Center Spotlight: Mayuri Rajput

For Mayuri Rajput, energy efficiency isn’t just a professional interest—it’s a personal mission born from childhood experience. “I grew up in a small town in North India, where frequent and prolonged power outages were a regular part of life, caused by scheduled rostering as the grid struggled to meet the surge in cooling demand during periods of extreme heat. Mayuri said. “These problems faced in my childhood always remained with me. I wanted to understand the whole process right from generation to distribution and explore ways to improve it.”

With a clear passion for making energy more accessible and reducing inefficiencies in the system, Mayuri pursued an extensive background in energy engineering. She earned her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, followed by a masters in renewable energy engineering, and a doctorate in high-performance buildings from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Now, as a fellow and lecturer at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities (CGBC), Mayuri continues her pursuit to improve energy efficiency and sustainability in buildings, conducting research in reducing emissions and enhancing indoor environmental conditions in response to the growing challenges of climate change. Currently, she is working on projects related to the optimization of building operations to reduce grid emissions, low-cost architectural solutions for overheating in South-Asian homes, climate adaptive smart roofs, and cost-benefit analyses of building retrofits.

Recently, Mayuri’s research on building retrofits was featured in The Washington Post article “Which home energy upgrades will save you money? We did the math” alongside Holly Samuelson, Associate Professor of Architecture in the Building Technology Program at MIT. Rajput and Samuelson simulated the potential cost savings and emissions reductions of updating a standard American home with energy upgrades such as solar panels, heat pumps, and sealing and insulation.

Mayuri, a member of the CGBC for over two years, highlights the collaborative environment as a key part of her experience: “Working with scholars from multidisciplinary backgrounds such as machine learning, materials, indoor environment, urban planning and policy to name a few, has expanded my perspective and given me an opportunity to collaborate on many exciting projects.”

In addition to her research, Mayuri has taught the project-based seminar Buildings and Urban Intelligence at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The course equipped students with the tools and methods to create digital twins of planned and existing neighborhoods using fragmented data streams and publicly available GIS datasets. These modeled digital twins mimic the behavior of real neighborhoods and can be used by policymakers to test technology and urban design interventions for more sustainable and long-term planning.

While on campus, some of Mayuri’s favorite places to visit are the Harvard Yard, Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the Science Center. Outside of work, Mayuri enjoys long walks, scenic train journeys, and practicing meditation to stay connected with her spiritual self. A mindful eater, she takes great care in preparing healthy, home-cooked meals for her family.

Mayuri remains deeply committed to tackling inefficiencies in today’s energy systems, particularly its effects on equitable energy access and climate adaptations in developing economies. This effort, she said, is greatly strengthened by the Center’s support: “The CGBC offers a vibrant intellectual community and the resources to transform great ideas into a reality.”

Mayuri Rajput has published numerous papers such as “A statistical model of the spatial variability of weather for use in building simulation practice”, “Impact of meso-scale weather uncertainty on building performance simulation outcomes” and has had research covered in outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN.