Bio
Dr. Omar I. Asensio is an associate professor and director of the Data Science & Policy Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a tenured faculty member in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy. During the 2023-2024 academic year, he was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Business in Global Society at Harvard Business School. Professor Asensio’s current research focuses on climate and electrification strategies at the intersection of technology, AI, and public policy. He uses large-scale data and field experiments to address innovation challenges in energy systems, transportation, and human mobility. His research and teaching have been supported by awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Microsoft, ESRI, Inc., the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Energy and others. He contributed to the zero emission vehicles (ZEV) policy guidance for COP26 and the Glasgow Climate Pact.
Professor Asensio has received multiple awards for his research including the NSF CAREER Award; the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) Emerging Scholar Award; the ONE-NBS Research Impact on Practice Award by the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS) and the Academy of Management (AOM) Organizations & the Natural Environment (ONE) Division.
His research in energy and resource conservation and electric vehicles policy has been published in leading scientific journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Nature Energy, and Nature Sustainability. Professor Asensio’s research also has been cited in government and policy advisory communications by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the UK government, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the IndiaAI initiative. His work has been featured in popular press, including Bloomberg Technology, the New York Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, Scientific American, Motor Trend, Yahoo! News, the Huffington Post, and the Washington Post.
He is a member of the U.S National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) New Voices, 2021 cohort. He holds a doctorate in environmental science and engineering, with specialties in economics from UCLA.
Personal
On weekends, you’ll usually find Prof. Asensio on a pitch somewhere in GA or the southeast as a soccer dad x 2.
