Matthew Gidden

Matthew Gidden is a nuclear engineer whose interests lie at the intersection of advanced energy technologies, energy policy, energy security, and nonproliferation issues. Before joining IIASA, Dr. Gidden received his PhD and Master’s degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is also a graduate of Texas A&M University's nuclear engineering department. His doctoral work focused on applying optimization and simulation techniques to develop new models of current and advanced nuclear fuel cycles.

As a Research Scholar with the IIASA Energy (ENE) Program, Dr. Gidden develops tools and methods to answer interesting questions regarding the Energy-Climate-Food-Water Nexus across spatial and temporal scales. He is also one of the lead developers of the energy system and integrated assessment framework MESSAGEix, an open-source platform for integrated and cross-cutting modeling. In addition, Dr. Gidden investigates historical and future national, subnational, and spatial patterns of socioeconomic conditions, energy use, emissions, and infrastructure. His research interests include investigating the effects and impacts of climate change on populations as well as the energy system mitigation and adaptation options available under difference scenarios of the future.

Dr. Gidden serves as a leader of ScenarioMIP, a CMIP6 endorsed MIP which provides robust scenarios of plausible futures of emissions and land use. The outputs of ScenarioMIP are critical drivers for the remaining MIPs, which use emissions and concentration data to drive Earth System Models. He also serves as the technical lead of CRESCENDO, an EU Horizon 2020 project with strong ties to CMIP6, coordinating efforts in Work Package 10 across multiple scientific teams worldwide.

Dr. Gidden advocates for sound, science based policy decision making through his work with the American Nuclear Society and, as an educator affiliated with the Software Carpentry Foundation, is also a strong proponent of reproducible computational science.


Last update: 26-JUN-2018

Zhou W, McCollum D, Fricko O , Fujimori S, Gidden M, Guo F, Hasegawa T, Huang H, et al. (2020). Decarbonization pathways and energy investment needs for developing Asia in line with well below 2 °C. Climate Policy (In Press)

Rogelj J , Huppmann D , Krey V , Riahi K , Clarke L, Gidden M, Nicholls Z, & Meinshausen Malte (2019). A new scenario logic for the Paris Agreement long-term temperature goal. Nature 573 (7774): 357-363. DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1541-4.

Zhou W, McCollum D, Fricko O , Gidden M, Huppmann D , Krey V , & Riahi K (2019). A comparison of low carbon investment needs between China and Europe in stringent climate policy scenarios. Environmental Research Letters 14 (5): 054017. DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/ab0dd8.

Gidden M, Riahi K , Smith S, Fujimori S, Luderer G, Kriegler E, van Vuuren DP, van den Berg M, et al. (2019). Global emissions pathways under different socioeconomic scenarios for use in CMIP6: a dataset of harmonized emissions trajectories through the end of the century. Geoscientific Model Development Discussions 12 (4): 1443-1475. DOI:10.5194/gmd-2018-266.

Fiedler S, Stevens B, Gidden M, Smith SJ, Riahi K , & van Vuuren D (2019). First forcing estimates from the future CMIP6 scenarios of anthropogenic aerosol optical properties and an associated Twomey effect. Geoscientific Model Development 12 (3): 989-1007. DOI:10.5194/gmd-12-989-2019.

Huppmann D , Gidden M, Fricko O , Kolp P, Orthofer C, Pimmer M, Kushin N, Vinca A , et al. (2019). The MESSAGEix Integrated Assessment Model and the ix modeling platform (ixmp). Environmental Modelling & Software 112: 143-156. DOI:10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.11.012.

Gidden M & Huppmann D (2019). pyam: a Python Package for the Analysis and Visualization of Models of the Interaction of Climate, Human, and Environmental Systems. Journal of Open Source Software 4 (33): p. 1095. DOI:10.21105/joss.01095.

Parkinson S, Krey V , Huppmann D , Kahil T , McCollum D, Fricko O , Byers E , Gidden M, et al. (2019). Balancing clean water-climate change mitigation tradeoffs. Environmental Research Letters 14 (1): e014009. DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/aaf2a3.

Rao N , Sauer P, Gidden M, & Riahi K (2019). Income inequality projections for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). Futures 105: 27-39. DOI:10.1016/j.futures.2018.07.001.

Byers E , Parkinson S, Balkovic J , Burek P , Ebi K, Gidden M, Grey D, Greve P, et al. (2018). Global climate and development hotspots assessment: Asia under pressure. In: 5th Asian Energy Modelling Workshop, 10-12 September 2018, Singapore.

Bauer N, Rose SK, Fujimori S, van Vuuren DP, Weyant J, Wise M, Cui Y, Daioglou V, et al. (2018). Global energy sector emission reductions and bioenergy use: overview of the bioenergy demand phase of the EMF-33 model comparison. Climatic Change DOI:10.1007/s10584-018-2226-y. (In Press)

Gidden M, Fujimori S, van den Berg M, Klein D, Smith SJ, van Vuuren D, & Riahi K (2018). A Methodology and Implementation of Automated Emissions Harmonization for Use in Integrated Assessment Models. Environmental Modelling & Software 105: 187-200. DOI:10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.04.002.

McCollum D, Zhou W, Bertram C, de Boer H-S, Bosetti V, Busch S, Despres J, Drouet L, et al. (2018). Energy investment needs for fulfilling the Paris Agreement and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature Energy 3 (7): 589-599. DOI:10.1038/s41560-018-0179-z.

Grubler A , Wilson C , Bento N, Boza-Kiss B, Krey V , McCollum D, Rao N , Riahi K , et al. (2018). A low energy demand scenario for meeting the 1.5 °C target and sustainable development goals without negative emission technologies. Nature Energy 3 (6): 517-525. DOI:10.1038/s41560-018-0172-6.

Huppmann D , Gidden M, Fricko O , Kolp P, Orthofer C, Pimmer M, Riahi K , & Krey V (2018). The MESSAGEix IAM and the “ix modeling platform” for integrated and x-cutting analysis. In: Indus Basin Knowledge Forum (IBKF), 31 May-2 June 2018, Laxenburg, Austria.

Byers E , Gidden M, Leclere D, Balkovic J , Burek P , Ebi K, Grey D, Greve P, et al. (2018). Global exposure and vulnerability to multi-sector development and climate change hotspots. In: International Energy Workshop, 19-21 June 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Parkinson S, Krey V , Huppmann D , Kahil T , McCollum D, Fricko O , Byers E , Gidden M, et al. (2018). Balancing clean water-climate change mitigation tradeoffs. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-18-005

Liu L, Parkinson S, Gidden M, Byers E , Satoh Y, Riahi K , & Forman B (2018). Quantifying the potential for reservoirs to secure future surface water yields in the world's largest river basins. Environmental Research Letters 13 (4): e044026. DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/aab2b5.

Pfenninger S, Hirth L, Schlecht I, Schmid E, Wiese F, Brown T, Davis C, Fais B, et al. (2018). Opening the black box of energy modelling: strategies and lessons learned. Energy Strategy Reviews 19: 63-71. DOI:10.1016/j.esr.2017.12.002.

Willaarts B , Langan S , Balkovic J , Burek P , Byers E , Deppermann A, Frank S , Gidden M, et al. (2018). Integrated Solutions for Water, Energy and Land Progress report 3. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Gidden M, Byers E , Burek P , Ebi K, Greve P, Havlik P, Hillers A, Johnson N, et al. (2017). Exposure and Vulnerability to Energy, Water, and Land Hotspots under Different Climate Futures. In: 10th Integrated Assessment Modelling Consortium Meeting, December 2017.

Byers E , Gidden M, Burek P , Leclere D, Palazzo A , Parkinson S, Rogelj J , Satoh Y, et al. (2017). Multi-sector climate impacts assessment for water, energy and land. In: Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project Meeting, 9-10 October 2017, Potsdam, Germany.

Byers E , Gidden M, Burek P , Leclere D, Palazzo A , Rogelj J , Satoh Y, Wada Y , et al. (2017). Future exposure and vulnerability to multi-sector hotspots. In: Impacts World 2017, 11-13 October 2017, Potsdam, Germany.

Byers E , Gidden M, & Maussion F (2017). Working with big, multi-dimensional geoscientific datasets in Python: a tutorial introduction to xarray. In: European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2017, 23–28 April 2017, Vienna, Austria.

Liu L, Parkinson S, Gidden M, Byers E , Satoh Y, Riahi K , & Forman B (2017). Global surface water reservoir storage under climate change, land use constraints, and population growth. In: European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2017, 23–28 April 2017, Vienna, Austria.

Gidden M, Byers E , Greve P, Kahil T , Parkinson S, Raptis C, Rogelj J , Satoh Y, et al. (2017). Hydroclimatic risks and uncertainty in the global power sector. In: European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2017, 23–28 April 2017, Vienna, Austria.

Willaarts B , Langan S , Balkovic J , Burek P , Byers E , Deppermann A, Gidden M, Greve P, et al. (2017). Integrated Solutions for Water, Energy and Land Progress report 2. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Gidden MJ & Wilson PH (2016). A methodology for determining the dynamic exchange of resources in nuclear fuel cycle simulation. Nuclear Engineering and Design 310: 378-394. DOI:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2016.10.029.