Nathan Williams

Nathan Williams is an associate teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University Africa. His research and teaching center on data-driven energy policy and planning in underserved communities, with a focus on how renewable and decentralized energy technologies can expand access to affordable, sustainable electricity. He draws upon methods from engineering, finance, social science, and data science to explore how infrastructure systems can be designed and integrated to support social and economic development in marginalized regions.

He previously served as an assistant professor at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology and as an assistant research professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a visiting instructor at CMU-Africa.

He has previously worked in South Africa developing large-scale renewable energy projects and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural, unelectrified community in Burkina Faso.

He holds a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from Whitworth University, an M.S. degree in physics from Nelson Mandela University, and a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.