Scholar in residence 1 January – 31 March 2026
Charlie Wilson is a Professor of Energy and Climate Change in the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria.
Charlie’s research is at the intersection between innovation, people, and policy in the context of energy and climate change. He works on the drivers and dynamics of energy transitions, both historically and into the future using scenarios and modelling. He has a particular interest in the implications of digital transformation and AI for climate change and human wellbeing.
Charlie has held two European Research Council (ERC) grants on disruptive low-carbon innovations and on digitalised daily life (iDODDLE project, running till March 2026). His research is also funded by the UK research councils and Horizon Europe grants. He currently leads the Oxford teams in European consortia including the PRISMA project on capturing digitalisation in policy analysis of energy transitions, and the CircEUlar project on digitalisation as an enabler of circular economy goals. Across all these projects, Charlie’s research seeks to understand how to accelerate progress towards a digitally-enabled zero-carbon energy system with people at its heart. Charlie is also an active member of several international networks including EDITS on energy demand innovations, and RCN-DEEon the digital economy.
At Digital Futures, Charlie is collaborating with Mattias Hojer (SEED/ABE) and other colleagues including Göran Finnveden and Cecilia Katzeff on a variety of topics including: (1) comparative analysis of how digital applications impact energy and emissions; (2) mapping systemic effects of digital transformation; (3) mitigating AI risks for climate governance. On February 26, Charlie will also present a Digital Futures seminar on his current work modelling the impact of digitalisation and AI on long-term global emission pathways. While at KTH, Charlie is also looking forward to having many interesting discussions on digital-climate futures with new potential collaborators!
Contact: charlie.wilson@eci.ox.ac.uk
