Michaël Aklin's nomination as an Associate Professor at CDM

Michaël Aklin's main fields of investigation are public policy, energy policy, environmental policy and technology policy. His research, focused on long-term policy issues with a particular emphasis on the energy and environmental crises, has been published in numerous prestigious journals in the field, earning him international recognition.

By collaborating with researchers in engineering, economics, and computational social sciences, he applies an interdisciplinary perspective, which will allow him to fit perfectly into the multidisciplinary environment of EPFL.

Prof. Aklin will play a central role in the teaching programs of the CDM and will also assume a leadership role in the Enterprise for Society (E4S) center, while continuing his high-quality research in the areas of technology and policy.

In addition to his academic involvement, Michaël Aklin regularly works with international NGOs, national regulators, and the private sector, demonstrating the policy relevance and impact of his research.

Bio

Michaël Aklin, a Swiss citizen, graduated from the Graduate Instituteof International Studies (Geneva) in 2007 with a degree in International Relations and went on to study at the University of Essex (UK), where he obtained a Master's degree in Political Economy with distinction in 2008. He received his PhD from New York University in 2014 before joining the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor of political science, where he became a tenured associate professor 5 years later.

Research

His primary areas of research are public, energy, environmental, and technology policy. Since the beginning of his career, his policy-relevant and rigorous empirical studies have focused on sustainability in the specific area of clean energy.

The unifying theme of Aklin's research is the study of long-term crises facing modern societies. Much of his work focuses on the following questions: Why do states behave in ways that increase long-term societal risks such as climate change? What are the barriers to clean technologies? How should policy be designed to facilitate the deployment of solutions to these problems?

His research examines the extent to which public policy can address environmental issues and promote sustainable economic development, issues he studies in three main areas: (1) the energy transition in Europe and North America; (2) energy poverty and how renewable energy can address it in emerging countries; and (3) climate policy.