Biography

Dr. Burçin Ünel is the Research and Policy Director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law.

Dr. Ünel, is an expert in utility regulation and environmental and energy policy. She has authored over 100 papers, policy briefs, public comments, and reports on numerous energy and environmental policy issues. In each year from 2017 to 2019, she had a different one of her articles on how to design policies for the future of the grid selected by the Environmental Law Institute as one of the year's top five environmental law articles. Dr. Ünel also serves on NYISO's Environmental Advisory Council, where she uses her expertise in utility regulation and energy policy to help NYISO build and maintain New York's “grid of the future”.

Prior to her current role, Dr. Ünel had been the Institute's Executive Director. During her tenure, the Institute grew significantly and made important contributions to many federal and state policy proceedings. She also previously served as a Senior Fellow in the Department of Energy’s Office of Policy, where she worked on domestic energy and climate policy issues, focusing on federal clean energy legislation, clean energy deployment, and infrastructure planning.

Before joining Policy Integrity, Dr. Ünel held faculty positions at the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the University of Florida, and the Department of Economics at Bogaziçi University in Turkey. She also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the City College of New York and NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She received a B.A. in Economics from Bogaziçi University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Florida.