Prof. Joyashree Roy
Founder Director
Joyashree Roy is the Founder Director of the Centre on South and South East Asia Multidisciplinary Applied Research Network on Transforming Societies of Global South and the Inaugural Bangabandhu Chair Professor (2018-2022, July) at SERD, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. She is also currently the Honorary Professor at Centre for Disaster Management and Research (CDMR) at IIT, Guwahati, India. She is the Founding advisor of the two multi-year projects at Jadavpur University: Global Change Programme and SYLFF-JU programme. She is the former Professor of Economics in Jadavpur University, India. She is a national fellow of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR). She was a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at LBNL, Berkeley, USA. She is the recipient of the 2021 Paradigm award of The Breakthrough Institute, USA. She was in IPCC-2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning panel and continues as Coordinating Lead Author in Fifth and Sixth assessment cycles of WGIII of IPCC. In Sixth Assessment Cycle IPCC is also the co sharer of Gulbenkian Prize 2022. She has been a chapter author of Global Energy Assessment, has been associated with the Stern Review Report and many other global and National, Subnational Reports. She is in the winning team of 2012 Prince Sultan Bin Aziz creativity award for water. She has published more than 165 peer reviewed journal articles, authored and edited books. She is in the Steering/advisory committee of several national and International science-policy interactive platforms and in editorial boards of many international journals. Her research interests are: Resource and Environmental Economics, Economics of Pollution and Climate Change, Modeling industrial and other sectoral energy demand, Economy-wide modeling exercises for deriving policy implications, Water quality demand modeling, Water, Energy, Carbon pricing, Sustainable development, Natural resource accounting, Valuing environmental services, Developmental and environmental issues relevant for informal sectors, Coastal Ecosystem service evaluation. She features in the documentary Juice: How Electricity Explains the World which explains among other things how developing countries are trying to bring people out of the dark and to the lights and transforming lives.
Post-doctoral researchers
Dr. Shreya Some is an economist by training. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University in 2021. She is interested in interdisciplinary research focusing on mitigating climate change. She is passionate about demand side climate mitigation, emission reduction from the food system, just transition of the food system. Her research interests include a wide range of topics: emission mitigation, energy modeling, sustainability transition, gender equality and sustainable development. Her focus sectors are: agriculture, transport, energy, and cities. She uses diverse tools and frameworks for research analysis including quantitative economic tools and econometric models. Prior to joining AIT, she worked as a Scientist in the Technical Support Unit of IPCC WGIII (Sixth Assessment Cycle-AR6).
Dr. Satabdi Datta has academic training in Economics with specialization in Environmental and Resource Economics and Econometrics and Development Studies. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University in 2019. Earlier she did M.Phil in Development Studies. She has been involved in multidisciplinary research with on-ground experience and has work experience in the science-policy interface. The sectoral focus of her research engagements have been agriculture and allied, fisheries and tourism. Her areas of research interests include green economic transition, circular economy, climate change adaptation and resilience, natural resource management and evaluation of coastal ecosystem services. She is experienced in application of econometric models and tools along with qualitative methods.
Dr. Firuz Ahamed Nahid
Dr. Firuz Ahamed Nahid is an electrical engineer obtained his Ph.D. in Sustainable Energy Transition from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. During his doctoral studies, he delved into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) applications within energy management, particularly focusing on low carbon microgrids. He has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from IUBAT University in Bangladesh followed by a Master's in Electric Power System Management, again from the Asian Institute of Technology, in 2019. He served as a Lecturer at IUBAT University in Bangladesh for a period of 3 years and. He gained invaluable insights from engagements with both national and multinational entities within the power sector. Dr. Nahid's research expertise encompasses AI application in power systems, energy management, energy modeling, and the seamless integration of renewable energy sources. His overarching goal is to contribute significantly to the advancement of zero-carbon energy solutions that will ultimately benefit society, the environment, and future generations.
Muhammad Huzaifa Butt is a sustainable energy transition and project management specialist. He holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering (2015) from Mirpur University of Science and Technology, Mirpur (Pakistan), MSc Project Management (2019) from Bahria University, Lahore (Pakistan) and MSc in Sustainable Energy Transition (2022) from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. From 2015 to 2020, Mr. Huzaifa Butt worked as project engineer on energy infrastructure projects particularly hydropower projects in Pakistan. His research interests include energy demand modeling, social acceptance of technological transition, technology innovation system analysis, acceleration and acceptance of demand side green technologies, mobility demand and net-zero pathways in the context of developing countries.
Research associates
Sirayuth Thongprasert is a gender specialist. He has a Bachelor degree in International Relations and Development in 2017 from Rangsit University. He received his Master’s Degree on Gender Studies and Development from Asian Institute of Technology in 2019. His most recent work concerns: genders in agriculture, genders in fisheries and aquaculture, genders in AI technology, and the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy. He also has skills in basic graphic designs including web design and development.
Guest researcher
2023-
Nandini works in the area of energy transition, with particular focus in power sector in the developing part of Asia. She has conducted modelling and policy analysis on the issues related to high-penetration renewable electricity scenarios particularly and its alignment with the growth objectives of the developing countries, grid stability and energy security. She has also worked in the broad area of issues related to energy transition encompassing, demand-side mitigation by sectoral intervention, behaviour and lifestyle choice as mitigation measure, multi-level climate governance. Nandini is currently working as an Climate and Energy Economist with Climate Analytics at Perth, Australia and holds her PhD from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
Student assistants
August, 2022 - February 2023
Jeeten Kumar is a Master’s student at AIT’s Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, and Management (DPMM) program. Prior to his enrollment, Jeeten worked as a consultant and researcher in the non-profit and social enterprise sectors which focused on issues related to disaster and climate resilience, education in emergencies (EiE), and renewable energy between 2018-2022. Jeeten earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from UNPAR, Indonesia in 2018.
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Angga Hendi Prabowo
June 16, 2023 -
Angga Hendi Prabowo is currently a master’s student in Gender and Development Studies at the Asian Institute of Technology. Prior to his enrollment, Angga had more than six years of professional experience as a brand and communication consultant and consumer researcher in an advertising agency. Furthermore, Angga actively participated in Non-Government Organizations that focus on women, feminists, and care work. He was appointedto be Indonesia's representative for the regional discussion entitled ‘The Future of Care Work; Youth In Developing Countries’ organized by International Labor Organization (ILO). As part of his academic trajectory, Angga earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Science majoring in Public Relations from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia in 2016.
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angga-prabowo-27031993/
SMARTS supported student
Avrojyoti Barua
2023-2024
Avrojyoti Barua is currently pursuing a Master's degree with partial scholarship from SMARTS in Sustainable Energy Transition under the Department of Energy, Environment & Climate Change from Asian Institute of Technology. He has a bachelors in Electrical Engineering and holds a MBA degree in Operation & Production. Furthermore being an energy professional has 10 years of industrial exposure in the power distribution domain. He was certified by Chief Engineer, to complete the project entitled “Application of GIC & GPS transformer-wise consumer mapping for better management and improving consumer satisfaction of rural consumers'' under Revenue & Energy Management Cell, Vidyut Bhawan, West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited in 2017.