Fan Tong

Fan Tong is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Global Ecology at Carnegie Institution for Science. Fan's career goal is to address the grand challenge of supporting the world's growing population and economy with clean and affordable energy. His work uses interdisciplinary and systems analysis tools to assess the society-wide impacts of current energy systems and evaluate transition paths to sustainable energy futures with special emphasis on technology options, market behaviors, and policy designs. At Carnegie Institution, he is part of an interdisciplinary team that builds energy models to study the architectures of possible near-zero-emission energy systems to inform on technology research and development (R&D) priorities and deployment strategies. He and his colleagues also work with nonprofit organizations and philanthropic foundations to help them evaluate the climate benefits of energy technology innovations.

Fan was born and grew up in Beijing, China. He received a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University. He studied Electrical Engineering (masters program) and Economics (undergraduate program), and worked as a research assistant in Energy Research Institute affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission of China's central government when he transitioned from an electrical engineer to an energy and environmental scholar.

Fan received an M.S. and a Ph.D., both in Engineering and Public Policy, from Carnegie Mellon University. Fan was awarded several highly selective fellowships during his time at Carnegie Mellon University, including the Steinbrenner Institute Graduate Research Fellowship, the Northrop Grumman Fellowship, and the Ji-Dian Liang Fellowship for his research on the society-wide implications of using unconventional fossil fuel resources for transportation uses.