policy globally, is focused on uncovering the benefits and costs of environmental quality and society’s energy choices. His current work involves testing innovative ways to increase energy access and improve the efficiency of environmental regulations globally. As a co-director of the Climate Impact Lab, he is producing empirically grounded estimates of the local and global impacts of climate change. He also created the Air Quality Life Index™ that converts air pollution concentrations into their impact on life expectancy and cofounded Carbon Vault, a 501(c)(3) that uses markets to allow institutions and people to reduce their carbon footprint. Greenstone received a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and a B.A. in Economics with High Honors from Swarthmore College.

Nishant is an Indian Civil Servant, currently posted as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Union Minister for Power, New and Renewable Energy, India. He is a President and the Prime Minister of India awardee, an international author for the Oxford University Press, and a highly decorated and accomplished Public Servant. Deeply committed to achieving SDGs and reducing the impact of climate change, he is contributing to path-breaking initiatives and policies as the Coordinator, International Solar Alliance (ISA). He has been instrumental in implementing the Aadhaar—the world’s largest biometric database at the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI). He earlier worked in India and USA as a software engineer. 

Dr. Robert Stoner is the deputy director for science and technology at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), founding director of the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, and faculty co-director of the MITEI Low-Carbon Energy Center for Electric Power Systems. He is currently a member of the MIT Energy Council, the Science and Technology Committee of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the Technical Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Science, Technology, and Energy Policy. He is also a member of the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Global Commission to End Energy Poverty, and serves as its secretary.

Stoner is the inventor of numerous computational and ultrafast optical measurement techniques, and has built and managed successful technology firms in the semiconductor, IT, and optics industries. From 2007 through 2009, he lived and worked in Africa and India while serving in a variety of senior roles within the Clinton Foundation, including as the CEO of the Clinton Development Initiative, and director of the Clinton Climate Initiative for Africa. His present research at MIT focuses on energy storage technology and policy, and the design and optimization of energy systems and business models in the developing world. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from Queen’s University and PhD from Brown University in condensed matter physics.  

Dr. Gireesh Shrimali is a Precourt Scholar at the Sustainable Finance Initiative at Stanford University. He is also a visiting scholar at the Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as well as at the Center for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College. Previously, he was the Director of Climate Policy Initiative’s India Program, and a Research Fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University. He has taught at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterrey as well as the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. 

His current research focus is on renewable energy finance and policy; in general, on the catalytic role of finance in getting to the 2C climate target; and, in particular, on pathways for provision of low-cost, long-term capital for clean energy transition. His work has also included topics such as analysis of India’s renewable policies; the impact of federal and state policy on the development and deployment of renewable energy in the U.S.; and business models for off-grid energy in developing countries. 

He holds a PhD from Stanford University, an MS from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. Prior to his academic/research career, he has over nine years of industry experience designing high-speed networking and computing systems.

Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal is the Global Executive Director of J-PAL. Based at the economics department of MIT in Cambridge, USA, he works with the Board of Directors to develop the organization’s strategic vision, and with the leadership of the seven regional offices to coordinate J-PAL’s worldwide research, policy outreach, capacity building, and operations. Before joining J-PAL in 2009, Iqbal was a director in the economic analysis practice of a consulting firm in Chicago and Boston where he managed numerous engagements involving antitrust issues, regulation, and strategy. He began his career in public service as a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), in which he served as a Deputy Secretary in a state government, director of a statewide welfare department, CEO of a publicly owned company and Sub Collector of one of the largest divisions of Tamil Nadu.

Iqbal stood first in the nationwide Civil Services examination and has received many awards including the Director's Gold Medal at LBS National Academy of Administration, Guru Nanak Devji Achievers Award from Government of Punjab for his "contributions to the field of economics and poverty alleviation”, Dean's Fellowship at Princeton University and gold medal for standing first in college in undergraduate program. He has a BA in economics from the University of Delhi, an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and an MPA in international development from Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

Dr. Johannes Urpelainen is the Director and Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Founding Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP). He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2009 and spent the next eight years at Columbia University.

Johannes is the award-winning author of four books and over a hundred refereed articles on environmental politics, energy policy, and global governance. He teaches action-oriented classes on energy and environmental policy to equip the next generation of global leaders with deep knowledge, advanced analytical skills — and a passion for transformational social change. As one of the world’s top energy policy experts, Johannes frequently advises governments, international organizations, and the private sector on energy and environment.

As the Founding Director of ISEP, Johannes is responsible for the vision, strategy, and general management of the initiative. His work under ISEP offers pragmatic but effective approaches to providing the world’s population with affordable and abundant energy at minimal environmental impact. In his spare time, Johannes reads biographies and tries to improve his Hindi.

Amlendu K Dubey is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Before joining IIT Delhi in 2014, He was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore.

He received his PhD in Economics from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in 2011. His teaching and research interests are in Macroeconomics and Environment & Development Economics. He is in the process of establishing a Centre of Excellence in Macroeconomic Research and Policy at IIT Delhi and is an Associate Member of DST Centre of Excellence in Climate Modelling. He has been a consultant to several national and international organisations and has published extensively in the field of Macroeconomics, Environmental Economics, Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

Dr. Dubey is a recipient of “Teaching Excellence Award” of IIT Delhi and the “Prof. MJM Rao Young Economist Award” of the Indian Econometric Society.

Richard Rossow is a senior adviser and holds the Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies at CSIS. In this role he helps frame and shape policies to promote greater business and economic engagement between the two countries. He joined CSIS in 2014, having spent the last 16 years working in a variety of capacities to strengthen the partnership between the United States and India. Prior to CSIS, he served as director for South Asia at McLarty Associates, leading the firm’s work for clients in India and the neighboring region. From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Rossow was with New York Life Insurance company, most recently as head of International Governmental Affairs, where he developed strategic plans for the company’s public policy and global mergers and acquisitions work. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Rossow served as deputy director of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), the world’s leading advocacy group on behalf of strengthening economic ties between the United States and India. While at USIBC, he managed the Council’s policy groups in the energy, information technology, insurance, media and entertainment, and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Rossow received his B.A. from Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

Dr. Anant Sudarshan is South Asia Director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). He is also a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Economics, University of Chicago. Prior to working at EPIC, Anant was the Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He received his PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and he holds undergraduate and masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) and Stanford University respectively. Anant works at the intersection of environmental economics and engineering, with on-going research on a variety of areas including environmental regulation, air-pollution, climate change, energy efficiency, electricity and renewable energy.