Understanding

social, economic, and policy worlds using complexity and systems science

Informing energy and environmental policy, evaluation, and governance

Hi, I'm Pete...

I am a social scientist, economist, complexity scientist, and systems thinker. I regularly use research methods such as agent-based modelling and systems mapping in my applied environmental, energy, and public health research and policy analysis. I teach on a range of undergraduate and masters courses, focussing on the economics of environmental change, and the use of complexity and systems sciences in environmental issues.

You may find some of my recent work interesting, personal highlights are:

I am currently a Departmental Research Lecturer in the Economics of Environmental Change in the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment, both in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford.

I am the Deputy Director of the NERC-funded Agile Initiative, which aims to revolutionise how research responds to the urgent needs of policymakers on critical environmental issues. I am also the Technical Modelling Lead for the UK government EEIST project on new economic modelling of energy innovation and transition.

I am a member of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford, a Research Associate at St Catherine's College, a member of the the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research in Social Simulation (CRESS) and Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey.

Previously, I was a Senior Research Associate at Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow and ESRC Innovation Fellow at the University of Surrey (based in CECAN and CRESS, both in the Department of Sociology). I have also been a Research Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute and regularly undertake consultancy work for the public and private sectors. I completed my PhD in agent-based modelling at the University of Surrey in 2014.

I live in London, have three kids (!!), enjoy cycling, and am a vegetarian.

I am always happy to talk about any of the subjects above, or explore new opportunities for collaboration, get in touch at peter.barbrook-johnson@ouce.ox.ac.uk

To have a look at my academic publications you can find my Google Scholar page here. The website for my ESRC fellowship on public-private partnerships and collaboration also has lots of information and can be found here (until Jan 2024).

My book on systems mapping, a practical guide written with my long-term collaborator and friend, Dr. Alexandra Penn.
A library of new economic modelling case studies. I led the production of this large report with colleagues from China, India, Brazil, the EU, and UK. It presents a range of new economic modelling approaches being used to understand and inform policy on the energy transition.