Upasna Sharma (PhD, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay) is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy, IIT Delhi. Her research interests lie at the intersection of adaptation to climate change and risk reduction related to natural hazards and variability. Her work relates to conceptualizing and measuring vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate risk. In her recent work she has engaged in understanding vulnerabilities and adaptation to heatwaves in the Indian context. Her research also focuses on resilience of diverse farming systems in face of climate shocks. In her past work she has asked questions related to the role of ‘Information’ as an element of adaptive capacity, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in enhancing the ability of vulnerable people to respond to climate risk. She has investigated questions on adaptive capacity in the context of extreme weather events like cyclones and public response to hazard early warnings. She has studied science-policy interactions and the effect of institutional features on landslide risk management systems.
Upasna has led the work from IIT Delhi side on India’s Adaptation Communication to UNFCCC in 2022-23. IIT Delhi was the Technical Anchor Institute in the process of the preparation of the Adaptation Communication under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India. She is a member of South Asian Network of Development and Environment Economists (SANDEE) and Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE). From December 2011 to December 2012, she was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Science, IIT Madras. In January 2013 she joined the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Delhi and joined the School of Public Policy at IIT Delhi in 2018. Her teaching experience includes course on Environment & Society; Technology & Development; Social Science Approaches to Development; Research Methods for Public Policy; Perspectives on Climate Change: Implications for Policy; Tools for Policy Analysis; Understanding Public Policy Making Through Case-studies.
Education:
PhD (IIT Bombay, India), Post-doc (International Institute for Applied Systems (IIASA), Austria)
Research Interests:
Adaptation to climate change, Disaster risk reduction, Adaptive capacity enhancement, Risk communication, Science-policy interface, Policy mix and policy interactions