Deepak Rajagopal

Deepak Rajagopal is a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability where he conducts research on life cycle assessment, industrial ecology, energy and agricultural economics and policy. He is also the Director of the Leadership in Sustainability Certificate Program at UCLA. 

Dr. Rajagopal received his Ph.D in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley, where he was a researcher at the Energy Biosciences Institute. He holds a M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Berkeley and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park. He earned a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India. 

Ongoing research

• Industrial Ecology and Lifecycle Assessment
  • Transportation (EV, biofuels, Hydrogen, Sustainable Aviation fuel)
  • Healthcare
• Applied Economic Analysis of Energy and Environmental policies
  • Low Carbon Fuel Standard
  • Impact assessment of rural electrification 

Courses

Environment/Physics 188 –  Energy in Nature and Society

• View the course syllabus 

Environment 159: Life Cycle Analysis and Tools for Sustainability Assessment

• View the course syllabus

Environment 157: Energy, Environment and Development

• View the course syllabus

Environment 180: Senior Practicum

• Lifecycle analysis based comparison of Battery and gasoline vehicles
• Lifecycle analysis of building
• Scope 3 emissions of Healthcare
• Lifecycle impact of airline food and food waste
• Sustainable management of dairy manure

Personal blog: Watt’s green?

• Life cycle assessment (LCA) in an environmental and innovation policy context
• Questions to ask oneself before choosing an interdisciplinary PhD