Vijay Modi is leading the Earth Institute’s efforts that cut across energy, rural infrastructure and development. He led the UN Millennium Project (MP) effort on the role of energy and energy services in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). Currently, he is focused on three projects: leading the infrastructure team for the Millennium Villages Project (10 countries, 14 sites across sub-Saharan Africa); developing planning and decision-support tools for infrastructure; and looking at the food-energy-water nexus in Indian agriculture.

Modi’s areas of expertise are energy sources and conversion, heat/mass transfer and fluid mechanics. In addition to the projects above, he leads projects in: energy technologies for sustainable development; energy infrastructure, design & planning; solar energy; energy, food & water nexus; technology & intervention; adoption, diffusion and impact assessment. His primary geographic regions are India and Africa. Modi also works on projects in water (with fellow Earth Institute Faculty Member, Professor Upmanu Lall), urban infrastructure and energy consumption (through the IGERT program led by Professor Trish Culligan), optics of concentrated solar energy, and software systems for m-Health with lab colleague Matt Berg. He has authored or co-authored numerous journal papers, and served as the principal or co-principal of a number of research grants from government and industry.