Shabbir Gheewala

About

Professor and Head - Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Lab Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE), King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok, Thailand

Distinguished Adjunct Professor Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand

Shabbir H. Gheewala is a professor at the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE), Thailand where he teaches Life Cycle Assessment and heads the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Lab for over 20 years. His research focuses on sustainability assessment of energy systems; sustainability indicators; circular economy; and certification issues in biofuels and the agro-industry. He is a national expert on life cycle inventory as well as product carbon and water footprinting in Thailand. He mentors the research network on sustainability assessment and policy for food, fuel and climate change in Thailand. Along with graduate teaching and research, Prof. Shabbir has worked extensively with industry in Thailand providing training and consultancy to scores of companies with aspirations towards improvements in sustainability.

He has been ranked as one of the world’s top 1000 most influential climate scientists (Reuter’s Hot List 2021) and the world's top 1% of the most-cited researchers in “earth and environmental sciences” (2020). More recently, he was awarded the “Mahidol Science Environment & Sustainability Award” (2022). With over 300 papers in peer reviewed journals and a Scopus h-index of 52 as of August 2023, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sustainable Energy and Environment, Specialty Chief Editor of Quantitative Sustainability Assessment at Frontiers in Sustainability, and on the editorial boards of the Sustainable Production and Consumption (Elsevier), International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (Springer), and a host of other international and national journals.

He can be contacted at shabbir.ghe@kmutt.ac.th and shabbirg@hotmail.com

Teaching Interests

Professor Shabbir Gheewala directs the research of UNC Study Abroad undergraduate students at KMUTT and teaches a highly respected class in Life Cycle Assessment. For over two decades, he has contributed enormously to the undergraduate experience that ESE/UNC students have at the Thai field site at KMUTT. He works with ESE Professor Rich Kamens, Director of the study abroad program and Capstone. 

To learn more about and apply to Study in Thailand: https://ie.unc.edu/field-education/field-sites/thailand/

Representative Courses

ENVR 296 Special Topics in Life Cycle Assessment

Research Activities

•    Life cycle sustainability assessment of energy systems
•    Carbon/water footprint
•    Sustainability indicators
•    Certification issues in biofuels and agro-industry

Education