Michael Davidson is an assistant professor joint with the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Dr. Davidson’s teaching and research focus on the engineering implications and institutional conflicts inherent in deploying low-carbon energy at scale to mitigate environmental harms, specializing in applications to China, India, and the United States. His publications on renewable energy, electric power systems, and the political economy of energy markets and low-carbon infrastructure have appeared in various outlets, including Nature Energy and Foreign Affairs. He uses engineering models, econometric techniques, and qualitative data on system operator decision-making situations to explore the causes and consequences of incomplete institutional reforms to China’s power sector.
Dr. Davidson is a faculty member with the 21st Century China Center, the Center for Commerce and Diplomacy, and the Japan Forum on Innovation and Technology at UCSD. He is also a fellow with the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Prior to UCSD, he was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He has a Ph.D. in engineering systems and an S.M. in technology and policy from MIT, and a B.S. in mathematics and physics and a B.A. in Japanese studies from Case Western Reserve University. He was previously the U.S.-China Climate Policy Coordinator for the environmental non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council and was a Fulbright fellow to Tsinghua University.