Dr Neil Stephen Lopez

Dr Neil was born on August 16, 1989 in Olongapo City, Philippines. Happily married since 2016, he is now a father to a 1-year old son. He is currently Assistant Professor and Vice Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department of De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines. In 2018, he was selected as one of the lead authors of the United Nations Global Environment Outlook Youth Report for Asia Pacific.

His research works primarily investigate energy economics, transportation assessment, and policy. His works have been published by top-tier research journals such as Applied Energy (Impact Factor = 7.9) and Journal of Cleaner Production (Impact Factor=5.65). Currently, he is a co-proponent of multiple research projects. The Commission on Higher Education funded his team to develop tools for assessing transport desirability in various cities. Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry also recently funded his team to perform a comprehensive techno-socio-economic analysis of electric vehicle deployment in the Philippines.

Dr Neil earned his BS (2011), MS (2011) and PhD (2018) in Mechanical Engineering all from De La Salle University. While he is proudly a homegrown talent, he has also been trained in various institutions abroad: Institute for Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability – Florida State University, USA (2009); Transport Studies Unit – University of Oxford, UK, (2017); Bartlett School of Planning – University College London, UK. (2017); and Institute of Transportation Studies – University of California, Davis, USA (2017).