Jalal Awan is a doctoral candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy analyst at RAND. Prior to joining RAND, he worked as an electrical projects and maintenance engineer at an industrial power plant and as a technical consultant at an energy consulting firm in Pakistan.
Awan takes a keen interest in international affairs and politics and is a regular freelance writer in various online and journal publications. His research interests revolve around autonomous transport, climate change, infrastructure resilience, future of work and the smart grid. He has experience working on lifecycle analysis of photovoltaic-based off-grid electrical systems and feasibility of 'platooning' autonomous vehicle fleets to tackle traffic congestion in Los Angeles.
Awan is an IEEE-accredited electrical engineer and an ASQ certified Six Sigma Green Belt. As part of the UN Secretary General's Sustainability for All team, he conducted background research and actively participated in the negotiations that led to post-2015 sustainable development agenda adoption. At RAND, he is currently involved in projects like developing performance measures for public health emergency handling, estimating benefits of autonomous vehicles, evaluation of transboundary environmental impacts on India-Pakistan relations and cybersecurity of unmanned aerial vehicles. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Engineering & Technology, Pakistan. As a Fulbright Exchange scholar, he completed his M.S. in green technologies from the University of Southern California in December 2015. Awan also holds the U.S. Green Building Council certification in Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED).
