Featured Faculty
Eric Hittinger
College of Liberal Arts
Eric Hittinger’s research uses techno-economic analysis to understand the future of energy systems in a rapidly changing world. As climate change becomes a larger focus for governments around the world and new clean energy technologies enter the market, the design of energy and environmental policy is increasingly important.
Dr. Hittinger brings together analytical methods from economics, engineering, and policy analysis to study the capabilities and limitations of new energy technologies, such as wind/solar power, energy storage, and electric vehicles. Some of his primary research areas include: finding the optimal level of government subsidy for clean energy technologies, understanding the emissions effects of grid-connected energy storage, and analysing how heterogeneity in consumer preferences interacts with policy designs. This body of work includes over 40 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Science, Energy Policy, and Applied Energy.
Dr. Hittinger has been the Principal Investigator or co-Principal Investigator on $2.5M of research grants from the US National Science Foundation and has been the primary research advisor for 6 PhD students and 14 MS students at RIT. In 2019, he was invited to the Laboratoire d’Electrotechnique et d’Electronique de Puissance at the University of Lille (France) to lead the TESS project, studying electric vehicle economics. In 2023, he was awarded an International Research Chair by the University of Lille that will support a joint research program on the techno-economic potential for second-life electric vehicle batteries.
Dr. Hittinger holds a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MS in Macromolecular Science and BS in Polymer Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He is the President-Elect of the US Association for Energy Economics and will lead the organization in 2024. At RIT, Dr. Hittinger is Graduate Program Coordinator and Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy as well as Affiliated Faculty at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability.
Eric Hittinger
Associate Professor
Department of Public Policy
College of Liberal Arts