Prof. Russell McKenna is Full Professor of Energy Systems Analysis at ETH Zurich and Head of the Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis. He is also an Honorary Professor of Energy Transition in the School of Engineering and Centre for Energy Transition at the University of Aberdeen. Previously he was Professor of Energy System Modelling and Head of the Energy Systems Analysis section at DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Prior to this he was Head of Group for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the Chair of Energy Economics, Institute for Industrial Production (IIP), Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Germany.
Prof. McKenna is an aerospace engineer with a background in energy system modelling and energy economics, and author of around 100 scientific publications, of which about 40 in peer-reviewed journals. He specializes in the development and application of energy system models for decentralised energy systems at the building, district and municipality scale, as well as in developing methods for cost-potential assessments for decentralised renewables using open data. His research interests lie in energy system integration, especially in the context of residential buildings, autonomous energy regions and the socio-demographics of residential energy demand.
Prof. McKenna is a conference organizer and reviewer for e.g. GOR/OR, IAEE, EEM, EMP-E, HICSS and was an External Reviewer for UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Ireland, 2021. He holds an advisory role in a consultancy start-up with two former PhD students (greenventory) since 2018, and was awarded the Interdisciplinary Prize of the KIT Department for Economics and Management for the Habilitation in 2017. From 2011 to 2014 he was a Member of VDI Technical Committee on Energy and Environmental Management, and in 2014 was an Invited Expert to the European Commission’s Technical Working Group on Future Requirements for Education and Training for Energy System Integration, 2014. He was also an invited Senior Short Term Expert at the EU-ASEAN Seminar on Clean Energy, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 2014. Since 2024 he is the President of the Swiss Association for Energy Economics, the national affiliate of the International Association for Energy Economics.