Paty Romero-Lankao National Renewable Energy Laboratory Transportation and Hydrogen Systems Center Tel: 303-275-4175 Patricia.RomeroLankao@nrel.gov

Dr. Patricia “Paty” Romero-Lankao joined NREL’s Transportation and Hydrogen Systems Center in 2018 as a senior research scientist in joint appointment with the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, where she is a research fellow.

From a behavioral science perspective, she examines the interactions among people, mobility, the built environment, and energy systems, as well as their resilience to disruptive events.

Previously, she worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, where she examined crucial intersections between urbanization and risks associated with food, energy, and water systems along with related governance and the capacity of these systems to adapt to and mitigate climate risks.

Throughout her career, she has played leadership roles in various interdisciplinary and international research projects, resulting in several research grants and some 120 peer-reviewed publications. She served as co-leading author in one of the working groups contributing to the Nobel Prize-winning Fourth Assessment Report published by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In addition to her international work for organizations such as the IPCC and Future Earth, she is a steering committee member of the U.S. Carbon Program and the Boulder County, Colorado-based BoCo Strong initiative.

Featured Publications

Risk Inequality and the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus: A Study of 43 City Adaptation Plans, Frontiers in Sociology (2019)

Realizing the Urban Transformative Potential in a Changing Climate, Nature Climate Change (2018)

Interdependencies and Risk to People and Critical Food, Energy, and Water Systems, 2013 Flood, Boulder, Colorado, Earth's Future (2018)

From Risk to WEF Security in the City: The Influence of Interdependent Infrastructural Systems, Environmental Science & Policy (2018)

The Urban Planet: Knowledge Towards Sustainable Cities, Cambridge University Press (2018)

The Food-Energy-Water Nexus and Urban Complexity, Nature Climate Change (2017)

Urban Vulnerability to Temperature-Related Hazards: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Knowledge Approach, Global Environmental Change(2012)

Cities in Transition: Transforming Urban Centers from Hotbeds of GHG Emissions and Vulnerability to Seedbeds of Sustainability and Resilience, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability(2011)