People of PCHES: Vijay Kumar

Vijay is a PhD student in Industrial Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. His research interest focuses on development of methods for sequential decision making under uncertainty, with an application towards power system planning. His other research interest includes coupling energy and environmental models to understand the implications of climate change and policy decisions on physical and socio-economic systems. Presently, he is working on coupling a power system model of the Western US with an economic model to assess impacts from future unavailability of water due to climate change.

Prior to starting graduate school at Penn State, Vijay was working in the Planning and Production department at an automobile company in India. Vijay holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, India.

Outside of work, Vijay has an interest in outreach activities to promote science awareness among children. He is also an avid badminton and tennis player and a travel enthusiast.