Vikas Menghwani

(He, Him, His)

Assistant Professor of Teaching

Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences
Office: FIP 339
Phone: 250.807.8278
Email: vikas.menghwani@ubc.ca


Research Summary

Renewable energy; Energy transitions; Sustainable development; Educational technology; Interdisciplinary education; Sustainability pedagogy

Courses & Teaching

Application, Practice and Management Approaches (in Sustainability) (SUST 200); Environmental Impact Assessment: Techniques and Practice (EESC 315).

Biography

Vikas is a core member of the faculty for the Bachelor of Sustainability (BSUS) program. As an Educational Leadership faculty member, he is interested in advancing interdisciplinary education. He has teaching experience from across a variety of disciplines: geography, forestry, public policy, environmental science. His research background is also interdisciplinary, but focused largely around policy-relevant energy issues in energy poor regions. Prior to joining UBC, he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Community Appropriate Sustainable Energy Security (CASES) initiative at the University of Saskatchewan, wherein he focused on energy security in remote Arctic communities. He also led the development of the Community Energy Gateway for the remote northern  and Indigenous communities, and did qualitative research on community contexts around renewable energy. Vikas completed his PhD from the Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability at University of British Columbia, Vancouver. His doctoral work included addressing challenging energy access problems in the developing countries through modeling based methods, and conceptualizing (energy) justice concerns in the context of (lack of) electricity provision. He completed his Mechanical Engineering (with a Masters degree in Energy Technology) education in 2009 from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He worked in the area of climate change consulting for three years, covering renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across India and South East Asia, followed by two years in the area of business research.

Degrees

Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Saskatchewan
PhD, University of British Columbia
M.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Selected Publications & Presentations

Menghwani, V., Wheat, R., Balicki, B., Poelzer, G., Noble, B., & Mansuy, N. (2023). Bioenergy for community energy security in Canada: Challenges in the business ecosystem. Energies, 16(4), 1560. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16041560

McMaster, R., Noble, B., Poelzer, G., & Menghwani, V. (2023). Local Capacity for Energy Transition in Northern and Indigenous Communities: Analysis of Gwich’in Communities in Northwest Territories, Canada. ARCTIC. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic77183

Menghwani, V., Walker, C., Kalke, T., Noble, B., & Poelzer, G. (2022). Harvesting local energy: A case study of community-led bioenergy development in galena, Alaska. Energies, 15(13), 4655. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en15134655

Menghwani, V., Zerriffi, H., Dwivedi, P., Marshall, J. D., Grieshop, A., & Bailis, R. (2019). Determinants of Cookstoves and Fuel Choice Among Rural Households in India. EcoHealth, 1–40. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-018-1389-3

Menghwani, V., Zerriffi, H., Korkovelos, A., Khavari, B., Sahlberg, A., Howells, M., & Mentis, D. (2020). Planning with justice: Using spatial modelling to incorporate justice in electricity pricing–The case of Tanzania. Applied Energy264, 114749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114749

 

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