Professor Stephanie Hirmer

BEng in Civil Engineering (Warwick); MPhil, PhD in Engineering for Sustainable Development (Cambridge)

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, where my work focuses on integrating community perspectives into energy-related decision-making to promote inclusive, equitable, and context-specific outcomes.

I currently serve as Research Chair and Oxford’s Principal Investigator for the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) programme—a £95 million initiative funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). I co-lead the Equity and Governance Community and guide the strategic direction of the programme’s research agenda.

In addition, I am the Principal Investigator of SHIELD, another FCDO-funded programme focused on rebuilding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, balancing urgent reconstruction needs with long-term decarbonisation efforts, including through green hydrogen.

My research focuses on the sustainable and just delivery of infrastructure services in low- and middle-income countries, particularly under climate risk. I explore how infrastructure—especially energy systems—can create value, build resilience, and empower communities when designed with local perspectives and needs in mind. 

This includes the investigation of high-income opportunities such as green hydrogen, solar-powered irrigation, and critical minerals (e.g. copper) as levers for development, while addressing neo-colonial dynamics. My team combines technical innovation (e.g. hydrogen, electric mobility) with user-centric approaches, using perception-based methods to understand what matters most to marginalised groups within specific political, spatial, and cultural contexts.

I am the co-founder of Rural Senses Ltd, a social enterprise developed from my PhD research, which uses AI-enhanced tools for user-centric data collection and social impact measurement to support more responsive and inclusive development interventions.

•    Inconsistent measurement calls into question progress on electrification in sub-Saharan Africa – Nature Energy
•    Green hydrogen production and use in low-and middle-income countries: A least-cost geospatial modelling approach applied to Kenya – Applied Energy 
•    Africa needs context-relevant evidence to shape its clean energy future – Nature Energy
•    The resource curse in renewable energy: A framework for risk assessment – Energy Strategy Reviews
•    The power of language: Exploring values, empowerment dynamics and communication strategies for gender-inclusive energy service design in rural Uganda – Energy Research & Social Science
•    Can electric vehicles be good for Sub-Saharan Africa? – Energy Strategy Reviews
•    Data needed to decarbonize paratransit in Sub-Saharan Africa – Nature Sustainability