Zack Subin is a Terner Center Affiliate and an Assistant Professor at the University of San Francisco. An interdisciplinary scholar and practitioner, Zack Subin researches joint policy solutions for U.S. climate and housing challenges. His graduate teaching integrates academic training in climate science with 11 years experience conducting applied research for policymakers and utilities. He trains students to use quantitative models creatively while respecting their limitations.

Zack is a former Associate Research Director for the Terner Center, where he led the Center’s Housing and Climate Research Initiative. The Initiative focuses on better aligning housing and climate policy across three categories: (1) reducing climate pollution when building new housing; (2) equitably retrofitting the existing housing stock; and (3) adapting housing systems to face the impacts of climate change. Recent projects aim to address tensions and enhance synergies between climate policies and key housing policy objectives, such as fair housing.

Zack previously conducted climate policy analysis at RMI and Energy + Environmental Economics (E3), focusing on deep decarbonization pathways, building electrification, and urbanism. He has a PhD in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley and conducted climate science research at national laboratories in Berkeley and Princeton, investigating terrestrial ecosystem feedbacks to climate change in earth system models. He also has an MPP from Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and a BA in Physics and Math from Harvard University.