Constantine (Costa) Samaras is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and affiliated faculty in the Energy Science, Technology and Policy Program at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on the pathways to clean, climate-safe, equitable, and secure energy and infrastructure systems.

Samaras analyzes how technologies and policies affect energy use and national security, resilience to climate change impacts, economic and equity outcomes, and life cycle environmental emissions and other externalities. He directs the Center for Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation and is the Director of the Power Sector Carbon Index. He is a fellow in Carnegie Mellon’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation and by courtesy, a faculty member in both the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and CMU’s H. John Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy.

Samaras served on three National Academies Committee evaluating emerging energy technologies and earth systems research, served as the chair of the ASCE Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate, and served on the Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies Committee and currently serves on the Energy Committee of the Transportation Research Board.

Samaras has published numerous studies examining electric and automated vehicles, renewable electricity, clean energy transitions and decarbonization policy, and climate resilience. He was a contributor to the 4th National Climate Assessment, and was one of the lead author contributors to the Global Energy Assessment. He has also led analyses on energy security, strategic basing, and infrastructure issues faced by the Department of Defense. He teaches courses on energy utilization and demand, climate change resilience, and infrastructure and environment interconnections in a changing world. In 2018, he was named Professor of the Year by the Pittsburgh Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Samaras regularly provides commentary to online, print, radio, and television media, and his comments have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Atlantic, PBS, ABC News, WIRED, and other outlets. He has presented his research to senior appointed governmental leaders, former cabinet secretaries, senior federal and military decisionmakers, Congress Members and professional staff, and the leadership of major utilities, automotive companies, and technology firms.

From 2009 to 2014 he was a RAND Corporation researcher, most recently as a Senior Engineer and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, and was an adjunct senior researcher through 2021. From 2008 to 2009 he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Climate Decisionmaking Center at Carnegie Mellon, working on electric transportation and low-carbon technology policy. From 1999 to 2004 he was an engineer working on several multibillion-dollar infrastructure megaprojects in New York, including the extension of the Number 7 subway line in Manhattan, and also worked on the rebuilding of the subway line underneath the World Trade Center after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Costa received a joint Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon, an MPA in public policy from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, and a B.S. in civil engineering from Bucknell University.

Tkacik (pronounced Ta-chick) has been at CMU since 2009, having earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in CMU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Tkacik's research focused on air pollution from combustion systems and helped advance the understanding of secondary organic aerosols -- microscopic airborne particles that form from the oxidation of organic (i.e. carbon-containing) vapors. From 2013-2014, he served as a postdoctoral researcher, traveling around the United States measuring methane emissions from natural gas facilities to gain a better understanding of greenhouse gas emissions from the natural gas sector.

From 2014 to 2022, Tkacik joined CMU's College of Engineering as a communications manager, leading the development of communications strategies and materials to elevate the stature and reputation of the College.

Prior to coming to CMU, Tkacik earned a B.S. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology, conducting research on the properties of cloud condensation nuclei and the effects of cloud properties on global climate.

Reed McManigle focuses on energy innovation and entrepreneurship. McManigle assists energy researchers at CMU in protection of their intellectual property and development of strategies to move their work to commercial use. He helps researchers develop and implement strategies for forming startup companies, including conducting customer discovery; soliciting pre-seed funding; and developing relationships with entrepreneur partners. McManigle manages CTTEC's 'gap funding' program and is a mentor in CMU's NSF I-Corps Site program, and for CMU teams in national I-Corps programs.

As Director of Research Partnerships - Energy, Jackie Kulfan engages with government, national lab, and industry partners to foster research collaborations with CMU faculty within the Scott Institute’s mission areas. Jackie joined the Scott Institute family in 2023 after 26 years at PPG. At PPG, she spent the first half of her career in industrial coatings research and product development. She then served 12 years in PPG’s Corporate S&T team in proposal and contracts management, capture management, and forming research partnerships. Her focus areas were vehicle lightweighting, mixed material joining, solar control coatings, photovoltaics, building envelope, corrosion prevention, manufacturing processes, and HPC initiatives. She also served three years as PPG’s liaison to the University Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP). Most recently, Jackie was the product manager of PPG’s US and Canadian adhesives and sealants business where she developed product roadmaps and value propositions, managed product launches, gave customer pitches, and worked across functions on day-to-day problem solving. Jackie has a B.S. in Chemistry from Saint Vincent College.