Dr. Micah S. Ziegler is an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Public Policy.
Dr. Ziegler evaluates sustainable energy and chemical technologies, their impact, and their potential. His research helps to shape robust strategies to accelerate the improvement and deployment of technologies that can enable a global transition to sustainable and equitable energy systems. His approach relies on collecting and curating large empirical datasets from multiple sources and building data-informed models. His work informs research and development, public policy, and financial investment.
Dr. Ziegler conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At MIT, he evaluated established and emerging energy technologies, particularly energy storage. To determine how to accelerate the improvement of energy storage technologies, he examined how rapidly and why they have changed over time. He also studied how energy storage could be used to integrate solar and wind resources into a reliable energy system.
Dr. Ziegler earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from Yale University. In graduate school, he primarily investigated dicopper complexes in order to facilitate the use of earth-abundant, first-row transition metals in small molecule transformations and catalysis. Before graduate school, he worked in the Climate and Energy Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI). At WRI, he explored how to improve mutual trust and confidence among parties developing international climate change policy and researched carbon dioxide capture and storage, electricity transmission, and international energy technology policy. Dr. Ziegler was also a Luce Scholar assigned to the Business Environment Council in Hong Kong, where he helped advise businesses on measuring and managing their environmental sustainability.
Dr. Ziegler is a member of AIChE and ACS, and serves on the steering committee of Macro-Energy Systems. His research findings have been highlighted in media, including The New York Times, Nature, The Economist, National Geographic, BBC Newshour, NPR’s Marketplace, and ABC News.
Professor Ziegler evaluates sustainable energy and chemical technologies, their impact, and their potential. His research helps to shape robust strategies to accelerate the improvement and deployment of technologies that can enable a global transition to sustainable energy systems. His approach relies on collecting and curating large empirical datasets from multiple sources and building data-informed models. His work informs research and development, public policy, and financial investment.
Professor Ziegler's teaching interests include core chemical and biomolecular engineering courses. He also teaches courses on energy technologies and systems, as well as related public policy and business.
Postdoc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2017
B.S., Yale University, 2008
MS Ziegler, Elucidating mechanisms of change, Nature Energy, 2025, 10, 541–542.
S Hwang, MS Ziegler, JE Trancik, Infrastructure-defining lows in wind and solar energy resources and their implications for decarbonization solutions, Available at SSRN 5243575, 2025.
A Khurram, MS Ziegler, KS Wu, S Hwang, M Roy, JE Trancik, Reducing the costs of producing hydrogen from variable renewable energy, Available at SSRN 5990434, 2025.
MS Ziegler, J Song, JE Trancik, Determinants of lithium-ion battery technology cost decline, Energy & Environmental Science, 2021, 14, 6074-6098.
MS Ziegler, JE Trancik, Re-examining rates of lithium-ion battery technology improvement and cost decline, Energy & Environmental Science, 2021, 14, 1635-1651.