Electrifying Concordia: A Living Lab on Sustainable and Community-Driven Decarbonization
Funded PhD position in Chemical Engineering
Last updated: August 25, 2025, 10:50 a.m.
Supervisory details
Supervisor: Marc-Antoni Goulet, Ivan Kantor
Department: Chemical and Materials Engineering, Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science
University: Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Start date: Winter 2026 (or Summer 2026 if required)
PhD Fellowship: 35K CAD per year for 4 years
Project overview
Concordia University’s Sustainability Action Plan and PLAN/NET ZERØ program aim to fully decarbonize the campus by 2040. The proposed "Electrifying Concordia" Living Lab will unite researchers and campus stakeholders to develop and implement community-driven decarbonization projects. Focusing on energy systems, resilience, food sustainability, and climate policy, the initiative will also create a collaborative governance model and expand community engagement to support long-term sustainable change.
Research areas
- Energy systems modeling and optimization
- Sustainable infrastructure and net-zero transitions
- Lifecycle assessment (LCA) and sustainability metrics
- Building energy systems and real-world data integration
- Climate policy and community-driven decarbonization
- Computational methods and data science in energy systems
Role description
- Model campus-wide electricity, heating, and cooling demand using historical and projected data
- Collaborate with Facilities Management to integrate real building operation data into energy models
- Model various and compare energy system technologies, including capital cost, operating efficiency, and lifecycle emissions
- Analyze interactions between energy supply technologies and campus energy demands
- Build multi-variable optimization models to identify lowest-impact infrastructure solutions
- Apply life-cycle assessment (LCA) tools to rank energy technologies based on environmental footprint
- Generate analysis to support infrastructure decisions for net-zero 2040 targets
- Prepare visual and written materials to support infrastructure investment decisions
- Integrate modeling results into the “Electrifying Concordia” Living Lab for real-world testing and feedback
- Fully funded PhD position with a competitive annual stipend, plus funding for conferences, workshops, and collaborative projects.
- Opportunity to work on real-world decarbonization strategies through the “Electrifying Concordia” Living Lab, directly impacting Concordia’s net-zero 2040 goal.
- Hands-on experience with energy demand modeling, multi-criteria optimization, and life-cycle assessment of cutting-edge energy technologies.
- Collaboration with interdisciplinary teams (Facilities Management, policy experts, and researchers in building energy modeling and electrochemistry).
- Structured mentorship and career development, including opportunities to publish in top journals and present at leading energy and sustainability conferences.
- A dynamic research environment at Concordia University in Montreal—a hub for innovation in sustainability, energy systems, and climate action.
- Master’s degree in chemical, mechanical, electrical engineering, or a related field
- Experience with or interest in energy demand modeling, forecasting, or system optimization
- Familiarity with building energy systems and campus-scale infrastructure is an asset
- Knowledge of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and sustainability metrics is desirable
- Proficiency in scripting tools (e.g., MATLAB, Python, C) is an asset
- Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and synthesize interdisciplinary data
- Strong communication skills, both written and oral, with the ability to work across stakeholder groups Interest in climate policy, sustainable infrastructure, and community-driven decarbonization
- Motivation to contribute to a high-impact, real-world net-zero transition project
Please combine the following documents into a single PDF file.
- Letter of intent strongly aligned with the project and the research domain of the professor
- Academic CV
- Transcripts
- Names and contact information for 3 referees
- Publications if any
- Any other documents that might benefit your file
Applications must be in screen-readable PDF or Word formats.
If you are already in Canada, or if you’re a Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident, please highlight this in your communications.
Send your PDF file to volt-age.recruitment@concordia.ca with the subject as:
Electrifying Concordia_Your Name
September 15, 2025.
Questions/contact
For all questions, please contact Alisa Makusheva at alisa.makusheva@concordia.ca.
