Roland Hwang

Roland Hwang is the Policy Director for ITS-Davis. In this role, he helps the institute to increase the policy impact of its research. He consults with policy makers in the field—government, industry, and NGOs—to identify the key policy questions they are facing where new analysis can help improve the decision-making process. This position helps to better disseminate ITS-Davis’ ongoing research to policymakers, as well as develop new research directions to keep the institute on the cutting edge of policy research. He is an expert on clean vehicle and fuels technologies and policies, energy demand forecasting, and air pollution regulation. Some of the projects Roland is working on include addressing the topics of EV grid integration, battery circularity, and advancing transportation electrification in the Global South.

Roland has over 30 years of research and policy making experience in government, NGOs, and climate philanthropy. Prior to joining ITS Davis in 2024, Roland was the director of the Climate and Clean Energy program at the Heising-Simons Foundation Program. He also previously directed the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate & Clean Energy Program and worked for the Union of Concerned Scientists directing their Transportation program. He has served on numerous advisory panels and committees, including the U.C. Davis Institute of Transportation Board of Advisors, the Pacific Gas & Electric Sustainability Advisory Board, the 50×50 Transportation Initiative Commissioner, the California Plug-in Electric Vehicle Collaborative, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Fuel Economy, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Barriers to Electric Vehicle Deployment and the U.S. EPA Mobile Source Technical Review Subcommittee. Roland was also part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He has worked with Director Sperling and ITS-Davis researchers since the early 1990s. Roland holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis, and a master’s degree in Public Policy from UC Berkeley.