Deepak Rajagopal

Deepak Rajagopal is a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), holding dual appointments in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Urban Planning within the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He specializes in energy, environmental policy, and urban sustainability.

Education: Ph.D. in Energy and Resources (UC Berkeley), M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics (UC Berkeley), M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (University of Maryland), B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering (IIT Madras). His postdoctoral research was conducted at the Energy Biosciences Institute, UC Berkeley. Prior to UCLA, he served as a visiting assistant professor at Indiana University and worked as a Structural Integrity Engineer at United Technologies Research Center.

Research focuses on lifecycle assessment, energy-agriculture-climate policy interlinkages, and sustainable transportation systems. Key themes include bioenergy sustainability, food-energy-water nexus, and electrification of freight/urban mobility. He teaches courses on lifecycle assessment, energy-environment-development linkages, and sustainability tools.

Recent publications emphasize electric vehicle adoption in India, bioresource utilization from wastewater, and policy frameworks for decarbonization. His work bridges technical analysis with economic and social dimensions of sustainability challenges.

Grants and collaborations involve interdisciplinary projects on energy transition impacts, sustainable biofuels, and urban environmental policy. He is actively engaged with policymakers to translate research insights into actionable strategies for climate resilience and equitable development.