Anu Narayanan

Associate Director, Forces and Logistics Program, RAND Arroyo Center; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School; Senior Engineer

Pittsburgh Office

Education

Ph.D. in engineering and public policy, Carnegie Mellon University; B.S. in applied mathematics, University of Texas at Austin

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

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Overview

Anu Narayanan is associate director of the Forces and Logistics Program within RAND Arroyo Center, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, and professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research focuses on the intersection of critical infrastructure and national security. She has led or conducted studies for the Department of the Air Force, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy on a range of topics including installation resilience to natural hazards and climate change, cybersecurity of the electric power grid, mission assurance, strategic basing, data analytics for critical infrastructure risk management, and disaster response and recovery. Narayanan holds a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University

Research Focus

Recent Projects

Deterring Attacks Against the Power Grid
Valuing Air Force Energy Resilience
Characterizing National Vulnerabilities from Infrastructure Disruptions by Natural Disasters
RAND Support for the Quadrennial Energy Review
Building Resilience to Natural Hazards

Selected Publications

Narayanan, Anu, Michael J. Lostumbo, Kristin Van Abel, Michael T. Wilson, Anna Jean Wirth, and Rahim Ali, Grounded: An Enterprise-Wide Look at Department of the Air Force Installation Exposure to Natural Hazards: Implications for Infrastructure Investment Decisionmaking and Continuity of Operations Planning, RAND Corporation (RR-A523-1), 2021

Narayanan, Anu, Jonathan W. Welburn, Benjamin M. Miller, Sheng Tao Li, and Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, Deterring Attacks Against the Power Grid: Two Approaches for the U.S. Department of Defense, RAND Corporation (RR-3187-RC), 2020

, "From Awareness to Action: Accounting for Infrastructure Interdependencies in Disaster Response and Recovery Planning," GeoHealth, 4(8), 2020

Narayanan, Anu, Debra Knopman, Kristin Van Abel, Benjamin M. Miller, Nicholas E. Burger, Martha Blakely, Alexander D. Rothenberg, Luke Muggy, and Patrick Mills, Valuing Air Force Electric Power Resilience: A Framework for Mission-Level Investment Prioritization, RAND Corporation (RR-2771-AF), 2019

Narayanan, Anu, Debra Knopman, James D. Powers, Bryan Boling, Benjamin M. Miller, Patrick Mills, Kristin Van Abel, Katherine Anania, Blake Cignarella, and Connor P. Jackson, Air Force Installation Energy Assurance: An Assessment Framework, RAND Corporation (RR-2066-AF), 2017

Narayanan, Anu, Henry H. Willis, Jordan R. Fischbach, Drake Warren, Edmundo Molina-Perez, Chuck Stelzner, Kathleen Loa, Lauren Kendrick, Paul Sorensen, and Tom LaTourrette, Characterizing National Exposures to Infrastructure from Natural Disasters: Data and Methods Documentation, RAND Corporation (RR-1453/1-DHS), 2016

Narayanan, Anu, Sean Bednarz, John A. Ausink, Joshua Baron, Anthony DeCicco, Robert A. Guffey, George E. Hart, John Matsumura, Michael Nixon, Chuck Stelzner, William W. Taylor, and Joseph Vesely, A Modeling Framework for Optimizing F-35A Strategic Basing Decisions to Meet Training Requirements, RAND Corporation (RR-1546-AF), 2016

Anu Narayanan and M. Granger Morgan, "Sustaining Critical Social Services During Extended Regional Power Blackouts," Risk Analysis, 32, 2012

Languages

English; Tamil; Telugu

Commentary

Energy Security

Is DarkSide Really Sorry? Is It Even DarkSide?
The U.S. military relies heavily on commercial energy assets, making the implications of events like the Colonial Pipeline outage more serious than just higher prices at the gas pump. The origins and severity of an attack dictate what the United States might do in response.
May 19, 2021
Defense One
Energy Security

Thinking Outside the Grid: Q&A with Anu Narayanan
Anu Narayanan, an engineer at RAND, is a specialist in what-ifs. Her research focuses on critical infrastructure and national security. In this interview, she discusses her latest work that explores what would happen if a cyberattacker tried to take down the power grid.
Mar 5, 2020

Publications

Research Brief
The Growing Exposure of Air Force Installations to Natural Disasters
Some Department of the Air Force installations face high levels of exposure to flooding, wildfires, or high winds. Twenty installations have areas with high or very high wildfire potential.
Sep 16, 2021
Report
Grounded: An Enterprise-Wide Look at Department of the Air Force Installation Exposure to Natural Hazards: Implications for Infrastructure Investment Decisionmaking and Continuity of Operations Planning
The authors of this report consider the exposure of Department of the Air Force (DAF) installations to flooding, high winds, and wildfires—hazards that have affected DAF installations in the recent past.
Aug 9, 2021
Report
Fighter Basing Options to Improve Access to Advanced Training Ranges
The authors explore U.S. Air Force squadron restationing and range upgrade options that can maximize access to advanced live training ranges while evaluating cost and risk measures associated with these options.
Feb 5, 2021
Report
Developing Recovery Options for Puerto Rico's Economic and Disaster Recovery Plan: Process and Methodology
This report summarizes the strategic planning process in support of the government of Puerto Rico in its development of a congressionally mandated recovery plan.
Sep 30, 2020
Journal Article
From Awareness to Action: Accounting for Infrastructure Interdependencies in Disaster Response and Recovery Planning
We suggest that awareness of the vulnerabilities in interdependent infrastructure systems needs to be coupled with coordinated action and collaboration among government agencies, communities, and industries.
Aug 12, 2020
Report
Building Agile Combat Support Competencies to Enable Evolving Adaptive Basing Concepts
RAND researchers review the motivations for adaptive basing, describe a footprint model used for estimating its implications for Agile Combat Support (ACS), and discuss recommendations for the ACS community and the U.S. Air Force at large.
Apr 16, 2020
Report
Deterring Attacks Against the Power Grid: Two Approaches for the U.S. Department of Defense
The Defense Department increasingly relies on electric power to accomplish critical missions. This report explores two approaches for deterring attacks against the U.S. power grid: deterrence by denial and deterrence by cost imposition.
Jan 6, 2020
Report
Valuing Air Force Electric Power Resilience: A Framework for Mission-Level Investment Prioritization
This report addresses the U.S. Air Force's need for a systematic way to value the risk to missions associated with electric power--related disruptions and accordingly set priorities among investments in power resilience.
Jun 3, 2019
Report
Air Force Installation Energy Assurance: An Assessment Framework
This report presents a framework that mission owners and civil engineers at Air Force installations can use to assess their level of energy assurance.
Nov 6, 2017
Report
Articulating the Effects of Infrastructure Resourcing on Air Force Missions: Competing Approaches to Inform the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System
Describes and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of several analytic approaches for linking infrastructure resources to readiness and for articulating the effect of infrastructure underfunding in the Air Force Program Objective Memorandum process.
Apr 17, 2017
Report
A Modeling Framework for Optimizing F-35A Strategic Basing Decisions to Meet Training Requirements
This report presents a modeling framework designed to identify basing locations for the F-35A fleet and training range locations that minimize flying costs associated with composite force training exercises for combat mission-ready pilots.
Dec 14, 2016
Report
Scenario Development for the 2015 Quadrennial Energy Review: Assessing Stresses, Opportunities, and Resilience in the Transmission, Storage, and Distribution Systems for Oil and Refined-Oil Products, Electricity, and Natural Gas
RAND researchers developed a framework and metrics for examining vulnerabilities, opportunities, and risks to U.S. energy transmission, storage, and distribution systems through 2030 under a range of uncertainties.
Sep 27, 2016
Report
Characterizing National Exposures to Infrastructure from Natural Disasters: Data and Methods Documentation
This report serves as the technical documentation and reference document for the data, methods, and analytic approach used in the analysis of national exposures to infrastructure from natural disasters.
Jul 12, 2016
Report
Current and Future Exposure of Infrastructure in the United States to Natural Hazards
This report describes insights about exposures from natural hazards now and in the future, as well as gaps in data that, if filled, could improve the nation's ability to assess infrastructure risk and improve infrastructure resilience.
Jul 12, 2016
Report
Policy Options for Better Service Outcomes from the Future Electric Grid: A Stakeholder Symposium
This symposium's goal was to identify important policy questions related to the present and future electric power grid system. This convening aimed to identify problem areas that could benefit from stakeholder-driven objective research.
Apr 18, 2016
Report
Improvements to Air Force Strategic Basing Decisions
Examines the Air Force's basing decisionmaking process and assesses the quality of the underlying data.
Apr 15, 2016
Report
The Adoption of New Smart-Grid Technologies: Incentives, Outcomes, and Opportunities
RAND Corporation researchers examine empirical evidence related to smart-grid development, discuss some entrepreneurial opportunities associated with smart-grid data, and offer policy suggestions for overcoming barriers.
Jan 15, 2015
Journal Article
Sustaining Critical Social Services During Extended Regional Power Blackouts
This article outlines and estimates the incremental cost of a strategy that uses small distributed generation, distribution automation, and smart meters to keep a set of critical social services operational during a prolonged power outage that lasts for days or weeks and extends over hundreds of kilometers.
Jul 1, 2012