Computational Scientist
Computational Scientist

Biography

Kanishka B. Narayan is a computational scientist for the Joint Global Change Research Institute at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). His work has been focused on programming and operating global multisector dynamics (MSD) models that analyze the interaction of several sectors across the economy as well as on generating software tools that are used alongside MSD models. The problem areas that he has worked on most prominently have been land use change and the interaction between physical land systems and human systems, income distributions and their effects on the economy, and understanding and evaluating uncertainties in emissions measurements.

At PNNL, Narayan primarily works on developing and programming the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM), an MSD model developed at PNNL over the course of 30 years with funding from the Department of Energy (DOE). Narayan’s current work at PNNL is funded by the DOE Office of Science through the Global Change Intersectoral Modeling System (GCIMS) set of experiments. In addition to this, his work is also funded through the Integrated Multisector Multiscale Modeling (IM3) set of experiments, also funded by the DOE. While GCIMS is more concerned with global-scale impacts, IM3 experiments are designed to evaluate impacts at a fine resolution for the United States. Narayan also works on evaluating the economic cost of alternative technologies such as jet fuels. This work is funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office of the DOE. In addition to the above, several of Narayan’s projects in the past have been funded by organizations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

For a full list of publications visit Kanishka's Google Scholar.

Disciplines and Skills

  • C
  • C++
  • CNC + CAM
  • Computational modeling
  • Data science
  • Economic modeling
  • Python
  • R (programming language)
  • Software development methodologies
  • Statistical concepts

Education

  • MA in global finance, trade, and economics, University of Denver
  • BA in general studies and commerce, University of Pune
  • Chartered Accountant, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)

Affiliations and Professional Service

  • American Geophysical Union
  • Editor, Journal of Open Source Software

Publications

2025

Sampedro, J., D. K. van de Ven, R. Horowitz, C. Rodés-Bachs, M. V. Roman, M. Tomás, K. Narayan, B. O' Neill, P. Patel, S. Waldhoff, and I. Arto. 2025. “Improved Living Standards Through Reduction of Income Inequality Does not Jeopardize the Achievement of Existing Climate Pledges.” Research Square. Preprint (Version 1). https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5433539/v1.

Narayan, K. B., A. V. Di Vittorio, E. Margiotta, S. Spawn-Lee, and H. K. Gibbs. 2025. “Spatially Explicit Terrestrial Carbon Densities for Calibrating the Carbon Cycle in Human-Earth System Models.” Scientific Data 12 (638). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04723-4.

2024

McManamay, R. A., C. R. Vernon, M. Chen, I. Thompson, Z. Khan, and K. B. Narayan. 2024. “Dynamic Urban Land Extensification Is Projected to Lead to Imbalances in the Global Land-Carbon Equilibrium.” Communications Earth & Environment 5 (70). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01231-y.

Zhao, X., M. Chepeliev, P. Patel, M. Wise, K. Calvin, K. Narayan, and C. Vernon. 2024. “gcamfaostat: An R Package to Prepare, Process, and Synthesize FAOSTAT Data for Global Agroeconomic and Multisector Dynamic Modeling.” Journal of Open Source Software 9 (96): 6388. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06388.

Narayan, K. B., B. C. O’Neill, S. Waldhoff, and C. Tebaldi. 2024. “A Consistent Dataset for the Net Income Distribution for 190 Countries and Aggregated to 32 Geographical Regions from 1958 to 2015.” Earth System Science Data 16: 2333–2349, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2333-2024.

Sampedro, J., S. T. Waldhoff*, J. A. Edmonds, G. Iyer, S. Msangi, K. B. Narayan, P. Patel, and M. Wise. 2024. “Residential Energy Demand, Emissions, and Expenditures at Regional and Income-Decile Level for Alternative Futures.” Environmental Research Letters 19: 084031. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad6015.

Narayan, K. B.*, P. Patel, M. Wise, A. Snyder, K. Calvin, and N. Graham. 2024. “Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Implementing Dynamic Representation of Forest Management and Forest Carbon in a Long-Term Global Multisector Model. Environmental Research Letters 19: 104044. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad6ea3.

Charles, M., K. B. Narayan, J. Edmonds, and S. Yu. 2024. “The Role of the Pulp and Paper Industry in Achieving Net Zero U.S. CO2 Emissions in 2050.” Energy and Climate Change 5: 100160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egycc.2024.100160.

2023

Di Vittorio, A., K. Narayan, P. Patel, K. Calvin, and C. Vernon. 2023. “Doubling Protected Land Area May Be Inefficient at Preserving the Extent of Undeveloped Land and Could Cause Substantial Regional Shifts in Land Use.” EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, April 24–28, 2023, EGU23-8580. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-8580.

Narayan, K. B., B. C. O’Neill, S. Waldhoff, and C. Tebaldi. 2024. “A Consistent Dataset for the Net Income Distribution for 190 Countries and Aggregated to 32 Geographical Regions from 1958 to 2015.” Earth System Science Data 16 (5): 2333–2349. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2333-2024.

Narayan, K. B., A. V. Di Vittorio, E. Margiotta, S. A. Spawn-Lee, and H. K. Gibbs. 2023. “Spatially Explicit Re-Harmonized Terrestrial Carbon Densities for Calibrating Integrated Human-Earth System Models.” Earth System Science Data. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-251.

Narayan, K. B., S. J. Smith, V. E. Fioletov, and C. A. McLinden. 2023. “Evaluation of Uncertainties in the Anthropogenic SO2 Emissions in the USA from the OMI Point Source.” Environmental Science & Technology 57 (30): 11134–11143. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c07056.

Narayan, K. B., B. C. O’Neill, S. T. Waldhoff, and C. Tebaldi. 2023. “Non-Parametric Projections of National Income Distribution Consistent with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways.” Environmental Research Letters 18: 044013. https://doig.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acbdb0.

Casper, K. C., K. B. Narayan, B. C. O’Neill, S. T. Waldhoff, Y. Zhang, and C. P. Wejnert-Depue. 2023. “Non-Parametric Projections of the Net-Income Distribution for all U.S. States for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways.” Environmental Research Letters 18: 114001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf9b8.

2022

Dolan, F., J. Lamontagne, K. Calvin, A. Snyder, K. B. Narayan, A. V. Di Vittorio, and C. R. Vernon. 2022. “Modeling the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Land Scarcity under Deep Uncertainty.” Earth’s Future 10: e2021EF002466. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002466.

Binsted, M., G. Iyer, P. Patel, N. T. Graham, Y. Ou, Z. Khan, N. Kholod, K. Narayan, M. Hejazi, S. Kim, K. Calvin, and M. Wise. 2022. “GCAM-USA v5.3_water_dispatch: Integrated Modeling of Subnational US Energy, Water, and Land Systems Within a Global Framework.” Geoscientific Model Development 15: 2533–2559. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-2533-2022.

Di Vittorio, A. V., K. B. Narayan, P. Patel, K. Calvin, and C. R. Vernon. 2023. “Doubling Protected Land Area May Be Inefficient at Preserving the Extent of Undeveloped Land and Could Cause Substantial Regional Shifts in Land Use.” Global Change Biology Bioenergy 15: 185–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.13016.

2021

Hughes, B. B., and K. Narayan 2021. “Enhancing Integrated Analysis of National and Global Goal Pursuit by Endogenizing Economic Productivity.” PLoS ONE 16 (2): e0246797. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246797.

Narayan, K., C. R. Vernon, S. Waldhoff, J. A. Edmonds, and R. Cui. 2021. “ambrosia: An R Package for Calculating and Analyzing Food Demand That Is Responsive to Changing Incomes and Prices.” Journal of Open Source Software 6 (59): 2890. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.02890.

Binsted, M., G. Iyer, P. Patel, N. T. Graham, Y. Ou, Z. Khan, N. Kholod, K. Narayan, M. Hejazi, S. Kim, K. Calvin, and M. Wise. 2022. “GCAM-USA v5.3_water_dispatch: Integrated Modeling of Subnational US Energy, Water, and Land Systems Within a Global Framework.” Geoscientific Model Development 15: 2533–2559. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-2533-2022.

Ou, Y., C. Roney, J. Alsalam, K. Calvin, J. Creason, J. Edmonds, A. A. Fawcett, P. Kyle, K. Narayan, P. O’Rourke, P. Patel, S. Ragnauth, S. J. Smith, and H. McJeon. 2021. “Deep Mitigation of CO2 and Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases Toward 1.5 °C and 2 °C Futures.” Nature Communications 12: 6245. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26509-z.

2020

Snyder, A., K. Calvin, L. Clarke, J. Edmonds, P. Kyle, K. Narayan, A. Di Vittorio, S. Waldhoff, M. Wise, and P. Patel. 2020. “The Domestic and International Implications of Future Climate for U.S. Agriculture in GCAM.” PLoS ONE 15 (8): e0237918. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237918.